IEC 60794-1-1:2015

IEC 60794-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2015-11
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Optical fibre cables –
Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from

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International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

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IEC 60794-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2015-11
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Optical fibre cables –
Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-3018-3

– 2 – IEC 60794-1-1:2015 RLV © IEC 2015

CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4

1 Scope . 6

2 Normative references . 6

3 Terms and definitions . 7

4 Graphical symbols and abbreviations. 12

5 Optical fibre cables . 13

6 Materials . 13
6.1 Optical fibre . 13
6.1.1 General . 13
6.1.2 Attenuation coefficient . 13
6.1.3 Attenuation uniformity – Attenuation discontinuities . 14
6.1.4 Cable cut-off wavelength . 14
6.1.5 Fibre colouring. 14
6.1.6 Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) . 14
6.2 Electrical conductors . 14
6.3 Other materials . 14
6.4 Environmental requirements . 14
7 Cable construction . 15
7.1 General . 15
7.2 Colour coding . 15
7.2.1 Overview . 15
7.2.2 Unit colour coding . 15
7.2.3 Sheath colour coding . 15
8 Measuring methods . 15
8.1 General . 15
8.2 Measuring methods for dimensions . 16
8.3 Measuring methods for mechanical characteristics . 16
8.4 Measuring methods for electrical characteristics . 16
8.5 Measuring methods for transmission and optical characteristics. 17
8.6 Measuring methods for environmental characteristics . 17
8.7 Measuring methods for cable element characterisation . 17
9 Related Technical Reports . 17
Annex A (informative)  Guide to Guidelines for specific defined applications and
cabled fibre performance . 19
A.1 General . 19
A.2 Cabled fibre attenuation requirements. 19
A.3 Cabled fibre bandwidth requirements . 20
A.4 Type testing at 1 625 nm . 21
Annex B (informative)  Guide to Guidelines for qualification sampling . 22
B.1 Introduction General . 22
B.2 Fibre selection for cable testing . 22
B.3 Pass/fail criteria . 23
Bibliography . 24

Table 1 – Measuring methods for dimensions . 16

Table 2 – Measuring methods for electrical characteristics . 16

Table 3 – Measuring methods for transmission and optical characteristics of cabled

optical fibres . 17

Table A.1 – Maximum cabled fibre attenuation coefficient (dB/km), as given by ITU-T . 19

Table A.2 – Category A1 multimode fibre maximum cable attenuation coefficient

(dB/km) . 20

Table A.3 – Single-mode maximum cable attenuation coefficient (dB/km) . 20

Table A.4 – Category A1 multimode cabled fibre bandwidth (MHz∙km) . 21

Table A.5 – Guidance values for 1 625 nm type test acceptance criteria . 21

– 4 – IEC 60794-1-1:2015 RLV © IEC 2015

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

______________
OPTICAL FIBRE CABLES –
Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
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misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
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6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
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patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This redline version of the official IEC Standard allows the user to identify the changes
made to the previous edition. A vertical bar appears in the margin wherever a change
has been made. Additions are in green text, deletions are in strikethrough red text.

International Standard IEC 60794-1-1 has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and

cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.

This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition, published in 2011. This edition

constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous

edition:
a) the expansion of the definitions, graphical symbols, terminology and abbreviations

content, with the aim of making this standard the default and reference for all others in the

IEC 60794-x series;
b) the inclusion of updated and expanded optical fibre, attenuation and bandwidth sections,
with the aim of making this standard the default and reference for all others in the
IEC 60794-x series.
The text of this standard is based on the following documents:
CDV Report on voting
86A/1651/CDV 86A/1667/RVC
Full informa
...

IEC 60794-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2015-11
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Optical fibre cables –
Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

Câbles à fibres optiques –
Partie 1-1: Spécification générique – Généralités

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

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CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.

IEC Catalogue - webstore.iec.ch/catalogue Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The stand-alone application for consulting the entire The world's leading online dictionary of electronic and
bibliographical information on IEC International Standards, electrical terms containing 21 000 terms and definitions in
Technical Specifications, Technical Reports and other English and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional
documents. Available for PC, Mac OS, Android Tablets and languages. Also known as the International Electrotechnical
iPad. Vocabulary (IEV) online.

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The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
and withdrawn publications. collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and

CISPR.
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IEC 60794-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2015-11
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Optical fibre cables –
Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

Câbles à fibres optiques –
Partie 1-1: Spécification générique – Généralités

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-5280-2

– 2 – IEC 60794-1-1:2015 © IEC 2015
CONTENTS
CONTENTS . 2
FOREWORD . 4
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Graphical symbols and abbreviations. 12
5 Optical fibre cables . 13
6 Materials . 13
6.1 Optical fibre . 13
6.1.1 General . 13
6.1.2 Attenuation coefficient . 13
6.1.3 Attenuation uniformity – Attenuation discontinuities . 13
6.1.4 Cable cut-off wavelength . 14
6.1.5 Fibre colouring. 14
6.1.6 Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) . 14
6.2 Electrical conductors . 14
6.3 Other materials . 14
6.4 Environmental requirements . 14
7 Cable construction . 14
7.1 General . 14
7.2 Colour coding . 15
7.2.1 Overview . 15
7.2.2 Unit colour coding . 15
7.2.3 Sheath colour coding . 15
8 Measuring methods . 15
8.1 General . 15
8.2 Measuring methods for dimensions . 15
8.3 Measuring methods for mechanical characteristics . 16
8.4 Measuring methods for electrical characteristics . 16
8.5 Measuring methods for transmission and optical characteristics. 16
8.6 Measuring methods for environmental characteristics . 17
8.7 Measuring methods for cable element characterisation . 17
9 Related Technical Reports . 17
Annex A (informative) Guidelines for specific defined applications and cabled fibre
performance . 18
A.1 General . 18
A.2 Cabled fibre attenuation requirements. 18
A.3 Cabled fibre bandwidth requirements . 19
A.4 Type testing at 1 625 nm . 20
Annex B (informative) Guidelines for qualification sampling . 21
B.1 General . 21
B.2 Fibre selection for cable testing . 21
B.3 Pass/fail criteria . 22
Bibliography . 23

Table 1 – Measuring methods for dimensions . 16
Table 2 – Measuring methods for electrical characteristics . 16
Table 3 – Measuring methods for transmission and optical characteristics of cabled
optical fibres . 17
Table A.1 – Maximum cabled fibre attenuation coefficient (dB/km), as given by ITU-T . 18
Table A.2 –Category A1 multimode fibre maximum cable attenuation coefficient
(dB/km) . 19
Table A.3 – Single-mode maximum cable attenuation coefficient (dB/km) . 19
Table A.4 – Category A1 multimode cabled fibre bandwidth (MHz∙km) . 20
Table A.5 – Guidance values for 1 625 nm type test acceptance criteria . 20

– 4 – IEC 60794-1-1:2015 © IEC 2015
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
______________
OPTICAL FIBRE CABLES –
Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Pub
...