IEC 60793-2:2019

IEC 60793-2 ®
Edition 9.0 2019-11
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Optical fibres –
Part 2: Product specifications – 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
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.

IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
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 corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
once a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or CISPR.

need further assistance, please contact the Customer Service

Centre: sales@iec.ch.
IEC 60793-2 ®
Edition 9.0 2019-11
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Optical fibres –
Part 2: Product specifications – General

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-7631-0

– 2 – IEC 60793-2:2019 RLV © IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Quality assurance . 7
5 Construction of optical fibres . 8
5.1 Class A – Multimode fibres . 8
5.2 Class B – Single-mode fibres . 10
5.3 Class C – Single-mode fibres for intraconnection . 13
5.4 Class D – Polarization-maintaining fibres . 14
6 General requirements . 14
6.1 Coating . 14
6.2 Interface with the coating . 14
6.3 Colours of the coating . 14
Annex A (normative) Existing multimode fibres . 15
Annex B (normative) Existing single-mode fibres . 17
B.1 Existing single-mode fibres . 17
B.2 Existing fibres for intraconnection . 18
B.3 Existing polarization-maintaining fibres . 19
Bibliography . 20

Table 1 – Sectional specifications . 5
Table 2 – Main categories of multimode fibres . 8
Table 3 – Sub-categories of multimode fibres . 9
Table 4 – Categories of glass core/glass clad single-mode fibres . 11
Table 5 – Categories of glass core/glass clad single-mode fibres for intraconnection . 13
Table 6 – Categories of glass core/glass clad polarization-maintaining fibres . 14
Table A.1 – Existing multimode fibres . 15
Table B.1 – Existing single-mode fibres . 17
Table B.2 – Existing fibres for intraconnection . 18
Table B.3 – Existing polarization-maintaining fibres . 19

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
OPTICAL FIBRES –
Part 2: Product specifications –
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
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
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
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
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
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
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.

– 4 – IEC 60793-2:2019 RLV © IEC 2019
International Standard IEC 60793-2 has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and
cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
This ninth edition cancels and replaces the eighth edition published in 2015. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) introduction of the revised fibre designations for most A1 sub-category fibres and all
class B single-mode fibres;
b) addition of the new fibre model (A1-OM5) defined for A1 category;
c) addition of class D polarization maintaining fibres.
This document is to be read in conjunction with those parts of the IEC 60793-1 series that
address individual measurements and tests for attributes of optical fibres.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
86A/1964/FDIS 86A/1974/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this International Standard can be found in
the report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
A list of all the parts in the IEC 60793 series, published under the general title Optical fibres,
can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct
understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a
colour printer.
OPTICAL FIBRES –
Part 2: Product specifications –
General
1 Scope
This part of IEC 60793 contains the general specifications for both multimode and single-
mode optical fibres.
Sectional specifications for each of the four categories of multimode fibres: A1, A2, A3, and
A4 (part of the multimode fibre class A) contain requirements specific to each category.
Sectional specifications for each of the two three single-mode fibre classes, B, C and D
contain requirements common to each class.
Each sectional specification includes family specifications (in normative annexes) that contain
requirements for the applicable category or sub-categories. These sub-categories are
distinguished on the basis of different fibre types or applications.
The requirements of this document apply to all classes.
Each sectional specification contains the requirements that are common to all the family
specifications that are within it. These common requirements are copied to the family
specification for ease of reference.
Tests or measurement methods are defined for each specified attribute. Where possible,
these definitions are by reference to an IEC International Standard (see IEC 60793-1 series) –
otherwise the test or measurement method is outlined in the relevant sectional specification.
Table 1 defines the sectional specifications. The relevant family specifications are defined
within the sectional specifications as normative annexes (see Tables 2 to 5).
Annexes A and B summarize the existing fibre specifications.
Table 1 – Sectional specifications
Document ID Fibre Cladding Core material Index profile
category/class material
IEC 60793-2-10 A1 multimode Glass Glass Graded
IEC 60793-2-20 A2 multimode Glass Glass Quasi-step or step
IEC 60793-2-30 A3 multimode Plastic Glass Step or graded (under
consideration)
IEC 60793-2-40 A4 multimode Plastic Plastic Step, multi-step or
graded
IEC 60793-2-50 B single-mode Glass Glass Not applicable
IEC 60793-2-60 C single-mode Glass Glass Not applicable
IEC 60793-2-70 D polarization- Glass Glass Not applicable
maintaining
...