IEC TR 62102:2001

TECHNICAL IEC
REPORT
TR 62102
First edition
2001-03
Electrical safety –
Classification of interfaces for equipment
to be connected to information and
communications technology networks
Sécurité électrique –
Classification des interfaces pour les matériels
destinés à être connectés à des réseaux de
traitement de l'information et de communication

Reference number
IEC/TR 62102:2001(E)
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TECHNICAL IEC
REPORT
TR 62102
First edition
2001-03
Electrical safety –
Classification of interfaces for equipment
to be connected to information and
communications technology networks
Sécurité électrique –
Classification des interfaces pour les matériels
destinés à être connectés à des réseaux de
traitement de l'information et de communication

 IEC 2001  Copyright - all rights reserved
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International Electrotechnical Commission
For price, see current catalogue

– 2 – TR 62102  IEC:2001(E)
CONTENTS
Page
FOREWORD . 3

INTRODUCTION .5

Clause
1 Scope . 6

2 Reference documents . 6
3 Terms and definitions. 7
3.1 Definitions from IEC 60950. 7
3.2 Additional definitions for this document. 8
3.3 Abbreviations . 9
4 Reference configuration . 10
5 Safety categories of interfaces provided for connection to an information and
communications technology network. 12
5.1 SELV circuits . 12
5.2 TNV circuits . 12
5.3 User information . 12
6 Phenomena affecting the safety of interface ports. 12
6.1 Network Environment 0 . 13
6.2 Network Environment 1 . 13
7 Determination of circuit type . 13
Annex A Consideration of interface phenomenon . 14
Annex B Worked examples of certain network interfaces . 17
Annex C Conditions for Network Environment 0 . 19
Annex D Voltage ranges of SELV circuits and TNV circuits . 20
Bibliography . 21

TR 62102  IEC:2001(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________
ELECTRICAL SAFETY –
CLASSIFICATION OF INTERFACES FOR EQUIPMENT

TO BE CONNECTED TO INFORMATION

AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY NETWORKS

FOREWORD
1) The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of the 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, the IEC publishes International Standards. 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. The 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 the 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 National Committees.
3) The documents produced have the form of recommendations for international use and are published in the form
of standards, technical specifications, technical reports or guides and they are accepted by the National
Committees in that sense.
4) In order to promote international unification, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC International
Standards transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional standards. Any
divergence between the IEC Standard and the corresponding national or regional standard shall be clearly
indicated in the latter.
5) The IEC provides no marking procedure to indicate its approval and cannot be rendered responsible for any
equipment declared to be in conformity with one of its standards.
6) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this technical report may be the subject of
patent rights. The IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. However, a
technical committee may propose the publication of a technical report when it has collected
data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard, for
example "state of the art".
IEC 62102 which is a technical report, has been prepared by technical committee 74: Safety
and energy efficiency of IT equipment.
The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
74/568/CDV 74/580/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical report can be found in the report
on voting indicated in the above table.
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 3.

– 4 – TR 62102  IEC:2001(E)
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until
2002-11. At this date, the publication will be:

• reconfirmed;
• withdrawn;
• replaced by a revised edition, or

• amended.
This document, which is purely informative, is not to be regarded as an International Standard.

A bilingual version of this technical report may be issued at a later date.

TR 62102  IEC:2001(E) – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
This technical report is a guide to the determination of the interface requirements for

equipment in terms of safety. It lists a number of interfaces and indicates the safety category of

each listed interface. This technical report does not contain sufficient detail for conformance

testing purposes, except when used in conjunction with product standards such as IEC 60950.

The equipment safety standard IEC 60950 specifies the requirements for categories of circuits

as SELV circuits, TNV circuits and hazardous voltage circuits (among others). For stand-

alone equipment it is a relatively simple matter to determine the different categories of circuits.

However, an equipment which has data port interfaces is intended to be connected to other

equipment, either locally or via a network. In this case, the safety categories of the interfaces
which will be connected together have to be compatible with each other. Furthermore, the
category of the interface of the remote equipment may be unknown. This is the case in
systems where telecommunication equipment and data processing equipment are connected
together via different types of interfaces and networks.
To overcome this situation it is necessary to classify the interfaces of equipment in such
configurations according to the application and to select the safety category for the interfaces
of the equipment and for the type of the network. Similarly, the interfaces have to be classified
for protection against damage of the equipment and of the network. Aspects of protection are
dealt with in the ITU-T K series of Recommendations.

– 6 – TR 62102  IEC:2001(E)
ELECTRICAL SAFETY –
CLASSIFICATION OF INTERFACES FOR EQUIPMENT

TO BE CONNECTED TO INFORMATION

AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY NETWORKS

1 Scope
This technical report applies to equipment interfaces. These interfaces within the equipment
may be connected to telecommunication networks, they may form part of the
telecommunication network infrastructure or they may provide localized transfer of data. This
technical report provides guidance on the classification of interfaces in accordance with the
circuit types defined in IEC 60950 following an analysis of the telecommunication network
characteristics.
This technical report only covers equipment appropriately interconnected. Furthermore, it does
not address damage caused by one equipment to another equipment to which it is connected.
Exceptionally, interfaces may be designed for higher or lower levels for special applications. In
such cases it should be ensured that only interfaces having the same safety category and
protection level are connected together. This is based on the available specifications of the
equipment manufacturers and network providers, and on information regarding the installation
category of the mains interface.
This technical report is intended to be used by equipment designers, network operators,
network regulators/authorities, standards writers and network installers. It is applicable to
various interfaces of equipment. Network presentations are not equipment and so are not
covered by IEC 60950; hence they are also not covered by this technical report. However, it is
necessary to consider the characteristics, installation and presentation of telecommunication
networks when determining what equipment interface requirements apply (e.g. SELV circuit,
TNV-1 circuit, TNV-2 circuit, TNV-3 circuit etc.).
If a standard other than IEC 60950 is used for designing the equipment and its interface (e.g.
IEC 62151 in conjunction with other product safety standards), then the corresponding
requirements of these other standards are to be preferred.
If there is a conflict between this technical report and a more detailed specification, the latter
prevails.
This technical report applies regardless of ownership or responsibility for installation and

maintenance of the equipment or network.
NOTE Terminal equipment is often connected to customer premises cabling when used in a business
environment, and there are standards covering such cabling.
2 Reference documents
IEC Guide 112, Guide on the safety of multimedia equipment
IEC 60065, Audio, video and similar electronic apparatus – Safety requirements
IEC 60364 (all parts), Electrical installation of buildings
IEC 60664-1, Insulation coordination for equipment within low-voltage systems – Part 1:
Principles, requirements and tests

TR 62102  IEC:2001(E) – 7 –
IEC 60950, Safety of information technology equipment

IEC 61312-1, Protection against lightning electromagnetic impulse – Part 1: General principles

IEC 62151, Safety of equipment electrically connected to a telecommunication network

ISO/IEC 8802
...