TIA publishes Category 6A patch cord test standard
Nov. 14, 2014
Addendum 2 to ANSI/TIA-568-C.2 enables patch cord test heads to be compliant with both TIA and ISO cabling test standards.
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) recently published Addendum 2 to the ANSI/TIA-568-C.2 standard; the addendum is titled Additional Considerations for Category 6A Patch Cord Testing. When announcing the new cabling standard, the TIA said, “TIA-568-C.2-2 specifies requirements for telecommunications infrastructure for Category 6A patch cordtesting requirements, to allow test heads qualified to IEC 61935-2 to be used to qualify a patch cord to TIA-568-C.2 C6A compliance. TIA C6A test heads and ISO C6A test heads used for measurement of patch cords have slightly differing requirements. These differences cause negligible differences to measured patch cord results; however they create a situation in which a patch cord test head cannot be both TIA and ISO compliant. This causes practical difficulties in both laboratory and field measurements of cords.” The approval and publication of this addendum solves those practical difficulties.
“TIA-568-C.2-2 was formulated under the cognizance of the TIA TR-42 Telecommunications Cabling Systems, TR-42.7 Telecommunications Copper Cabling Systems (568) subcommittee,” the TIA concluded.