User's Manual Part 6

Appendix
B
– TIA/EIA 568-A Cabling Standard
This appendix is a summary of the TIA/EIA 568-A Commercial Building
Telecommunications Cabling Standard.
The TIA/EIA 568-A commercial building cabling standard addresses the need for
a common criterion covering cabling in commercial buildings. The standard was
drafted to ensure support for a wide variety of applications, devices, and vendor
products.
The TIA/EIA 568-A standard assures a flexible cabling scheme which permits the
planning and installation of communications cable without prior knowledge of the
user's needs. This is especially valuable for new building construction and
renovation where it is less costly and less disruptive to install a universal cabling
system prior to occupancy.
The need for a building cabling standard was recognized in the early 1980s. It
resulted from the changes brought on by new technologies. The purpose of the
original drafting committee was to provide a non-proprietary cabling system for
both new and existing facilities.
In 1985, the Computer Communications Industry Association approached the
Electronic Industry Association (EIA) in regard to the market's confusion over
cabling systems. The EIA and later its offspring, the Telecommunications Industry
Association (TIA), addressed this via technical working groups comprised of
industry participants. The resulting standard 568 addressed performance and safety
issues related to technology and utilized many recognized and proven standards.
The TIA/EIA 568-A standard defines the categories of UTP cabling, the categories
of connecting hardware, patch cables, and provides guidelines on cabling practices.
The TIA/EIA 568-A standard describes six sub-systems within a facility
telecommunications cabling system summarized below. (This is intended as a
summary only and is meant to provide a better comprehension of the standard. The
complete TIA/EIA 568-A standard is available for purchase. Call 1-800-854-7179.)