Standards Update The Four A’s of Harmonization

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Standards Update The Four As of
Harmonization-Seymour Goldstein
www.flukenetworks.com 2006-2017 Fluke
Corporation
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Standards Update The Four As of Harmonization
With ANSI/TIA being a North American standards
body and ISO/IEC considered international, some
often question why we need both, especially
considering the similarities between the
two. But there are also plenty of
differencesfrom terminology and spelling, to
policy and codes. The good news is that with
technology having made our world a much smaller
place, TIA and IEC are fast at work harmonizing
standards. Along with harmonization comes the
fact that sometimes one standards organization
develops a standard first and the other can
choose to either adopt or adapt the standards.
Standards are also harmonized through approvals
and amendments. Lets take a closer look at some
of the recent four As taking place in fiber
standards harmonizationadoption, adaption,
approval and amendment.
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Standards Update The Four As of Harmonization
Adoption
When TIA adopts an IEC standard, or vice versa,
it quite literally means that they take on and
follow the standard. For example, TIA adopted the
IEC 61280-4-1 multimode fiber optic testing
standards as TIA-526-14-C. Because TIA has an
outdated singlemode fiber optic testing standard,
they are also considering the adoption of IEC
61280-4-2. If they do, it will be published as
TIA-526-7.
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Standards Update The Four As of Harmonization
Adaption
Sometimes in the harmonization of standards,
adaption becomes necessary. In the case of TIA
adopting the IEC 61280-4-1 multimode fiber optic
testing standard, there was the need to account
for regional differences and provide further
clarification and guidance. As a result, TIA
adapted a foreword that includes additional
information to that found in the IEC
standard. Another key adaption change involves
the encircled flux (EF) metric for the launch
condition. In October 2013, TIA decided to
require EF for only 850nm wavelengths on 50µm
multimode and recommend it for any other
multimode fiber types or for 1300nm wavelengths.
In contrast, ISO/IEC standards require EF
compliance for 850nm and 1300nm wavelengths on
both 50 µm and 62.5µm multimode fiber. Luckily
Fluke Networks offers EF-compliant test equipment
for all four cases. TIA also included a higher
order mode loss (HOML) field test that measures
power before and after a mandrel wrap. While not
intended as a substitute for EF, HOML can be used
to disqualify a testing light source that is too
under-filled. While its a little confusing, we
can now say that the adoption of IEC 61280-4-1
by TIA will soon be published as TIA-526-14-C
with these adaptions.
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Standards Update The Four As of Harmonization
Approval
When it comes to harmonizing standards, there is
another all-important A wordApproval. During
the development of the ANSI/TIA 568.3-D optical
fiber cabling component standard, which has been
extensively improved and is close to being issued
as the first industry ballot, there was a
proposal to make Tier 2 testing (OTDR) equivalent
to Tier 1 testing (OLTS). This was NOT approved,
which is in accordance with existing ISO/IEC
standards that specify Basic Test Regime (light
source and power meter) and Extended Test Regime
(OTDR). Another proposal of interest is the
addition of connector grades. The U.S. National
Committee of the IEC supported connector
attenuation grades produced by IEC for 50µm
fiber. In the effort to harmonize, the
incorporation of these grades into TIA 568.3-D
was indeed approved.
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Standards Update The Four As of Harmonization
Amendments
To truly harmonize standards, they need to be
amended when necessary. For instance, while the
IEC/ISO 14763-32014 optical fiber testing
standard has been published, a corrigendum
(errata) is available to make corrections to test
limits. An amendment is also in the works to
include more permanent corrections and
restructure the fiber optic cleaning and
inspection information. We may also see
clarification of channel testing requirements and
definitions included in the amendment. With both
TIA and IEC busy developing new and updating
existing standards, theres no doubt that
harmonization isnt easy. But both organizations
continue to make significant headwayfueled by
the fact that many serve as committee members
within both organizations and an overwhelming
commitment to promote interoperability within the
global communications industry.
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