ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-The Standard


ANSI-the American National Standards Institute 
EIA-the Electronic Industries Alliance, formed to address electronic properties of cable 
TIA-the Telecommunications Industry Association, formed to assume responsibility for cabling installation practices and performance of cable 

TIA and EIA create specifications, while ANSI approves specs.

The TIA/EIA is chartered with: 

Establishing a generic telecommunications cabling standard (including criteria for
planning, installation and performance) that will support a multivendor environment 
Defining next-generation cabling (Cat 5E and Cat 6) 
Performance specifications for hybrid and bundled cables (such as SpeedPull) 
Further defining fiber (including connectors, distances and 50 micron) 
Reorganizing the 568-A standard 

The reorganization of 568-A will be comprised of three sections:

1.B.1 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard 
2.B.2 100 Ohm Balanced Twisted-pair Cabling Standard 
3.B.3 Optical Fiber Cabling Standard 

TIA/EIA 568B replaces the 568A standard and all the addenda up to 5, TSB 67, 72, 75 and 95. Category 6 will be defined in Addendum 1 to TIA/EIA 568B.

The Basic link is now replaced by the Permanent Link configuration in TIA/EIA 568B.

Other ANSI/TIA/EIA standards of note include:

569-A, Commercial Building Standard for Telecommunications Pathways and
Spaces 
606, Administration Standard for the Telecommunications Infrastructure of
Commercial Buildings 
607, Commercial Building Grounding and Bonding Requirements for
Telecommunications