TIA/EIA-568

TIA/EIA-568 is a set of telecommunications standards from the Telecommunications Industry Association

(TIA), an oshoot of the Electronic Industries Alliance
(EIA). The standards address commercial building cabling for telecommunications products and services.

TIA/EIA-568-C.1 denes general requirements, while

568-C.2 focuses on components of balanced twistedpair cable systems. TIA-568-C.3 addresses components
of ber optic cable systems, and 568-C.4, addressed
coaxial cabling components.[5]

As of 2014, the standard is at revision C, replacing the The intent of these standards is to provide recommended
2001 revision B, the 1995 revision A, and the initial issue practices for the design and installation of cabling sysof 1991, which are now obsolete.[1][2]
tems that will support a wide variety of existing and fuPerhaps the best known features of TIA/EIA-568 are the ture services. Developers hope the standards will provide
pin/pair assignments for eight-conductor 100-ohm bal- a lifespan for commercial cabling systems in excess of
anced twisted pair cabling. These assignments are named ten years. This eort has been largely successful, as evidenced by the denition of category 5 cabling in 1991,
T568A and T568B.
a cabling standard that (mostly) satised cabling requireAn IEC standard ISO/IEC 11801 provides similar stan- ments for 1000BASE-T, released in 1999. Thus, the standards for network cables.
dardization process can reasonably be said to have provided at least a nine-year lifespan for premises cabling,
and arguably a longer one.

History

All these documents accompany related standards that

dene commercial pathways and spaces (TIA-569-C1, February 2013), residential cabling (ANSI/TIA-570C, August 2012), administration standards (ANSI/TIA606-B, June 2012), grounding and bonding (TIA-607-B2, August 2013), and outside plant cabling (TIA-758-B,
April 2012).

TIA/EIA-568 was developed through the eorts of more

than 60 contributing organizations including manufacturers, end-users, and consultants. Work on the standard
began with the EIA, to dene standards for telecommunications cabling systems. EIA agreed to develop a set of
standards, and formed the TR-42 committee,[3] with nine
subcommittees to perform the work. The work continues
to be maintained by TR-42 within the TIA.

3 Cable categories

The rst revision of the standard, TIA/EIA-568-A.11991 was released in 1991. The standard was updated to
revision B in 1995. The demands placed upon commercial wiring systems increased dramatically over this period due to the adoption of personal computers and data
communication networks and advances in those technologies. The development of high-performance twisted pair
cabling and the popularization of ber optic cables also
drove signicant change in the standards. These changes
were rst released in a revision C in 2009 which has subsequently received minor maintenance updates.[4]

The standard denes categories of unshielded twisted pair

cable systems, with dierent levels of performance in
signal bandwidth, attenuation, and cross-talk. Generally increasing category numbers correspond with a cable system suitable for higher rates of data transmission.
Category 3 cable was suitable for telephone circuits and
data rates up to 16 million bits per second. Category 5 cable, with more restrictions on attenuation and cross talk,
has a bandwidth of 100 MHz.[6] The 1995 edition of the
standard dened categories 3, 4, and 5. Categories 1 and
2 were excluded from the standard since these categories
were only used for voice circuits, not for data.[7]

Goals

TIA/EIA-568 denes structured cabling system stan- 4 Structured cable system topolodards for commercial buildings, and between buildings
gies
in campus environments. The bulk of the standards dene cabling types, distances, connectors, cable system
architectures, cable termination standards and perfor- TIA/EIA-568-C denes a hierarchical cable system armance characteristics, cable installation requirements and chitecture, in which a main cross-connect (MCC) is
methods of testing installed cable. The main standard, connected via a star topology across backbone cabling
1

2
to intermediate cross-connects (ICC) and horizontal
cross-connects (HCC). Telecommunications design traditions utilized a similar topology, and many people refer to cross-connects by their older, nonstandard names:
"distribution frames" (with the various hierarchies called
MDFs, IDFs and wiring closets). Backbone cabling is
also used to interconnect entrance facilities (such as telco
demarcation points) to the main cross-connect. Maximum allowable backbone bre distances vary between
300m and 3000m, depending upon the cable type and
use.
Horizontal cross-connects provide a point for the consolidation of all horizontal cabling, which extends in a star
topology to individual work areas such as cubicles and ofces. Under TIA/EIA-568-B, maximum allowable horizontal cable distance is 90m of installed cabling, whether
bre or twisted-pair, with 100m of maximum total length
including patch cords. No patch cord should be longer
than 5m. Optional consolidation points are allowable in
horizontal cables, often appropriate for open-plan oce
layouts where consolidation points or media converters
may connect cables to several desks or via partitions.

T568A AND T568B TERMINATION

out of inertia.
The colors of the wire pairs in the cable, in order, are:
blue (for pair 1), orange, green, and brown (for pair 4).
Each pair consists of one conductor of solid color and a
second conductor which is white with a stripe of the other
color.
The dierence between the two pinouts is that the orange
and green wire pairs are exchanged.

5.1 Wiring
See modular connector for numbering of the pins[8]

Note that the only dierence between T568A and T568B

is that pairs 2 and 3 (orange and green) are swapped. Both
congurations wire the pins straight through, i.e., pins 1
through 8 on one end are connected to pins 1 through 8 on
the other end.[9] Also, the same sets of pins connect to the
opposite ends that are paired in both congurations: pins
1 and 2 form a pair, as do 3 and 6, 4 and 5, and 7 and 8.
One can use cables wired according to either conguration in the same installation without signicant problem.
At the work area, equipment is connected by patch cords
The primary thing one has to be careful of, is not to acto horizontal cabling terminated at jackpoints.
cidentally wire the ends of the same cable according to
TIA/EIA-568 also denes characteristics and cabling re- dierent congurations (unless one intends to create an
quirements for entrance facilities, equipment rooms and ethernet crossover cable) or, worse, swapping two lines
telecommunications room.
from dierent pairs. This creates crosstalk, which is normally rectied by correctly twisting a pair together.[10]
These problems will be most apparent in the more stringent specications such as Category 6.
5 T568A and T568B termination
Perhaps the widest known and most discussed feature of
TIA/EIA-568 is the denition of the pin-to-pair assign- 5.2 Use for T1 connectivity
ments, or pinout, between the pins in a connector (a plug
In Digital Signal 1 (T1) service, the pairs 1 and 3 (T568A)
or a socket) and the wires in a cable.
are used, and the USOC-8 jack is wired as per spec RJThe standard species how to connect eight-conductor 48C. The Telco termination jack is often wired to spec
100-ohm balanced twisted-pair cabling, such as Category RJ-48X, which provides for a Transmit-to-Receive loop3 and Category 6 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP), to 8P8C back when the plug is withdrawn.
eight-pin modular connectors (often incorrectly called
Vendor cables are often wired with tip and ring
RJ45 connectors).
reversedi.e. pins 1 and 2 reversed, or pins 4 and 5 reThe standard denes two alternative pinouts: T568A and versed. This has no eect on the signal quality of the T1
T568B. The pinout denitions occupy merely 1 of the signal, which is fully dierential, and uses the Alternate
standards 468 pages. Much attention is paid to them be- Mark Inversion (AMI) signaling scheme.
cause cables do not function if the pinouts at their two
ends aren't correctly matched.
TIA/EIA-568 recommends the T568A pinout for hori- 5.3 Backward compatibility
zontal cables. This pinouts advantage is that it is compatible with the 1-pair and 2-pair USOC pinouts. The Because pair 1 connects to the center pins (4 and 5) of the
8P8C connector in both T568A and T568B, both stanU.S. Government requires it in federal contracts.
The standard also allows the T568B pinout, as an alterna- dards are compatible with the rst line of RJ11, RJ14,
tive if necessary to accommodate certain 8-pin cabling RJ25, and RJ61 connectors that all have the rst pair in
systems. This pinout matches the older AT&T 258A the center pins of these connectors.
(Systimax) pinout. In the 1990s, when TIA/EIA-568 was If the second line of an RJ14, RJ25 or RJ61 plug is
published, 258A had the most widely installed UTP ca- used, it connects to pair 2 (orange/white) of jacks wired
bling infrastructure. Many organizations still use T568B to T568A but to pair 3 (green/white) in jacks wired to

3
T568B. This makes T568B potentially confusing in telephone applications.

[4] TIA-568 Set : Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standards Set.

Because of dierent pin pairings, the RJ25 and RJ61

plugs cannot pick up lines 3 or 4 from either T568A or
T568B without splitting pairs. This would most likely result in unacceptable levels of hum, crosstalk and noise.

[5] TIA Publishes New Cabling Standards Designed to Improve Eciency for Designers, Installers and End Users.
TIA. 2009-03-12. Archived from the original on 201108-17.

5.4

[6] William Stallings Knowing UTP wiring basics can boost

local net performance, Network World 9 July 1996, page
29

Theory

The original idea in wiring modular connectors, as seen [7]

in the registered jacks, was that the rst pair would go in
the center positions, the next pair on the next outermost
[8]
ones, and so on. Also, signal shielding would be optimized by alternating the live and earthy pins of each
pair. The TIA/EIA-568-B terminations diverge slightly [9]
from this concept because on the 8 position connector,
[10]
the resulting pinout would separate the outermost pair too
far to meet the electrical echo requirements of high-speed
LAN protocols.

Charles E. Spurgeon, Ethernet:The Denitive Guide,

(O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2000) ISBN 1565926609 page 212
Connector Pin Assignments. Cisco. Retrieved 201404-14.
RJ45 Pinout.
LAN Wiring & Pinouts.

9 Sources

Standards
ANSI/TIA-568-C.0, Generic Telecommunications
Cabling for Customer Premises, Ed. C, Amd. 2,
08-2012
ANSI/TIA-568-C.1,
Telecommunications
C, Amd. 2, 05-2012

Commercial
Building
Cabling Standard, Ed.

ANSI/TIA-568-C.2,
Balanced
Twisted-Pair
Telecommunication Cabling and Components
Standard, Ed. C, Err. 04-2014
ANSI/TIA-568-C.3, Optical Fiber Cabling Components Standard, Ed. C, Amd. 1, 10-2011
ANSI/TIA-568-C.4, Broadband Coaxial Cabling
and Components Standard, Ed. C, 07-2011

See also
Copper cable certication

References

[1] Andrew Oliviero, Bill Woodward Cabling: The Complete Guide to Copper and Fiber-Optic Networking,
John Wiley & Sons, 2009 ISBN 0470550058 page 68
[2] Standards and Technology Annual Report (PDF). TIA.
Retrieved 2014-04-14.
[3] TR-42 - Telecommunications Cabling Systems. TIA.
Retrieved 2014-04-14.

National Communications System Federal

Telecommunications Recommendation 10901997. Retrieved 2014-04-14.

10 External links
CAT 5 / 5e / 6 / 6A / 6A / 7 Cable - RJ-45 Connector, ProAV.de
UTP Cable Termination Standards 568A Vs 568B
(2006)

11

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11.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

TIA/EIA-568 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA/EIA-568?oldid=674580703 Contributors: Amillar, Caltrop, B4hand, Pnm, SGBailey, Alo, CesarB, Mac, Baylink, Gutza, Mrand, Ed g2s, Head, Indefatigable, Wilinckx~enwiki, RickBeton, Fudoreaper, Karn, NeoJustin, Jherico, Matthus Wander, Pgan002, Lindberg G Williams Jr, KeithTyler, Stereo, R, ArnoldReinhold, Alistair1978, Plugwash,
Dpotter, DrewRobinson, Lunaverse, Femto, Jlin, Giraedata, Ocrho, Wtshymanski, Rick Sidwell, Stephan Leeds, Algocu, Nuno Tavares,
Ruud Koot, Jnosrati, InitHello, Josh Parris, Oblivious, Makru, Chobot, Sherool, Cataclysmcow, Stuorguk, YurikBot, Iota2, Nimlot,
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YK Times, Nicolaasuni, Mibilove~enwiki, AndersJohnson, NJR ZA, Pensador82, DerHexer, Jim.henderson, I hate lee, Fdmundo, Wiher, Black Walnut, Marcvangend, Beezhive, VolkovBot, Vitund, IsaacGS, Jamelan, Cabling guy, Bettis211, Sebum-n-soda, Thehidoc,
Dodger67, Anchor Link Bot, EricKodjo, Ndemou, Ejegan, The Thing That Should Not Be, Tomas e, Mikaey, Porkman Pork, Spitre, Addbot, Mvdiogo, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Crispmuncher, SwisterTwister, AnomieBOT, Creativesoul8, Cika.crni, Webwat, FrescoBot, FFM784,
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