scope:

This part of IEC 61156 describes the cables intended primarily for working area wiring as defined in ISO/IEC 11801 (all parts).

It covers cable designs comprising individually screened, common screened and unscreened pairs or quads. The transmission characteristics and the frequency range (see Table 1) of the cables are specified at 20 °C.

These cables can be used for various communication channels which use as many as four pairs simultaneously. In this sense, this document provides the cable characteristics required by system developers to evaluate new systems.

The cables covered by this document are intended to operate with voltages and currents normally encountered in communication systems. While these cables are not intended to be used in conjunction with low impedance sources, for example the electric power supplies of public utility mains, they are intended to be used to support the delivery of low voltage remote powering applications such as IEEE 802.3af (Power over Ethernet) or further developments for example according to IEEE 802.3at or IEEE 802.3bt. More information on the capacity to support these applications according to the installation practices are given in IEC 61156-1-4, IEC TR 61156-1-6 and ISO/IEC TS 29125.