[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 9, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15782-15785]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-8755]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No. 960313072-6072-01]
RIN 0693-XX16


Proposed Revision of Federal Information Processing Standard 
(FIPS) 174, Federal Building Telecommunications Wiring Standard

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: A revision is being proposed to Federal Information Processing 
Standard (FIPS) 174, Federal Building Telecommunications Wiring 
Standard. The revision reflects changes to the voluntary industry 
standard that is adopted by this FIPS and will supersede FIPS 174 in 
its entirety. In addition, the revision will replace FIPS 159, Detail 
Specification for 62.5-um Core Diameter/125-um Cladding Diameter Class 
IA Multimode, Graded-Index Optical Waveguide Fibers, which will be 
withdrawn.
    The revised FIPS adopts ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995, which specifies 
minimum requirements for telecommunications cabling within a building 
and between buildings in a campus environment. The specifications were 
developed with Federal participation and coordinated by the Federal 
Telecommunications Standards Committee, an interagency committee 
administered by the National Communications System.
    The purpose of this notice is to solicit views from the public, 
manufacturers, and State and local governments so that their views can 
be considered prior to the submission of this revised FIPS to the 
Secretary of Commerce for review and approval.
    This proposed revision contains two sections: (1) a specifications 
section which deals with the technical requirements of the standard; 
and (2) a specifications section which deals with the technical 
requirements of the standard. Only the announcement section of this 
revised standard is provided in this notice. Interested parties may 
obtain copies of the specifications (ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995) from 
Global Engineering Documents, 1990 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, 
telephone (800) 854-7179; FAX (202) 331-0960.

DATES: Comments on this proposed revision must be received on or before 
July 8, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Written comments concerning the adoption of this proposed 
revision should be sent to: Director, Computer Systems Laboratory, 
ATTN: Proposed Revision of FIPS 174, Technology Building, Room A231, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
    Written comments received in response to this notice will be made 
part of the public record and will be made available for inspection and 
copying in the Central Reference and Records Inspection Facility, Room 
6020, Herbert C. Hoover Building, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and 
Constitution Avenues, NW, Washington, DC 20230.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. A Glenn Hanson, Institute for 
Telecommunications Sciences, National Telecommunications and 
Information Administration, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303-3328, 
telephone 303-497-5449; FAX 303-497-6982.

    Dated: April 3, 1996.
Samuel Kramer,
Associate Director.

Draft Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 174-1 
(Date)--Announcing the Standard for Federal Building Telecommunications 
Cabling Standard

    Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS) 
are issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
after approval by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to Section 5131 of 
the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 and the 
Computer Security Act of 1987, Public Law 104-106.
    1. Name of Standard. Federal Building Telecommunications Cabling 
Standard (FIPS PUB 174-1).
    2. Category of Standard. Telecommunications Standard; cables and 
wiring.
    3. Explanation. This standard, by adoption of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-
1995, Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard, 
specifies minimum requirements for telecommunications cabling within a 
building and between buildings in a campus environment. It specifies a 
cabling system with a recommended topology and recommended distances. 
It specifies copper and optical-fiber transmission media by parameters 
that determine performance, and specifies connectors and their pin 
assignments to ensure interconnectability. This standard recognizes a 
background precept of fundamental importance: to have a building 
successfully designed and provisioned for telecommunications, it is 
imperative that the telecommunications cabling design be incorporated 
during the preliminary architectural design phase. This standard 
supersedes FIPS PUB 174, Federal Building Telecommunications Wiring 
Standard, in its entirety and replaces FIPS 159, Detail Specification 
for 62.5-um Core Diameter/125-um Cladding Diameter Class IA Multimode, 
Graded-Index Optical Waveguide Fibers.
    4. Approving Authority. Secretary of Commerce.
    5. Maintenance Agency. National Communications System, Office of 
Technology and Standards.
    6. Related Documents.
    a. Federal Information Resources Management Regulations subpart 
201-20.303, Standards, and subpart 201-39.1002, Federal Standards.
    b. Federal Standard 1037C, Glossary of Telecommunications Terms.
    c. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 
175, Federal Building Standard for Telecommunications Pathways and 
Spaces (Former Draft Federal Standard 1091).
    d. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 
176, Residential and Light Commercial Telecommunications Wiring 
Standard.
    e. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 
195, Federal Building Grounding and Bonding Requirements for 
Telecommunications.
    f. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 
187, Administration Standard for the Telecommunications Infrastructure 
of Federal Buildings.
    At the time of publication of this standard, the editions indicated 
above were valid. All publications are subject to revision, and parties 
to agreements based on this standard are encouraged to investigate the 
possibility of applying the most recent editions of these publications.
    7. Objectives. The purpose of this standard is to facilitate 
interoperability and transportability among telecommunication 
facilities and systems of the Federal Government and compatibility of 
these facilities and systems at the computer-communications interface 
with data processing equipment (systems) of the Federal Government by 
specifying standard characteristics for building telecommunications 
cabling. This standard defines a generic, functional telecommunications 
cabling system for Federal buildings that will support a multiproduct, 
multivendor environment. The further purpose of this standard is to 
enable the planning and installation of building cabling with little 
knowledge of the

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telecommunications products that subsequently will be installed. 
Installation of cabling systems during building construction or major 
renovation is significantly less expensive and less disruptive than 
after the building is occupied. This standard establishes performance 
and technical criteria for various cabling system configurations for 
interfacing and connecting their respective elements. To attain a 
multiproduct cabling system, a review of the performance requirements 
for most telecommunications services was conducted during preparation 
of the American National Standard. The diversity of telecommunications 
services currently available, coupled with the continual addition of 
new services, means that there may be cases where limitations to 
desired performance occur. To understand any such limitations, the user 
is advised to consult standards associated with the desired services.
    8. Applicability. American National Standard/TIA/EIA-568-a-1995 
shall be used (with the deletion of the optional specification as noted 
in Section 9) by all departments and agencies of the Federal Government 
in the planning and design of all office buildings, when FIPS 176 is 
not selected. This includes both the wiring of new buildings and the 
upgrading of existing plant. Building telecommunications wiring defined 
by this standard is intended to support a wide range of different 
Federal building sites. This includes sites with a geographical extent 
up to 3,000 m (9,840 ft), up to 1,000,000 square meters (approximately 
10,000,000 square feet) of office space, and with a population of up to 
50,000 individual users. Telecommunications wiring systems defined by 
this standard are intended to have a useful life in excess of 10 years. 
This standard applies to the telecommunications wiring for Federal 
buildings that are office oriented. (The term ``commercial 
enterprises'' is used in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995 to differentiate 
between office buildings and buildings designed for industrial 
enterprises.) This standard is not intended to hasten the obsolescence 
of building wiring currently existing in the Federal inventory; nor is 
it intended to provide systems engineering or applications guidelines.
    9. Specifications. This FIPS adopts ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995 with 
one important change to the industry standard: in the interest of 
optimizing transportability, the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995 optional 
eight-position jack pin/pair assignments for the 100-ohm UTP 
telecommunications work-area outlet specified in Figure 10-2 (and 
referenced in paragraph 2 of Section 10.4.5) shall not be used.
    10. Implementation. The use of this standard by Federal departments 
and agencies is compulsory and binding for the acquisition of new 
equipment and services, effective six months after approval by the 
Secretary of Commerce, except as noted in Section 8.
    Adherence to a standard that specifies standardized building wiring 
contributes to the economic and efficient use of resources by avoiding 
proliferation of local or vendor-unique standards, and is necessary to 
facilitate development of interoperable inter- and intrabuilding 
telecommunications systems. Specification of minimum acceptable values 
for basic performance parameters provides assistance to the user in 
multivendor procurement. For the user requiring state-of-the-art 
systems performance, these values may serve as benchmarks for use in 
cost/performance analyses when evaluating alternate transmission media 
whose specifications exceed those of this standard.
    11. Waivers. Under certain exceptional circumstances, the heads of 
Federal departments and agencies may approve waivers to Federal 
Information Processing Standards (FIPS). The head of such agency may 
redelegate such authority only to a senior official designated pursuant 
to Section 3506(b) of Title 44, U.S. Code. Waivers shall be granted 
only when:
    a. Compliance with a standard would adversely affect the 
accomplishment of the mission of an operator of a Federal computer 
system or related telecommunications system, or
    b. Cause a major adverse financial impact on the operator which is 
not offset by Governmentwide savings.
    Agency heads may act upon a written waiver request containing the 
information detailed above. Agency heads may also act without a written 
waiver request when they determine that conditions for meeting the 
standard cannot be met. Agency heads may approve waivers only by a 
written decision which explains the basis on which the agency head made 
the required finding(s). A copy of each such decision, with procurement 
sensitive or classified portions clearly identified, shall be sent to: 
National Institute of Standards and Technology; Attn: FIPS Waiver 
Decisions, NIST North, Room 509; Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
    In addition, notice of each waiver granted and each delegation of 
authority to approve waivers shall be sent promptly to the Committee on 
Government Operations of the House of Representatives and the Committee 
on Governmental Affairs of the Senate and shall be published promptly 
in the Federal Register.
    When the determination on a waiver applies to the procurement of 
equipment and/or services, a notice of the waiver determination must be 
published in the Commerce Business Daily as a part of the notice of 
solicitation for offers of an acquisition or, if the waiver 
determination is made after the notice is published, by amendment to 
such notice.
    A copy of the waiver, any supporting documents, the document 
approving the waive and any supporting and accompanying documents, with 
such deletions as the agency is authorized and decides to make under 5 
U.S.C. Sec. 552(b), shall be part of the procurement documentation and 
retained by the agency.
    12. Where to Obtain Copies. Copies of this publication are for sale 
by the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of 
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. (Sale of the included specifications 
document is by arrangement with the Electronic Industries Association.) 
When ordering, refer to Federal Information Processing Standards 
Publication 174-1 (FIPSPUB174-1), and the title. Payment may be made by 
check, money order, purchase order, credit card, or deposit account.

Appendix

    By adoption of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995 (with the modification 
noted below), this document provides Federal departments and 
agencies with a generic, standardized cabling system for office 
buildings and building complexes. This standardization, in 
conjunction with Federal Information Processing Standard 175, which 
provides architectural specification of telecommunications pathways 
and spaces, will facilitate systems compatibility and 
transportability of terminals for Federal users. The use of these 
two standards will assure a quality of performance consistent with 
existing industry capabilities and will provide a cost-effective 
basis for competitive procurement.
    The industry standard adopted by this Federal Information 
Processing Standard is ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A-1995, Commercial Building 
Telecommunications Cabling Standard, and is the result of an effort 
by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) \1\, in 
response to concern expressed by

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the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) over the 
lack of a standard on building telecommunications cabling.

    \1\ In 1988, the Telecommunications sector (specifically, the 
TR- and FO-Technical Committees, Subcommittees, and Working Groups) 
of the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) became a part of the 
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). TIA conducts the 
standard-developing activities, and EIA continues to publish the 
resultant standards, which bear the prefix ``EIA/TIA'', as well as 
``ANSI'' for those documents adopted by the American National 
Standards Institute. Beginning in 1992, the prefix reads ``TIA/
EIA.''
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    This Federal Information Processing Standard adopts ANSI/TIA/
EIA-568-A-1995 with one important change to the industry standard: 
in the interest of optimizing transportability, the ANSI/TIA/EIA-
568-A-1995 vendor-specific optional eight-position jack pin/pair 
assignments for the 100-ohm UTP telecommunications work-area outlet 
connector specified in Figure 10-2 (and referenced in paragraph 2 of 
Section 10.4.5) of the industry shall not be used. The pin-pair 
assignments (and color coding) of the primary wiring scheme, 
illustrated in Figure 10-1, are fully compatible with terminal 
equipment manufactured by a majority of North American 
manufacturers. These assignments are fully compatible also with the 
single specification of eight-position outlet connector pin/pair 
assignments of the parallel building-wiring standard developed by 
the Canadian Standards Association, CSA-529. Tracking the ANSI/TIA/
EIA-568-A-1995 standard, the U.S. connector industry has adopted a 
connector designation of ``T-568A'' for this primary wiring scheme.
    The use of the optional pin/pair assignments of Figure 10-2 in 
wiring a building would result in equipment inoperability when 
transporting any terminal equipment from this building to any 
building wired to the primary specification of Figure 10-2 above.
    The inverse is also true; only equipment of proprietary design 
(of a single manufacturer) will be operable in a building wired to 
the optional specification. This resultant problem of 
interoperability when transporting equipment could be addressed only 
by (a) providing adapters for all relocated terminal equipment, or 
(b) rewiring of the destination building (at the main distribution 
frame or elsewhere).
    This Federal Information Processing Standard has a special 
relationship to the ANSI/EIA/TIA-569-1991, Commercial Building 
Standard for Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces, (adopted as 
Federal Information Processing Standard 175). This latter standard 
addresses the reality that building wiring cannot be standardized 
without standardizing also the architecture of the building itself 
into which building wiring systems are to be installed.
    Another companion standard, ANSI/EIA/TIA-570-1991, Residential 
and Light Commercial Telecommunications Wiring Standard, is adopted 
as Federal Information Processing Standard 176.
    During the development of this family of building 
telecommunications standards, significant concern was expressed, by 
both Government and industry, about the need for specification of 
electronic system grounding. This concern resulted in ANSI/TIA/EIA-
607-1994, Grounding and Bonding Requirements for Telecommunications 
in Commercial Buildings, adopted as a Federal Information Processing 
Standard 195, Federal Building Grounding and Bonding Requirements 
for Telecommunications.
    The complex telecommunications building infrastructure addressed 
by this family of standards requires continuing documentation of all 
building wiring and the related pathways and spaces that contain 
that wiring. Recognizing the need for a standardized method of 
telecommunications administration, TIA developed ANSI/TIA/EIA-606-
1993, Administration Standard for the Telecommunications 
Infrastructure of Commercial Buildings, to expedite collecting and 
updating of such information. This standard was adopted as Federal 
Information Processing Standard 187, Administration Standard for the 
Telecommunications Infrastructure of Federal Buildings.
[FR Doc. 96-8755 Filed 4-8-96; 8:45 am]
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