If your job has anything to do with telecommunications used in industrial applications, you are no doubt interested in ANSI TIA 1005 best practices for designing and installing such infrastructure. If you are looking for ways to reduce the expenses and downtime of in your industrial connectivity applications and to maximize the lifespan of your organization’s cabling infrastructure, then ANSI TIA 1005 knowledge is a must.
Because many share this interest, in 2012 a standard was published by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in cooperation with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). They call it the Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Industrial Premises, more commonly known as ANSI/TIA-1005-A. As TIA states, the standard “helps in the planning and installation of telecommunications cabling infrastructure within and between industrial buildings” by providing “infrastructure, distance, telecommunications outlet/connector configuration, and topology requirements.” It differs from another wiring standard, ANSI/TIA-EIA-568-B, which is for commercial buildings, in one key aspect: ANSI/TIA-1005-A centers around “the potential exposure to hostile environments in the industrial space.”
If you have not read the entire ANSI-TIA-1005-A standard, this blog post summarizes some of its main points. First, we list the main areas of an industrial facility and how each is designated for certain environmental conditions. Then we highlight what the standard says about horizontal cabling, backbone cabling and connecting hardware. Finally, we touch on the standard’s cabling performance requirements.
L-com has been a cabling expert since 1982 and we are deeply familiar with the standard and how to make cabling and connector choices, both copper and fiber optic networks, that adhere to it.
Industrial Areas and Their MICE Designations
A cable must be able to withstand the severity of its environment. Because not all areas of a factory are equally severe, ANSI-TIA-1005-A defines four types of industrial areas:
- Control equipment telecommunications room
- Factory floor area, which contains the machines and the higher-traffic work areas
- Work area, where people interact with the machines and telecom devices
- Automation island area, which contains or is next to the industrial machines
Each area has its own MICE designations. MICE stands for the four basic environmental conditions: mechanical, ingress, climatic/chemical and electromagnetic. To indicate the severity of each environmental condition, a subscript 1, 2 or 3 is assigned to each:
- “1” means a worst-case environment according to ISO/IEC 11801
- “2” means a worst-case light industrial environment
- “3” means a worst-case industrial environment.
Following are the four industrial areas and their MICE designations:
- Control equipment telecom room – M1I1C1E1
- Factory floor area – M2I2C1E1
- Work area – M1I2C3E2
- Automation island area – M3I3C3E3
The standard also discusses the telecommunications spaces and pathways in an industrial environment, and fire-stopping issues.
Horizontal Cabling
ANSI/TIA-1005-A employs the same horizontal cabling topology as in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B. The recognized horizontal cables are:
- Twisted-pair copper − two-pair or four-pair, 100-ohm balanced
- Optical glass fiber – single mode and multimode
- Optical plastic fiber − plastic polymer or plastic polymer clad silica
The standard includes equations for calculating the maximum cord and link lengths for copper links. It shows how, as the length of horizontal cable decreases, it allows increases in the maximum lengths of (a) 24 AWG work area cable and (b) 24 AWG combined work area cables, patch cords and equipment cable. With 26 AWG patch cords, it shows how as the maximum length of work area cable decreases, so does the maximum combined length of work area cables, patch cords and equipment cable.
Backbone Cabling
ANSI/TIA-1005-A recognizes the following backbone cables:
- Copper − four-pair, 100-ohm balanced
- Optical glass fiber – single mode and multimode
- Optical plastic fiber − plastic polymer or plastic polymer clad silica
Connecting Hardware: Copper
ANSI-TIA-1005-A sets standards for outlets and connectors – eight-position modular, sealed and nonsealed − for telecommunications, automation and alternate automation. The standard also makes recommendations about adapters, grounding and bonding.
Connecting Hardware: Fiber Optic
ANSI-TIA-1005-A sets guidelines regarding outlets and connectors for telecommunications and for optical fiber automation applications, specifically nonsealed LC connectors and sealed fiber optic connectors.
Industrial Cabling Performance Requirements
The direction from ANSI-TIA-1005-A is that Cat6 or higher should be used for channels with more than four copper connections. It includes guidance for using Cat5e and Cat6 industrial cabling. It directs readers to use ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B directives for Cat5e and Cat6 twisted-pair copper.
Standards are also included for using conventional fiber optic cables as well as multiuser telecommunications outlet assemblies (MUTOA) and consolidation point setups.
Other Topics Covered
ANSI-TIA-1005-A concludes with annexes addressing requirements and guidelines for two-pair cabling, using more than four connectors in a channel and extending fiber optic channels. Another annex details the meanings of MICE designations.
Conclusion
Industrial settings are a lot harder on cables, connectors, and equipment than commercial settings are and to address this, ANSI TIA 1005 offers a set of best practices for preventing industrial cabling infrastructure problems and downtime in the future. L-com offers hundreds of industrial connectivity solutions that will help you meet the standards set in ANSI TIA 1005.
