IEC 60793-1-1

®
Edition 4.0 2017-01

INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD

colour
inside

Optical fibres –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures – General and guidance

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION

ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-3864-6

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® Registered trademark of the International Electrotechnical Commission

 –2– IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017

CONTENTS

FOREWORD ........................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 5
1 Scope .............................................................................................................................. 6
2 Normative references ...................................................................................................... 6
3 Terms and definitions ...................................................................................................... 7
4 Rounding rules ................................................................................................................ 7
5 Measurement and test categories .................................................................................... 8
6 Standard atmospheric measurement and test conditions ................................................. 9
7 Calibration guidance ........................................................................................................ 9
8 Reference test methods ................................................................................................... 9
9 Categories of optical fibres .............................................................................................. 9
10 Packaging ....................................................................................................................... 9
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 11

Table 1 – Standard range of atmospheric conditions ............................................................... 9

IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017 –3–

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

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OPTICAL FIBRES –

Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures –

General and guidance

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
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with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
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between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
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services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

International Standard IEC 60793-1-1 has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and
cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.

This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition published in 2008. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:

a) addition of rounding rules in Clause 4;

b) addition of two packaging requirements in Clause 10 d) and e).
 –4– IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

CDV Report on voting

86A/1747/CDV 86A/1774/RVC

Full information on the voting for the approval of this International Standard can be found in
the report on voting indicated in the above table.

This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.

A list of all parts in the IEC 60793 series, published under the general title Optical fibres, can
be found on the IEC website.

The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be

• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual version of this publication may be issued at a later date.

IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct
understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a
colour printer.
IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017 –5–

INTRODUCTION
Publications in the IEC 60793-1 series concern measurement methods and test procedures as
they apply to optical fibres.

Within the same series, several different areas are grouped, as follows:

Parts 1-10 to 1-19: General

Parts 1-20 to 1-29: Measurement methods and test procedures for dimensions
Parts 1-30 to 1-39: Measurement methods and test procedures for mechanical
characteristics
Parts 1-40 to 1-49: Measurement methods and test procedures for transmission and
optical characteristics
Parts 1-50 to 1-59: Measurement methods and test procedures for environmental
characteristics.
 –6– IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017

OPTICAL FIBRES –

Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures –

General and guidance

1 Scope
This part of IEC 60793 lists and gives guidance on the use of documents giving the uniform
requirements for measuring and testing optical fibres, thereby assisting in the inspection of
fibres and cables for commercial (mostly telecommunications) purposes.

The individual measurement and test methods are contained in the different parts of the
IEC 60793 series. They are identified as IEC 60793-1-X, where "X" is an assigned sub-part
number, indicating its affiliation to the IEC 60793-1 series.

In general, measurements and tests methods apply to all class A multimode fibres and
class B and class C single-mode optical fibres covered by IEC 60793-2 (all parts) relating to
product specifications, although there can be exceptions. Clause 1 of each part of the
IEC 60793 series contains the scope for each particular attribute.

2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their
content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition
cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including
any amendments) applies.

IEC 60793-1-20, Optical fibres – Part 1-20: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Fibre geometry

IEC 60793-1-21, Optical fibres – Part 1-21: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Coating geometry

IEC 60793-1-22, Optical fibres – Part 1-22: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Length measurement

IEC 60793-1-30, Optical fibres – Part 1-30: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Fibre proof test

IEC 60793-1-31, Optical fibres – Part 1-31: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Tensile strength

IEC 60793-1-32, Optical fibres – Part 1-32: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Coating strippability

IEC 60793-1-33, Optical fibres – Part 1-33: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Stress corrosion susceptibility

IEC 60793-1-34, Optical fibres – Part 1-34: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Fibre curl

IEC 60793-1-40, Optical fibres – Part 1-40: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Attenuation

IEC 60793-1-41, Optical fibres – Part 1-41: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Bandwidth

IEC 60793-1-42, Optical fibres – Part 1-42: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Chromatic dispersion
IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017 –7–

IEC 60793-1-43, Optical fibres – Part 1-43: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Numerical aperture measurement

IEC 60793-1-44, Optical fibres – Part 1-44: Measurement methods and test procedures – Cut-
off wavelength

IEC 60793-1-45, Optical fibres – Part 1-45: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Mode field diameter

IEC 60793-1-46, Optical fibres – Part 1-46: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Monitoring of changes in optical transmitttance

IEC 60793-1-47, Optical fibres – Part 1-47: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Macrobending loss

IEC 60793-1-48, Optical fibres – Part 1-48: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Polarization mode dispersion

IEC 60793-1-49, Optical fibres – Part 1-49: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Differential mode delay

IEC 60793-1-50, Optical fibres – Part 1-50: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Damp heat (steady state) tests

IEC 60793-1-51, Optical fibres – Part 1-51: Measurement methods and test procedures – Dry
heat (steady state) tests

IEC 60793-1-52, Optical fibres – Part 1-52: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Change of temperature tests

IEC 60793-1-53, Optical fibres – Part 1-53: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Water immersion tests

IEC 60793-1-54 Optical fibres – Part 1-54: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Gamma irradiation

IEC 60793-2, Optical fibres – Product specifications – General

IEC TR 61931:1998, Fibre optic – Terminology

3 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in IEC TR 61931 apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:

• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/

• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp

4 Rounding rules
All reported test results shall follow the conventional rounding rule 1 of "rounding half away
from zero", when the results recorded display more than the significant number of digits
required in the acceptance criteria. Only the first digit beyond the number of significant digits
is used in determining the rounding.
EXAMPLE 1 Against a requirement of 0,22 dB/km maximum attenuation, values up to 0,224 dB/km conform,
whilst values of 0,225 dB/km and above are failures.

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1 Please see Annex B, Rule B of ISO 80000-1:2009.