National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 50173‑10:2025.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee TCT/7/2, Telecommunications; Installation requirements: Cabling installation and UK implementation.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 June 2025.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 2 May 2025. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 50173‑10:2025) has been prepared by CLC/TC 215 “Electrotechnical aspects of telecommunication equipment”.

The following dates are fixed:

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Introduction

This document contains general requirements for generic 1-pair balanced cabling and supports the generic cabling approach of EN 50173‑1.

It contains a compilation of balanced single pair channel requirements for 100 m reach and beyond together with the supporting cable and connecting hardware requirements based on:

IEC 61156 series (ffs);
EN IEC 63171 series.

For the mentioned balanced single pair channels remote power supply services are specified.

Balanced single pair channels and links specified in this document are not a replacement for the generic 4-pair channels in EN 50173‑1. They are an additional media type intended for use in industrial automation networks (e.g. for sensors, actuators and controllers) and “intelligent buildings”.

1 Scope

This document specifies 1-pair cabling and can be used in conjunction with all the space-specific standards of the EN 50173 series but especially EN 50173‑3 and EN 50173‑6.

NOTE 1-pair cabling for EN 50173‑2, EN 50173‑4 and EN 50173‑5 is for further study.

It delivers 1-pair cabling specifications to extend generic cabling systems according to the EN 50173 series.

This document specifies the:

structure and minimum configuration for extension of generic cabling by 1-pair cabling;
interfaces at the service outlet (SO/TO);
performance requirements for cabling links and channels;
implementation requirements and options;
performance requirements for cabling components;
conformance requirements and verification procedures.

This document takes into account the requirements specified in application standards listed in Annex C.

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations

3.1 Terms and definitions

3.2 Abbreviations

3.3 Symbols

4 Structure of 1-pair cabling

4.1 General

4.2 Functional elements

4.3 Structure and hierarchy

4.4 Channels

4.5 Equipment interfaces and test interfaces

5 Channel performance

5.1 Environmental performance

5.2 Transmission performance

6 Balanced single-pair cabling link performance

6.1 General

6.2 Return loss

6.3 Insertion loss/attenuation

6.4 Direct current (DC) loop resistance

6.5 Direct current (DC) resistance unbalance

6.6 Propagation delay

6.7 Unbalance attenuation and coupling attenuation

6.8 Alien crosstalk

7 Cable Sharing

8 Reference implementations for 1-pair cabling

8.1 General

8.2 Component choice

8.3 Dimensions

9 Cable requirements

9.1 General

9.2 Operating environment

9.3 Balanced cables - Basic performance requirements

10 Connecting hardware requirements

10.1 General requirements

10.2 Connecting hardware

10.3 Performance marking

11 Requirements for cords and jumpers

11.1 General

11.2 Identification

11.3 Operating requirement

11.4 Return Loss

Bibliography

BS EN 50173-10:2025

Information technology. Generic cabling systems - Single pair cabling

Current

Published:

30 Jun 2025