IEC TR 63194:2019

Guidance on colour coding of optical fibre cables

IEC TR 63194:2019 which is a Technical Report, examines the need for and intent of colour coding of optical fibre cables. Further, this document lists the major colour codes in various regions throughout the world. Noting that decades of discussion of a universal recommended colour coding scheme has failed to bring about an agreement, this document does not intend to promote any listed colour code above any other. This document includes regional information on the colour coding of units when different from the fibre code, and of jackets to convey information about the types of fibres within, or the types of performance expected. It also includes information on colours beyond the basic 12 set out in IEC 60304. This document is not a normative document, but, rather, a guide to the subject of colour coding of cables.
Keywords: colour coding of optical fibre cables

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 29-Jan-2019
• ICS: 01 - GENERALITIES. TERMINOLOGY. STANDARDIZATION. DOCUMENTATION
• ICS: 33.180.10 - Fibres and cables
• Technical Committee: SC 86A - Fibres and cables
• Current Stage: PPUB - Publication issued
• Start Date: 06-Mar-2019
• Completion Date: 30-Jan-2019

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC TR 63194 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-01
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Guidance on colour coding of optical fibre cables

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Central Office Tel.: [phone]
3, rue de Varembé [e-mail]
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
once a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or CISPR.

need further assistance, please contact the Customer Service

Centre: [e-mail].
IEC TR 63194 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-01
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Guidance on colour coding of optical fibre cables

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-6517-8

– 2 – IEC TR 63194:2019 © IEC 2019
CONTENTS
CONTENTS . 2
FOREWORD . 5
INTRODUCTION . 7
0.1 General . 7
0.2 Background in other documents . 7
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms and definitions . 8
4 Rationale . 8
5 Fibre colour coding . 9
5.1 Intent . 9
5.2 Historic IEC 60794-2 colour code (for guidance) . 9
5.3 Colour coding for fibres 13 through 16 . 10
5.4 Other coding schemes . 10
6 Unit and group coding. 10
6.1 Unit coding . 10
6.2 Group coding . 11
6.3 Coding of tubes in composite cables, IEC 60794-2 . 11
6.4 Other coding schemes . 11
7 Jacket colour coding . 11
7.1 General . 11
7.2 IEC 60794-2 jacket colour code . 12
7.2.1 Historic IEC jacket colour code . 12
7.2.2 Current IEC jacket colour code . 12
7.3 Jacket coding by striping . 13
7.4 Other jacket colour code . 13
8 Guidance on the measurement of colour . 13
8.1 General . 13
8.2 Preparation of specimens for colour measurement . 13
8.3 Specification of colour . 13
Annex A (informative) German colour code . 14
A.1 Fibre colour coding . 14
A.2 German counting code for tubes stranded in a layer . 14
A.3 Jacket colour coding . 15
Annex B (informative) North-American colour code . 16
B.1 Fibre colour coding . 16
B.2 Unit coding . 19
B.3 Jacket colour coding . 19
Annex C (informative) Swedish colour code S12 . 21
C.1 Fibre colour coding S12 . 21
C.2 Unit coding scheme S12 . 21
C.2.1 General . 21
C.2.2 Sequence for individual fibres within a tube/fibre-unit/bundle and for
individual tubes/fibre-units/yarns, etc. . 21
C.2.3 Sequence for tubes stranded around a central part . 21
C.3 Jacket colour coding . 22

Annex D (informative) Swiss colour code . 23
D.1 Fibre colour coding . 23
D.2 Unit coding . 24
D.3 Jacket colour coding . 24
Annex E (informative) Chinese colour code . 26
E.1 Fibre colour coding . 26
E.2 Unit coding . 27
E.3 Jacket colour coding . 29
Annex F (informative) Japanese colour code . 30
F.1 Fibre colour coding . 30
F.2 Unit coding by identification strip . 31
F.3 Jacket colour coding of multi-fibre indoor cable . 32
Annex G (informative) Brazilian colour code . 33
G.1 Fibre colour coding . 33
G.2 Unit colour coding of buffer tubes . 33
G.3 Jacket colour coding . 33
Bibliography . 34

Figure C.1 – Sequence of tubes by position . 22
Figure D.1 – Example of an 18-way stranded loose tube cable . 24
Figure D.2 – Example of an outdoor cable, black with orange stripes . 25
Figure E.1 – Sequence of tubes by position . 27
Figure E.2 – Example of a 24-tube stranded loose tube cable . 28
Figure E.3 – Example of T Mark Colour Code . 29
Figure F.1 – Colour coding scheme based on optical fibre ribbon. 30
Figure F.2 – Identification strip to bundle several optical fibre ribbons . 31
Figure F.3 – Overview of high-count indoor cable . 32

Table 1 – Colour coding sequence for individual fibres or buffers . 10
Table 2 – Colours for individual fibres, buffers, or other elements 13 through 16. 10
Table 3 – Colour coding scheme for tubes in hybrid or composite cables . 11
Table 4 – Colour coding of cable outer sheaths . 12
Table 5 – Colour coding of cable outer sheaths by fibre type . 12
Table 6 – Example of centroid values for base colours in Munsell and R*a*L systems . 13
Table A.1 – Colour coding sequence for individual fibres . 14
Table A.2 – Counting code and colours from the German specification . 15
Table B.1 – Individual fibre, unit, and group identification for up to 12 elements in a set . 16
Table B.2 - Individual fiber, unit, and group identification for up to 16 elements in a set . 18
Table B.3 – Sample identification markings . 19
Table B.4 – North American preferred coding scheme for indoor cable jackets . 20
Table C.1 – Sequence for individual fibres within a tube/fibre-unit/bundle and for
individual tubes/fibre-units/yarns, etc. . 21
Table D.1 – Colour coding sequence for individual fibres or buffers in mini-breakout
cables . 23
Table D.2 – Colour coding for buffered fibres in simplex, duplex or breakout cables . 24

– 4 – IEC TR 63194:2019 © IEC 2019
Table D.3 – Colour coding and sequence for loose tubes stranded around a central part . 24
Table D.4 – Colour coding for sub-cables and outer sheaths of indoor cables . 25
Table D.5 – Colour for outer sheaths of outdoor cables . 25
Table E.1 – Colour coding for individual fibres . 26
Table E.2 – Colour coding for fibre counts up to 24 . 26
Table E.3 – Colour coding for loose tubes up to 12 . 27
Table E.4 – Colour coding for loose tubes up to 24 . 28
Table E.5 – Chinese colour coding scheme for indoor cable jackets. 29
Table F.1 – J
...