IEC TR 62362:2010

Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to mechanical, ingress, climatic or electromagnetic characteristics - Guidance

IEC/TR 62362:2010(E) provides information on the specification of optical fibre cables with respect to the mechanical, ingress, climatic or electromagnetic characteristics (MICE) as classified within ISO/IEC 24702.
This publication contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its contents.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 18-May-2010
• ICS: 33.180.10 - Fibres and cables
• Technical Committee: SC 86A - Fibres and cables
• Current Stage: DELPUB - Deleted Publication
• Start Date: 14-Sep-2020
• Completion Date: 07-Dec-2018

Relations

• Revised: IEC TR 62362:2020 - Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to mechanical, ingress, climatic or electromagnetic characteristics - Guidance
• Effective Date: 05-Sep-2023

Overview - IEC TR 62362:2010 (Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to MICE)

IEC TR 62362:2010 is a technical report from the IEC that provides guidance for selecting optical fibre cable specifications relative to Mechanical, Ingress, Climatic and Electromagnetic (MICE) characteristics as classified in ISO/IEC 24702. It is a guidance document (not a product standard) that maps typical MICE severity levels (M1, M2, M3) - from office premises to light industrial and worst‑case industrial environments - to relevant cable attributes and test options.

Key topics and technical requirements

The report discusses MICE attributes and the practical test options in IEC cable standards (IEC 60794 series) and fibre standards (IEC 60793 series). Key technical topics include:

• MICE severity levels: three severity levels (M1I1C1E1 → M3I3C3E3) tied to installation environments (e.g., ISO/IEC 11801 office premises vs. industrial sites).
• Mechanical: shock/bump (not a primary concern), vibration (generally robust), tensile force (rated tensile for outdoor cables; fibre strain limits tied to proof test), crush (plate‑to‑plate test; typical indoor 500 N; unarmoured outdoor ~1 500–3 000 N; armoured 2 200–10 000 N), impact (indoor ~1 J with 12.5 mm radius; outdoor options include 10 J/300 mm or 3 J/10 mm), bending/flexing/torsion (bending diameters typically ~20× cable diameter; torsion tests vary with length, load and cycles).
• Ingress: cable construction (slotted core, loose tube, tight‑buffered; filled vs unfilled) affects particulate and water ingress. Particulate ingress is generally not an issue for optical fibre cables. Water immersion tests use a pressure equivalent to 1 m water applied at/near one end of a short cable sample (see full text for exact sample length and procedure).
• Climatic & Electromagnetic: ambient temperature ranges, humidity, solar radiation and gaseous/liquid pollution resistance are covered conceptually, with tables and options for different severities.

Note: IEC TR 62362 provides guidance and references; for normative test procedures and exact limits consult the cited standards (IEC 60794‑1‑2, IEC 60794‑2, IEC 60794‑3, IEC 60793, ISO/IEC 24702, ISO/IEC 11801).

Practical applications - who uses this standard

• Cable specifiers and procurement teams selecting cables for offices, industrial premises, outdoor plant or mixed environments.
• System integrators and network designers aligning cable choices with environmental risks (MICE).
• Test laboratories and manufacturers referencing applicable tests and performance classes from IEC 60794 series.
• Facilities and industrial engineers planning resilient premises cabling under climatic, mechanical or contamination stresses.

Related standards and references

• IEC 60794 series (optical fibre cable tests/specifications)
• IEC 60793 series (optical fibre specifications and tests)
• ISO/IEC 24702 (generic cabling - industrial premises)
• ISO/IEC 11801 (generic cabling for customer premises)

IEC TR 62362 is a practical guide to match cable construction and test options to environmental severity levels (MICE), helping ensure reliable optical fibre performance in real‑world installations.

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC/TR 62362 ®
Edition 1.0 2010-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to mechanical, ingress,
climatic or electromagnetic characteristics – Guidance

IEC/TR 62362:2010(E)
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.

Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite
ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie
et les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de la CEI ou du Comité national de la CEI du pays du demandeur.

Si vous avez des questions sur le copyright de la CEI ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette

publication, utilisez les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de la CEI de votre pays de résidence.

IEC Central Office
3, rue de Varembé
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Email: [e-mail]
Web: www.iec.ch
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 corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.
ƒ Catalogue of IEC publications: www.iec.ch/searchpub
The IEC on-line Catalogue enables you to search by a variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical committee,…).
It also gives information on projects, withdrawn and replaced publications.
ƒ IEC Just Published: www.iec.ch/online_news/justpub
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published details twice a month all new publications released. Available
on-line and also by email.
ƒ Electropedia: www.electropedia.org
The world's leading online dictionary of electronic and electrical terms containing more than 20 000 terms and definitions
in English and French, with equivalent terms in additional languages. Also known as the International Electrotechnical
Vocabulary online.
ƒ Customer Service Centre: www.iec.ch/webstore/custserv
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need further assistance, please visit the Customer Service
Centre FAQ or contact us:
Email: [e-mail]
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
IEC/TR 62362 ®
Edition 1.0 2010-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to mechanical, ingress,
climatic or electromagnetic characteristics – Guidance

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
R
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-88910-941-8
– 2 – TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.3

INTRODUCTION.5

1 Scope.6

2 Normative references .6

3 Acronyms .6

4 MICE attributes and severities.6

4.1 General .6

4.2 Mechanical.7
4.2.1 Shock/bump .7
4.2.2 Vibration.7
4.2.3 Tensile force.7
4.2.4 Crush .7
4.2.5 Impact .7
4.2.6 Bending, flexing and torsion .7
4.3 Ingress .7
4.3.1 Basic consideration .7
4.3.2 Particulate ingress.7
4.3.3 Water immersion .8
4.4 Climatic .8
4.4.1 General .8
4.4.2 Ambient temperature .8
4.4.3 Rate of change of temperature .8
4.4.4 Humidity .8
4.4.5 Solar radiation .8
4.4.6 Liquid pollution .9
4.4.7 Gaseous pollution.9
4.5 Electromagnetic .10
Annex A (informative) Details of MICE classification .11
Annex B (informative) IEC cable standards .13
Annex C (informative) Fibre specifications and tests.15
Bibliography.18

Table 1 – Resistance to solar radiation .
Table 2 – Liquid pollution.9
Table 3 – Gaseous pollution resistance .10
Table 4 – Gaseous pollution resistance .10
Table A.1 – Details of MICE classification (Mechanical) .11
Table A.2 – Details of MICE classification (Ingress) .11
Table A.3 – Details of MICE classification (Chemical) .11
Table A.4 – Details of MICE classification (Gas) .12
Table A.5 – Details of MICE classification (Electromagnetic) .12

TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________
SELECTION OF OPTICAL FIBRE CABLE

SPECIFICATIONS RELATIVE TO MECHANICAL, INGRESS,

CLIMATIC OR ELECTROMAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS – 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,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
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.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
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.
The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. However, a

technical committee may propose the publication of a technical report when it has collected
data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard, for
example "state of the art".
IEC 62362 which is a technical report, has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and
cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
86A/1297/DTR 86A/1302/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical report can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.

– 4 – TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E)
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.

The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until

the stability date indicated on the IEC web site under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data

related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication 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.
TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E) – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
Optical fibre cable specification standards are defined in the IEC 60794 series, which are

listed in Annex B. They are organized in a hierarchy similar to the IECQ system. They differ

from the IECQ system in that they are all performance standards. Optical fibre cable

standards mainly cover the attributes and tests that protect the fibre from the environment,

including installation, and the fibre attributes that may be affected by cabling. The attributes of

the fibres within the cable are defined by reference to optical fibre specification standards of

the IEC 60793 series, which are listed in Annex C. A complete and up-to-date listing of

standards in the IEC 60793 and IEC 60794 series is available on website of the IEC:

http://www.iec.ch.
The different levels of hierarchy are: general, sectional, family, and product. The primary
distinction between these is the level of detail. Typically more options or wider ranges are
present at the higher level. At a given level, the distinctions are with respect to application or
cable construction. The references section of this document gives a more complete mapping.
Parts of the family specification include blank detail specifications for various attributes that
do not have normative requirements.
At the sectional specification level, two main categories are indoor and outdoor cables.
Typically the outdoor cables have tougher tests than the indoor cables. At the product
specification level, there are series of standards intended to support ISO/IEC 11801 for
premises cabling, using both indoor and outdoor varieties.
This guidance will not attempt to reproduce the requirements of all the different specifications.
For each of the MICE attributes, it will discuss the situation and mention the key options.

– 6 – TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E)
SELECTION OF OPTICAL FIBRE CABLE

SPECIFICATIONS RELATIVE TO MECHANICAL, INGRESS,

CLIMATIC OR ELECTROMAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS – GUIDANCE

1 Scope
The purpose of this guidance is to provide information on the specification of optical fibre

cables with respect to the mechanical, ingress, climatic or electromagnetic characteristics
(MICE) as classified within ISO/IEC 24702.
In this classification system each letter of the four initials of the acronym are subscripted with
a value of from one to three to indicate different severities. The current attributes and
severities are found in Annex A.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application 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 60794-1-2, Optical fibre cables – Part 1-2: Generic specification – Basic optical cable test
procedures
IEC 60794-2 (all parts), Optical fibre cables – Part 2: Indoor optical fibre cables
IEC 60794-3 (all parts), Optical fibre cables – Part 3: Outdoor cables
ISO/IEC 24702, Information technology – Generic cabling – Industrial premises
ISO/IEC 11801, Information technology – Generic cabling for customer premises
3 Acronyms
MICE Mechanical, ingress, climatic and chemical, electromagnetic

4 MICE attributes and severities
4.1 General
The MICE classification system has three levels of severity:
– the first level of severity (M1I1C1E1) describes a typical environment such as that assumed
within ISO/IEC 11801; (i.e. office premises etc.);
– the second level of severity (M2I2C2E2) describes a worst-case light industrial environment;
– the third level of severity (M3I3C3E3) describes a worst-case industrial environment.
See Annex A for a more detailed description of the MICE severity levels.

TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E) – 7 –
4.2 Mechanical
4.2.1 Shock/bump
Shock and bump are not specified for optical fibre cables. They are inherently robust in this
respect. A more important attribute is bending.

4.2.2 Vibration
Vibration in the industrial premises (as opposed to wind induced vibration on aerially deployed

cables) is not specified for optical fibre cables. They are inherently robust in this respect.

4.2.3 Tensile force
For outdoor premises cables specified in IEC 60794-3 series, manufacturers specify a rated
tensile force. The requirement is that the fibre shall not exceed a percentage of the proof test
strain (to be agreed between customer and supplier) when the cable is tested at the rated
load.
For indoor cables, the different family specifications of IEC 60794-2 series have different
requirements on the tensile load.
4.2.4 Crush
For optical fibre cables, the crushing force is applied in a plate to plate test.
For indoor cables, crush is specified at 500 N. For outdoor cables, different levels are
specified depending on whether the cable is armoured or not. For unarmoured cable, values
of between 1 500 N and 3 000 N may be specified. For armoured cable, values between
2 200 N and 10 000 N may be specified.
4.2.5 Impact
For indoor cables a value of 1 J with a 12,5 mm radius is specified. For un-armoured outdoor
cables, a value of either 10 J with a 300 mm radius or 3 J with a 10 mm radius is specified.
4.2.6 Bending, flexing and torsion
All the family specifications have requirements on these attributes.
For bending, there are multiple tests such as bending under tension, repeated bending and
simple bending. The bending diameter is typically 20 times the cable diameter.

For torsion, the test length, load, and number of turns varies depending on the family
specification. For indoor ca
...

IEC/TR 62362 ®
Edition 1.0 2010-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to mechanical, ingress,
climatic or electromagnetic characteristics – Guidance

IEC/TR 62362:2010(E)
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.

Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite
ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie
et les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de la CEI ou du Comité national de la CEI du pays du demandeur.
Si vous avez des questions sur le copyright de la CEI ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette
publication, utilisez les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de la CEI de votre pays de résidence.

IEC Central Office
3, rue de Varembé
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Email: [e-mail]
Web: www.iec.ch
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 corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.
ƒ Catalogue of IEC publications: www.iec.ch/searchpub
The IEC on-line Catalogue enables you to search by a variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical committee,…).
It also gives information on projects, withdrawn and replaced publications.
ƒ IEC Just Published: www.iec.ch/online_news/justpub
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published details twice a month all new publications released. Available
on-line and also by email.
ƒ Electropedia: www.electropedia.org
The world's leading online dictionary of electronic and electrical terms containing more than 20 000 terms and definitions
in English and French, with equivalent terms in additional languages. Also known as the International Electrotechnical
Vocabulary online.
ƒ Customer Service Centre: www.iec.ch/webstore/custserv
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need further assistance, please visit the Customer Service
Centre FAQ or contact us:
Email: [e-mail]
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
IEC/TR 62362 ®
Edition 1.0 2010-05
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Selection of optical fibre cable specifications relative to mechanical, ingress,
climatic or electromagnetic characteristics – Guidance

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
R
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-88910-941-8
– 2 – TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.3
INTRODUCTION.5
1 Scope.6
2 Normative references .6
3 Acronyms .6
4 MICE attributes and severities.6
4.1 General .6
4.2 Mechanical.7
4.2.1 Shock/bump .7
4.2.2 Vibration.7
4.2.3 Tensile force.7
4.2.4 Crush .7
4.2.5 Impact .7
4.2.6 Bending, flexing and torsion .7
4.3 Ingress .7
4.3.1 Basic consideration .7
4.3.2 Particulate ingress.7
4.3.3 Water immersion .8
4.4 Climatic .8
4.4.1 General .8
4.4.2 Ambient temperature .8
4.4.3 Rate of change of temperature .8
4.4.4 Humidity .8
4.4.5 Solar radiation .8
4.4.6 Liquid pollution .9
4.4.7 Gaseous pollution.9
4.5 Electromagnetic .10
Annex A (informative) Details of MICE classification .11
Annex B (informative) IEC cable standards .13
Annex C (informative) Fibre specifications and tests.15
Bibliography.18

Table 1 – Resistance to solar radiation .
Table 2 – Liquid pollution.9
Table 3 – Gaseous pollution resistance .10
Table 4 – Gaseous pollution resistance .10
Table A.1 – Details of MICE classification (Mechanical) .11
Table A.2 – Details of MICE classification (Ingress) .11
Table A.3 – Details of MICE classification (Chemical) .11
Table A.4 – Details of MICE classification (Gas) .12
Table A.5 – Details of MICE classification (Electromagnetic) .12

TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
SELECTION OF OPTICAL FIBRE CABLE
SPECIFICATIONS RELATIVE TO MECHANICAL, INGRESS,
CLIMATIC OR ELECTROMAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS – 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,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
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.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
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.
The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. However, a
technical committee may propose the publication of a technical report when it has collected
data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard, for
example "state of the art".
IEC 62362 which is a technical report, has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and
cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
86A/1297/DTR 86A/1302/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical report can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.

– 4 – TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E)
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until
the stability date indicated on the IEC web site under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data
related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication 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.
TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E) – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
Optical fibre cable specification standards are defined in the IEC 60794 series, which are
listed in Annex B. They are organized in a hierarchy similar to the IECQ system. They differ
from the IECQ system in that they are all performance standards. Optical fibre cable
standards mainly cover the attributes and tests that protect the fibre from the environment,
including installation, and the fibre attributes that may be affected by cabling. The attributes of
the fibres within the cable are defined by reference to optical fibre specification standards of
the IEC 60793 series, which are listed in Annex C. A complete and up-to-date listing of
standards in the IEC 60793 and IEC 60794 series is available on website of the IEC:
http://www.iec.ch.
The different levels of hierarchy are: general, sectional, family, and product. The primary
distinction between these is the level of detail. Typically more options or wider ranges are
present at the higher level. At a given level, the distinctions are with respect to application or
cable construction. The references section of this document gives a more complete mapping.
Parts of the family specification include blank detail specifications for various attributes that
do not have normative requirements.
At the sectional specification level, two main categories are indoor and outdoor cables.
Typically the outdoor cables have tougher tests than the indoor cables. At the product
specification level, there are series of standards intended to support ISO/IEC 11801 for
premises cabling, using both indoor and outdoor varieties.
This guidance will not attempt to reproduce the requirements of all the different specifications.
For each of the MICE attributes, it will discuss the situation and mention the key options.

– 6 – TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E)
SELECTION OF OPTICAL FIBRE CABLE
SPECIFICATIONS RELATIVE TO MECHANICAL, INGRESS,
CLIMATIC OR ELECTROMAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS – GUIDANCE

1 Scope
The purpose of this guidance is to provide information on the specification of optical fibre
cables with respect to the mechanical, ingress, climatic or electromagnetic characteristics
(MICE) as classified within ISO/IEC 24702.
In this classification system each letter of the four initials of the acronym are subscripted with
a value of from one to three to indicate different severities. The current attributes and
severities are found in Annex A.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application 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 60794-1-2, Optical fibre cables – Part 1-2: Generic specification – Basic optical cable test
procedures
IEC 60794-2 (all parts), Optical fibre cables – Part 2: Indoor optical fibre cables
IEC 60794-3 (all parts), Optical fibre cables – Part 3: Outdoor cables
ISO/IEC 24702, Information technology – Generic cabling – Industrial premises
ISO/IEC 11801, Information technology – Generic cabling for customer premises
3 Acronyms
MICE Mechanical, ingress, climatic and chemical, electromagnetic
4 MICE attributes and severities
4.1 General
The MICE classification system has three levels of severity:
– the first level of severity (M1I1C1E1) describes a typical environment such as that assumed
within ISO/IEC 11801; (i.e. office premises etc.);
– the second level of severity (M2I2C2E2) describes a worst-case light industrial environment;
– the third level of severity (M3I3C3E3) describes a worst-case industrial environment.
See Annex A for a more detailed description of the MICE severity levels.

TR 62362 © IEC:2010(E) – 7 –
4.2 Mechanical
4.2.1 Shock/bump
Shock and bump are not specified for optical fibre cables. They are inherently robust in this
respect. A more important attribute is bending.
4.2.2 Vibration
Vibration in the industrial premises (as opposed to wind induced vibration on aerially deployed
cables) is not specified for optical fibre cables. They are inherently robust in this respect.
4.2.3 Tensile force
For outdoor premises cables specified in IEC 60794-3 series, manufacturers specify a rated
tensile force. The requirement is that the fibre shall not exceed a percentage of the proof test
strain (to be agreed between customer and supplier) when the cable is tested at the rated
load.
For indoor cables, the different family specifications of IEC 60794-2 series have different
requirements on the tensile load.
4.2.4 Crush
For optical fibre cables, the crushing force is applied in a plate to plate test.
For indoor cables, crush is specified at 500 N. For outdoor cables, different levels are
specified depending on whether the cable is armoured or not. For unarmoured cable, values
of between 1 500 N and 3 000 N may be specified. For armoured cable, values between
2 200 N and 10 000 N may be specified.
4.2.5 Impact
For indoor cables a value of 1 J with a 12,5 mm radius is specified. For un-armoured outdoor
cables, a value of either 10 J with a 300 mm radius or 3 J with a 10 mm radius is specified.
4.2.6 Bending, flexing and torsion
All the family specifications have requirements on these attributes.
For bending, there are multiple tests such as bending under tension, repeated bending and
simple bending. The bending diameter is typically 20 times the cable diameter.
For torsion, the test length, load, and number of turns varies depending on the family
s
...