I hear people mention ATT568A, 568B etc.. What does this mean?

a. The Telecommunications Industries Association and Electronics Industries Association (TIA/EIA) issued the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568A, A Commercial Building Telecommunications Wiring Standard in the fourth quarter of 1995. This standard specifies a generic Telecommunication cabling system for commercial buildings that will support a multi-product, multi-vendor environment.

This standard establishes performance and technical criteria for various cabling system configurations for interfacing and connecting their respective elements. The elements included are the wire in the wall, the termination hardware and the patch cords as a part of the overall channel between the Wiring closet and the work area.

The specification does not specifically prescribe a certification process for patch cords. CSP has developed a full line of connecting hardware that support the EIA/TIA-5678A standard for structured wiring systems.

b. TIA/EIA-568-B is a set of three standards that address commercial building cabling for telecommunications products and services. The three standards are formally titled ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.1-2001, -B.2-2001, and -B.3-2001).

c. The TIA/EIA-568-B standards were first published in 2001. They supersede the TIA/EIA-568-A standards set, which are now obsolete.

d. Perhaps the best known feature of TIA/EIA-568-B.1-2001 are the pin/pair assignments for eight-conductor 100-ohm balanced twisted pair cabling. These assignments are named T568A and T568B, and are frequently referred to (erroneously) as TIA/EIA-568A and TIA/EIA-568B.