The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-42.1 Engineering Committee on Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling has issued a call for interest for document TIA-942-B initially titled "Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers."

The TIA-942 standard specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms, including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology specified in standards is intended to be scalable to any size data center.

The revision of the data center cabling standard keeps pace with technology changes, including continued improvements in energy efficiency, higher bandwidth and systems. The standard serves as a critical tool to evaluate existing data centers and communicate design requirements for new data centers. These include cabling, facility and network design elements.

“The ever-evolving Internet of Things (IoT), technologies and topologies — combined with a wider focus on thermal management, energy efficiency, speed and power — will be accommodated in the upcoming revision of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers, which will be updated in conjunction with the changing landscape,” said Henry Franc, TR-42.1 Chair. “There is an incredibly fast pace of technology change and growth that positively impacts our way of life, personally, professionally, and socially — and the key is data. This standard will continually mature as a mechanism and process to quickly and efficiently deliver that data.”

The stakeholders may include, but are not limited to: telecommunications, data center operators/owners and designers, project managers, certified internal and external auditors, certified design consultants, architects, engineering firms, end users and manufacturers.

TIA is actively seeking participation in these projects from the user and general interest communities.

For more information about TR-42 and how to participate in standards development with TIA, contact Germaine Palangdao at standards@tiaonline.org.