The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-42.1 Engineering Committee recently issued a call for interest for the standard titled TIA-942-B, whose initial working title is Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers. As an ANSI-accredited standard-development organization, TIA revises its standards on a five-year cycle. In that five-year time frame, standards can be reaffirmed, revised, or withdrawn. The TIA-942-A standard was published in 2012.
In its call for interest, the TIA said that the 942 set of standards “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 association further explained that this particular revision effort—which ultimately will result in the publication of TIA-942-B—“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.”
Henry Franc, chair of the TIA TR-42.1 Committee, commented, “The ever-evolving Internet of Things, 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. There is an incredible fast pace of technology change and growth that positively impacts our way of life, personally, professionally, and socially—the key is data. This standard will continually mature as a mechanism and process to quickly and efficiently deliver that data.”
In its call for interest, the TIA noted that stakeholders may include, but not be limited to, data center operators/owners and designers, project managers, certified internal and external auditors, certified design consultants, architects, engineering firms, end users and manufacturers. The association said it is actively seeking participation in the revision project from the user and general-interest communities.
Anyone interested in participating can reach the TIA’s Germaine Palangdao via email at [email protected].