The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has just released an addendum to the ANSI/TIA-942-B Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers -- the standard used by information and communications technology (ICT) professionals globally to design, implement, and verify data center infrastructure.
The standard addendum defines initial infrastructure requirements and design guidelines for edge data centers, also referred to as “micro” data centers.
As noted by the standards committee, edge data centers are often housed in pre-manufactured enclosures and can be monitored and controlled remotely. They are widely viewed as critical to the success of next generation applications which will demand ultra-low latency, such as autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, and telehealth.
The new Addendum, ANSI/TIA-942-B-1 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Edge Data Centers, provides new infrastructure requirements and design guidelines for smaller edge data centers that are deployed at the edge of networks, which is closer in proximity to application end users.
“Data centers are a critical component of the world’s digital infrastructure that connects our everyday lives,” said Tom McGarry, vice president of standards at TIA. “The TIA-942 standard helps ensure that as data centers evolve, they also become more resilient and thereby, more reliable for optimized performance and service delivery. With the new addendum, data center owners can apply the same globally trusted industry standard to new edge data centers that will be instrumental to meeting low-latency requirements of 5G and 6G applications and services.”
Standard revision awaits
Additionally, TIA’s TR-42 Standards Committee has officially opened the full TIA-942-B standard for updates and revisions from industry for the first time since 2017.
The ANSI/TIA-942-B standard defines the design requirements for data center architecture, cabling, ventilation, cooling, power systems, security, monitoring/control, resiliency, safety, and management systems.
TIA said in a statement that in 2022, "this standard will undergo its first full and open revision, which occurs every five years to ensure the resiliency and security of these critical facilities as they evolve."
In addition to the addendum, the TIA-942-B revisioning period has opened and gives industry stakeholders, including data center users, owners, designers, builders, installers, auditors, and others the opportunity to help update the standard to support the next generation of data centers.
TIA invites all parties who are interested in contributing to the next version of the standard, ANSI/TIA-942-C, to contact TIA at [email protected].