From the July, 2014 Issue of Cabling Installation & Maintenance Magazine
Just before we went to publication with this issue, I received a piece of news from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) that puts a punctuation mark on one of the articles published in our last issue. In our June issue the article titled "TIA security standard to cover broad ground," (page 29) told of the efforts being made by the TR-42's Network Security Task Group.
As of June 18, the group's working document has a name and a number; on that date the TIA issued a call for interest for ANSI/TIA-5017, which has the initial title "Telecommunications Physical Network Security Standard."
As the TIA explained in its call for interest, "This document covers the security of telecom cables, pathways, spaces and other elements of the physical infrastructure. It includes design guidelines, installation practices, administration and management. It addresses guidelines for new construction as well as renovation of existing buildings. The document also provides installation guidelines, for implementing security cabling systems for premise security systems with an integrated security approach."
Some of the material I gathered for that article was left on the proverbial cutting-room floor, because the 2.5 pages worth of space I gave myself for it in our June issue prohibited me from going into greater detail on some aspects of what will be ANSI/TIA-5017. Thankfully, another announcement the TIA made that same day, June 18, did a better job than I could have done anyway. It was another call for interest, this time for Addendum 1 to TIA's 606-B Administration Standard. The tentative name for the addendum is "Automated Infrastructure Management Systems." Although this document will be separate from the 5017 standard, their intentions dovetail.
The TIA explained, "The purpose of this addendum is to update the core functions, auxiliary functions, and usage recommendations for automated infrastructure management (AIM) systems specified in TIA-606-B to harmonize with ISO/IEC 14763-2-1." The association noted that stakeholders for this document will include all users and manufacturers of telecommunications cabling systems. In my experience, the TIA carefully chooses the professions and disciplines it includes in its "stakeholders" statement. The idea that this forthcoming AIM document is relevant to the entire industry speaks to its ultimate reach.
Please stay tuned. We will continue to report on these and other standards activities of the TIA. ::
PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
Chief Editor
[email protected]
