The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has issued a call for interest on behalf of its TR-42.7 Engineering Committee on Telecommunications Copper Cabling Systems (568) to form a task group to develop a new TSB document. Initially titled "High Performance Structured Cabling (HPSC) Applications," the new TSB document will provide usage details for deploying Category 8 structured cabling in data centers and other premises environments that will have a need for data rates greater than 10 Gbits/sec.
The scope of the newly formed task group is to identify, analyze, and recommend use cases (e.g. switch fabric architectures, end-of row, and top-of-rack) for HPSC application environments. These use cases can then be incorporated into data center or premise designs including equipment rooms (ER), server rooms, laboratories, and high bandwidth technology spaces. The information in the new TSB document will be available for use by professionals when designing networks and facilities for high speed applications, including 40GBASE-T, which TIA notes is currently under development as IEEE P802.3bq.
Related: TIA's great Category 8 debate and ISO/IEC's cabling update
TIA is actively seeking participation in these projects from the user and general interest communities. Stakeholders in the new task group may include, but are not limited to: cable manufacturers; IT professionals; datacom equipment designers; datacom equipment manufacturers; PHY suppliers (Silicon); and cabling system designers and installers.
TIA contends that, since its inception in the early 1990s, twisted-pair Ethernet or BASE-T has provided end-users and designers of high speed computing networks with the most widely adopted physical interconnect technology ever developed. "The combination of twisted-pair Ethernet’s low-cost, high availability, structured topology, common physical interface, and auto negotiation capabilities makes it an attractive option for the transmission of data and low voltage power in office and data center application environments, when compared to other available interconnect technologies," states TIA. "As twisted-pair Ethernet continues to evolve with increased data rates and improved performance, users of this technology will have a migration strategy for their computing networks that provides a high degree of flexibility and longevity."
For more information about TR-42 and how to participate in standards development with TIA, contact Germaine Palangdao at [email protected].
See also: Category 8 dominates cabling standard developments