Press Releases

Arlington, VA (May 6, 2014) – The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the leading association representing the manufacturers and suppliers of high-tech communications networks, today 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 TSB document. TIA is actively seeking participation in these projects from the user and general interest communities.

The TSB document, initially titled "High Performance Structured Cabling (HPSC) Applications," will provide usage details for deploying Category 8 structured cabling in data centers and other premise environments that will have a need for data rates greater than 10 Gb/s. The information in this TSB document can then be used today when designing networks and facilities for high speed applications, including 40GBASE-T, which is currently under development as IEEE P802.3bq. 

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. 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. 

The scope of this task group is to identify, analyze, and recommend use cases (e.g. switch fabric architectures, End-of Row, and Top-of-Rack) for high performance structured cabling (HPSC) application environments utilizing technologies such as 40GBASE-T, currently under development as IEEE P802.3bq.  These use cases can be incorporated in data center or premise designs including equipment rooms (ER), server rooms, laboratories, and high bandwidth technology spaces. 

The stakeholders include, but are not limited to: Cable manufacturers; IT professionals; Datacom equipment designers; Datacom equipment manufacturers; PHY suppliers (Silicon); Cabling system designers and installers.

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

A major function of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is the writing and maintenance of voluntary industry standards and specifications. These activities are carried out by the volunteer members of TIA engineering committees. On the public engineering committee pages, users will find recent meeting reports, agendas and notices for upcoming meetings, as well as links to some of the most popular standards from each committee. TIA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).