TIA-942-b Data Center Cabling Standard Is Updated

TIA-942-B Data Center Cabling Standard is updated

“We made a significant update to ANSI/TIA-942-B in order to keep pace with the rapid technology changes in the data center environment,” said Jonathan Jew, editor of TIA-942-B.

“With the exponential growth in the data center market, TIA-942 is one of our most essential standards,” said Stephanie Montgomery, TIA Vice President, Technology & Standards. “Our TR-42.1 Engineering Committee brought its considerable expertise in reviewing and updating this standard. The resulting update will help network designers, architects, and data center owners and managers design infrastructure that will support both current and future needs.”

The TIA-942-B standard includes the following, among other, changes from the “A” revision:

• Incorporates TIA-942-A Addendum 1, which addresses data center fabrics

  
  

• Adds 16- and 32-fiber MPO-style array connectors as an additional connector type for termination of more than two fibers. The 16- and 32-fiber connectors were standardized when ANSI/TIA-604-18 was published.

  
  

• Adds Category 8 as an allowed type of balanced twisted-pair cable, and changes the recommendation for Category 6A balanced twisted-pair cable to Category 6A or higher.

  
  

• Adds OM5 (wideband multimode fiber) as an allowed fiber type of multimode fiber connectors. The TIA-492.AAAE standard specifies OM5 fiber, which is designed to support short-wave wavelength division multiplexing.