State of the art
With the evolution of our society into the information society, a technically sound cabling infrastructure is vital not only for European economics as a whole, but also - and probably even more important - for any organisation’s business success.
TC 215 is the competent European committee to provide for the necessary European cabling infrastructure standardization. Today - and this constitutes a major change compared to the traditional views and approaches - office premises are expected to provide a generic cabling system infrastructure to the (most probably) different tenants of a building, thus supporting the full range of today’s and tomorrow’s information and communication technology services to be available on the users’ desks. Up to now the data rates of these services have steadily been growing, presently resulting in symmetrical twisted pair cables with a bandwidth of up to 600 MHz. And the trend for higher data rates will continue in the next few years.
With teleworking becoming more and more attractive, not only classical business premises but also SOHO (Small Office Home Office) need such a cabling infrastructure. Moreover, with the convergence of applications, the formerly separated markets for office communication, multimedia and intelligent buildings are merging. This will further amplify the requirement from the end user for generic cabling solutions, which cover the full range from low-speed control applications to high-speed internet access or video on demand services.
Although the current predominance of symmetrical twisted pair cables will continue, fibre optic cabling installations (fibre to the desk) will gain considerable market share, depending on the reduction of cost for the hardware for electro-optical signal conversion.
Consumer requirements
One of TC 215‘s most prominent standards, EN 50173, was drafted in response to market needs. While the first generation of Local Area Network standards did each specify „on the fly“ their own incompatible connectors and cables, the widespread use of LAN applications no longer allows for several incompatible network installations in one building in parallel. A similar development will happen in the SOHO market and – more generally – in the intelligent building environment. Consumers will benefit from generic cabling infrastructures with specified cabling interfaces for arbitrary (terminal) equipment, as these infrastructures offer future-proof solutions and support many different applications. Thus consumers can rely that the investment into their homes‘ cabling system will pay off in the long run.
Standards
TC 215 has published EN 50173-1:2002 on Generic Cabling Systems (which is almost identical to the international cabling standard ISO/IEC 11801:2002 - produced by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25 - and which replaces EN 50173:1995 and its Amendment A1:2000), series EN 50098 on dedicated ISDN cabling, three standards in the series EN 50174 on IT cabling installation, EN 50310 on the application of equipotential bonding and earthing requirements in buildings with ICT equipment and EN 50346 on testing of installed IT cabling.
For a more detailed explanation of the relationship of TC 215's EN, their titles and cross-reference to international cabling standards click here.
Ongoing and future Work
Future parts of series EN 50173 will specify particular requirements of cabling systems for residental and industrial premises as well as for data centers. The series EN 50174 concerning installation practices inside and outside of buildings is being revised to cover new needs typical for the residential/industrial/data center environment. New developments related to the testing of optical fibre cabling will be introduced with the revision of EN 50346.
Coordination with other technical bodies
TC 215, being mainly concerned with system aspects, has established a number of internal and external liaisons. Among the internal liaisons, cooperation with CENELEC component committees (TC 46X, SC 46XC, TC 86A, TC 86BXA), system committees (TC 100X, TC 205) and horizontal committees (TC 210) are evident. TC 215 follows the international work of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25 related to cabling systems (system design, installation etc) in order to base its work as much as is possible on international results. Furthermore, in accordance with its scope TC 215 is in contact with ETSI to address electrotechnical requirements within the telecommunications area (e.g. TC EE, TC TM/WG TM 6, EP DTA, TC ERM/WG EMC).