TIA-942 Data Center Infrastructure

Standard is Adapting to the Evolving

Industry: What Changed in the New
Revision

Jacques Fluet, Director, Data Center Program

TIA
• ICT today
• ICT evolution
• Data center evolution
• 942-C updates
• Key impacts on designs, commissioning, operations
Digital World
Access to
services

Safety Security

Quality of life

Assets
Sustainability
efficiency
Simplification and
personalization
Connected Intelligence (AI/ML)
Jacques Fluet (Microsoft Image Creator)

From: Information gathering and reporting

To: Autonomous data analysis, pro-active actions, and continuous improvements
 Digital World Expansion
• By 2025, 181 zettabytes (or 181 trillion gigabytes) of data will be
generated around the globe, and more than 90 zettabytes of that
data will be created by edge devices, according to IDC’s Data
Age 2025 report

• Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75% of enterprise-generated data

will be created and processed at the edge – outside a traditional
centralized data center or cloud. That’s up from just 10 percent
in 2018.

• According to a report by Nokia, the demand on global telecom IDC’ Data Age report, sponsored by Seagate
networks from 2022 to 2030 will grow at a compounded annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 22% to 25% and network traffic demand
is expected to reach between 2,443 to 3,109 exabytes (EB) per
month in 2030.
AI numbers
• DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi believes the market potential of generative AI could reach
hundreds of billions of dollars for data center, fiber, and tower providers.
• Cloudflare to deploy Nvidia GPUs at the Edge for generative AI inference - in up to 300 data
centers
• IDC expects enterprise spending on generative AI software, infrastructure hardware and IT
services to grow from nearly $16 billion this year to $143 billion in 2027. That's twice the rate
of overall AI spending and 13 times greater than the annual growth rate for global IT
spending.
• AI Supercloud services will be delivered by European data centres and will eventually consist
of more than 20,000 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs by June 2024.
• Nvidia Shipped 900 Tons of AI Chips in Q2
• CyrusOne offers 300kW-per-rack AI data center design
Time to one million users

GPT-3 training: 1,287 MWh (est.)

GPT-4 uses 30,000 GPUs (∼9 MW)

Ref: Statista
ICT Evolution Trends
Reliability
– Software-defined networks and data centers
– Workload orchestration
Increased traffic
– Performance degradation avoidance
• Data
• Bit rate
• Latency Sustainability
• Always connected
– Renewable/clean energy

– Efficient energy usage Jacques Fluet (Microsoft Image Creator)

– Water usage reduction

New technologies
– Microgrid
– Liquid cooling
– Heat re-use
– Emergency power (HVO, BSS, H2)
– Construction and recycling
– Non-Terrestrial Networks
– Environmental events – AI/ML
– Noise

– Efficient asset utilization

High Power Computing Data Center
QSCale
Standard evolution process
• ANSI/TIA standards must be revised or reaffirmed at least every 5 years
• ANSI/TIA standards are developed and maintained by Engineering
committees of industry SMEs
• Changes to standard are driven by
• Technology evolution
• Industry trends
• Feedback from standard users
• Each change is reviewed and approved by the Engineering Committee
responsible for the standard
ANSI/TIA-942-B-2017 Data Center Infrastructure Standard
• Global standards defining requirements and recommendations for the design and implementation of
data centers
• Scope
• Architecture
• Power
• Cooling
• Telecommunications
• Fire protection
• Physical security
• Safety
• Monitoring

• 4 rating levels
• Rated 1: Basic
• Rated 2: Redundant components
• Rated 3: Concurrently maintainable
• Rated 4: Fault tolerant

• Addendum 1: Edge Data Centers published in February 2022

• New revision: TIA-942-C expected to be published in Q1 2024
TIA-942-C: Data Center cabling
• Added single balanced twisted-pair cable as a recognized type
of cable for horizontal cabling
• Where balanced twisted-pair cabling is used for wireless access
points two category 6A or higher performing cabling runs as a
minimum requirement
• Optical fiber connectors may be any TIA-568.3 compliant
connector outside the equipment outlet (EO). LC and MPO
connectors are still the required optical fiber connectors at the
EO.
• Added recommendation for a minimum of two optical fibers for
horizontal and backbone cabling
TIA-942-C: Environmental conditions

Updated temperature and humidity

guidelines to align with the
recommended temperature and
humidity envelope per ASHRAE TC
9.9 Thermal Guidelines for Data
Processing Environments, 5th edition,
including addition of new High Density
H1 Class
ASHRAE TC 9.9 Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments, 5th edition
TIA-942-C: IT cabinets and floor loading
• Cabinets in Main Distribution Areas (MDA), Intermediate
Distribution Areas (IDA), and Horizontal Distribution Areas
(HDA) shall be at least 800 mm wide to provide adequate cable
management, without the presence of vertical cable managers
• Minimum floor loading lowered for computer rooms that are less
then 20 m2 (220 ft2): 5 kPA (100 lbf/ft2)
 TIA-942-C: ICT Evolution -
Distributed Computing
Incorporated ANSI/TIA-942-B-1 Edge Data Centers Addendum in the
main standard document as new Annexes

Google

Stulz
Compass Quantum
Underwater Data Centers in Sanya
Beijing Highlander Digital Technology
TIA-942-C: Site location

Risks analysis and mitigation must be considered

CN

Ready.gov Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

NTTA
TIA-942-C: Standby Power Systems

Use of “standby power system” terminology and updated associated

requirements where appropriate to include any technology that might be
used as standby power

BESS: Battery Energy Storage System

Aerial view of the commissioned 100MW project at Capenhurst, in
Chester, England. Image: Zenobe Energy.

Natural gas generator Diesel generator

Hydrogen fuel cell power station Caterpillar
Honda Caterpillar
TIA-942-C: Power Self Generation

SMR (Small Modular nuclear Reactor)

Rolls Royce

Solar power
Duke Energy

Wind farm
Duke Energy
TIA-942-C: Heat Removal
Use of “heat removal” terminology (instead of HVAC or air
conditioning) and updated associated requirements where
appropriate to include any technology that might be used to
cool equipment
Immersion cooling
GRC

Computer room air conditioner

Trane
Direct to Chip cooling
Gigabyte
TIA-942-C: Other clarifications
• Vehicle access protection
• Bullet resistance
• Seismic requirements
• Fire resistance
• Security access control and monitoring
• Remote operations
• UPS and battery system requirements
• New informative annex on Immersion Cooling Considerations
TIA-942-C: Nomenclature more generic
• “Standby Power System”
• “Heat Removal”
• “Liquid” infiltration and leaks
• “Video Surveillance System (VSS)”
TIA-942-C: Normative Annexes
• Clarified the applicability of many annexes and renumbered
them
• 6 annexes changed from informative to normative
• Annex A: Coordination of equipment plans with other engineers
• Annex B: Data center space considerations
• Annex C: Data center site selection and building design considerations
• Annex D: Data center infrastructure rating
• Annex E: Micro edge data centers
• Annex F: Micro edge data center infrastructure type
TIA-942-C: Sustainability considerations

• Energy efficiency
• Energy re-use
• Updated temperature and humidity
guidelines per ASHRAE TC 9.9, Heat re-use

including addition of new High Density

Wyoming Hyperscale

H1 Class
Impact on data center design
• Requirements clearer and simpler
• More adaptability to local conditions based on risk assessment
• In-line with current best practices
• More freedom to implement (requirements are more focused on outcomes)
• Enables newer technologies
• Considerations for:
• Sustainability
• Efficient use of resources
• Annexes A-F are normative
Impact on commissioning
• Requirements clearer and simpler
• More adaptability to local conditions based on risk assessment
• In-line with current best practices
• New technologies
Impact on installation
• In-line with current best practices
• Enables newer technologies
• Considerations for:
• Sustainability
• Efficient use of resources
• New technologies
Impact on operations
• Remote operations
• More considerations for sustainability
• New technologies
Impact on data center certification
• Certification
• Annexes C to F are normative when rating a data center
• Clarifications of the requirements
• Focus on outcomes, taking into account new technologies
• Same 4 ratings
• Rated-1: Basic
• Rated-2: Redundant components
• Rated-3: Concurrently maintainable
• Rated-4: Fault tolerant
• Same 3 types of certification
• Data Center Design Certification
• Data Center Facility Certification
• TIA-942 Ready for prefabricated modular data centers
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 Thank You!
For more information: [email protected]