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DATA CENTER DESIGN CRITERIA
DATE: APRIL 22, 2008
AUTHOR: MARK D. STOOPS, RCDD
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
General ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Best Practices and Standards ...................................................................................................... 4
The Uptime Institute, Inc. ...................................................................................................... 4
Raised Floors ...................................................................................................................... 5
Wattage Per Square Foot .................................................................................................... 6
The ANSI TIA-942 ................................................................................................................ 8
Physical Space.......................................................................................................................... 10
Cabinet Size ............................................................................................................................. 11
Seismic Protection.................................................................................................................... 13
Ceiling Height .......................................................................................................................... 14
Power Per Cabinet .................................................................................................................... 14
Electrical Outlets ...................................................................................................................... 15
Additional Power Supply ......................................................................................................... 15
HVAC ...................................................................................................................................... 15
System Sizing ....................................................................................................................... 16
Air Handling Methods ......................................................................................................... 16
IT System Interconnection ....................................................................................................... 17
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TABLE OF TABLES
Table 1 - The Uptime Institute's Tier Attributes and Statistics .................................................. 5
Table 2 - Computer Room Watts Per Square Foot Comparison Based on Cabinet Size ........... 7
Table 3 - Watts Per Square Foot Comparison Based on Power Supply Capacity ..................... 7
Table 4 Watts Per Square Foot Old Technology vs. New Technology .................................. 7
Table 5 - Suggested Updates to The Uptime Institute's, Inc. Data ............................................ 8
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1 ANSI/TIA/EIA 942 Computer Room Areas and Interconnection ......................... 10
Figure 2 Simple Computer Room Design ............................................................................. 12
Figure 3 - 30-Cabinet Computer Room Design ....................................................................... 13
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GENERAL
In todays business environment, the computer room is a mission-critical core component. It is
important that computer rooms be designed to support the business, not only in the current business
setting, but as the business grows and changes. The key to this is scalable computer room is a design
based on industry-accepted standards and best practices.
Computer room design must address both the services and systems that support the center (e.g.,
electricity, HVAC) as well as the systems and services that will be installed in the data center (e.g.,
servers, switches). The focus of this section is on those systems and services that support the computer
room, as well as the physical infrastructure that will be in the computer room to support the systems
and services which will reside there.
Scalability, as related to the design of a computer room, speaks to the ease by which the computer room
can be expanded or upgraded. Scalability means new computing equipment can be easily deployed,
while also providing for the replacement or upgrading of legacy equipment to support new missions.
Ensuring scalability requires that some difficult issues be settled at the outset so that they do not
become roadblocks later on. The issues that absorb the most effort during computer room design are
physical space, electrical load, and HVAC.
From a best practices/standards perspective, there are two key areas for discussion. The first is the
accepted best practice data center (computer room) tiered classification established by The Uptime
Institute, Inc. These best practices established a tier structure for computer rooms based on key
attributes and statistics. The second area is the ANSI TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure
Standard for Data Centers. This document speaks to a standardized model for the makeup of the
computer room, regardless of the computer room/data centers tier classification.
BEST PRACTICES AND STANDARDS
THE UPTIME INSTITUTE, INC.
The Uptime Institutes tier classification established a four-tier ranking for computer rooms. This ranking
is based on the following computer room attributes:
Power and cooling delivery paths
Redundant components
Support space to raised floor ratio
Initial watts per square foot
Ultimate watts per square foot
Raised floor height
Floor loading pounds per square foot
Utility voltage
In addition to the above listed attributes the following statistics add to the comparison of the four tiers:
Months to implement
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Year first deployed
Construction $ per square foot
Annual IT downtime due to site
Site availability
The following table from The Uptime Institute compares the above attributes and statistics for the four
tiers.
Table 1 - The Uptime Institute's Tier Attributes and Statistics
Attribute / Statistic
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III
Tier IV
Power and Cooling
Delivery Paths
1 Active
1 Active
1 Active 1
Passive
2 Active
Redundant Components
N+1
N+1
2(N + 1)
Support Space to Raised
Floor Ratio
20%
30%
80 90%
100%
Initial Watts / square foot
20 30
40 50
40 60
50 80
Ultimate Watts / square
foot
20 30
40 50
100 150
150+
Raised Floor Height
12
18
30 36
30 36
Floor Loading Pounds /
square foot
85
100
150
150+
Utility Voltage
208, 480
208, 480
12 15 kV
12 15 kV
Months to Implement
36
15 20
15 20
Year First Deployed
1965
1970
1985
1995
Construction $ / square
foot
$450
$600
$900
$1,100+
Annual IT Downtime Due
to Site
28.8 hrs
22.0 hrs
1.6 hrs
0.4 hrs
Site Availability
99.671%
99.749%
99.982%
99.995%
There are two issues presented by The Uptime Institute that need further discussion: raised floors and
watts per square foot.
RAISED FLOORS
Raised floors are common in computer rooms that were design and created in the 70s; a raised floor
environment was a necessity for the equipment at that time. The equipment was designed to be cooled
by cold air traveling up through the cabinet from below.
Many modern computer rooms are designed with a raised floor because that is the way it has always
been. The equipment in a modern computer room is not designed to take advantage of this up-flow
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HVAC design. It is, in fact, designed to be cooled by air flow from front to back. For the equipment
cooled by an updraft system, good efficiency could be achieved by ensuring the raised floor system was
properly pressurized. The same cannot be said for todays computer room environment.
There is much discussion about hot and cold aisles in todays computer rooms. The concept is to
concentrate the cold area at the front of the equipment cabinets and allow the front-to-rear internal fan
systems to capture the cold air and flow it across the components exhausting the now hot air to the rear
hot aisle. In a raised floor computer room, there are a number of things working against the end goal of
adequate cooling for all equipment in the cabinet.
First, consider the supply air flow dynamics. Cold air tends to migrate down, not up. Therefore
stacking a column of cold air into the cold aisle requires pushing a significant volume of cold air from
the under-floor area. This was not a problem for the older equipment designed for updraft cooling
because the raised floor system design had large openings under the cabinet allowing this air movement
and the cabinets had large internal air paths. Today, this air must flow up in the aisle where the staff
must also be able to walk and work, meaning the air has to flow up through perforated tiles. These tiles
were not intended to support the volume needed for equipment cooling. In addition any floor tiles that
have been removed will significantly impact air flow in the under-floor plenum. Tiles may have been
removed during normal maintenance or new installation. These tile disruptions may last for hours,
during which there will be an adverse affect on the flow of cooling air.
It is also important to remember in a raised floor environment that there is a significant amount of
network and electrical cabling in the under-floor area. These act as restrictors to the air flow, again
impacting the delivery of the necessary volume of cold air to the cold aisle. As equipment densities
increase, the heat load in the computer room also increases. As the heat load increases, the volume of
cold air for cooling must also increase. This increase in the necessary cold air volume is why the height
of the raised floor increases as the heat load increases. So with higher heat loads, it is necessary to
move a greater volume of cold air through the restrictive under-floor space and the perforated tiles.
At the other end of the heat transfer cycle, we have the exhausted hot air. This hot air wants to move
up. As the hot air moves up out of the hot aisle, it begins to cool and as such tends to flow downward.
The volume of hot air coming out of the hot aisle keeps this air from falling back into the hot aisle, which
leaves the cold aisle as the remaining place for it to go. This results in the upper level of the cold aisle
having warm, not cold, air, meaning the intake air to the equipment upper 30% of the cabinet is already
warmer than many hardware manufacturers recommendation. This is why in many computer rooms
you will find the upper 30% of the cabinets either not used or used only for inactive components.
WATTAGE PER SQUARE FOOT
The wattage per square foot noted in Table 2 is an interesting quantity. First consider the foot print of
data cabinets. In the 80s, a deep equipment cabinet was 36 inches and the most common was 30
inches. IT equipment manufacturers have been delivering hardware in decreasing height form factors.
This decrease in the height of the hardware has also resulted in an increase in equipment depth.
Considering the depth of todays hardware, the management of cables at the rear of the hardware, the
management of network cabling at the rear of the cabinets, and the delivery of power via power
distribution units has resulted in cabinets that are now over 48 inches in depth.
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The following table compares two computer rooms. Each room has two rows of cabinets, and in each
the cabinets are 24 inches wide. The first has 30-inch deep cabinets. The second has 48-inch deep
cabinets. This table shows that when fully utilized the ratio of aisle space to equipment space is roughly
2/3 aisle space to 1/3 equipment space.
Table 2 - Computer Room Watts Per Square Foot Comparison Based on Cabinet Size
Cabinet Depth
Room Width
Room Depth
Total Sq Footage
Sq Footage For
Equipment
% SQ Footage
Equipment
30
14
23
322
100
31%
48
20
23
469
160
34%
Now consider the increase in the power/heat load per cabinet over the past ten years. For
comparison, I have used a cabinet with 42U1 of equipment mounting space. Table 3 compares 7U
servers with 400W power supplies to 1U servers with 700W power supplies.
Table 3 - Watts Per Square Foot Comparison Based on Power Supply Capacity
Server Size
Power Per
Server
Servers
Cabinet
Watts Per Cabinet
Watts Per
Cabinet SQ Foot
30 Deep
Cabinet
Watts Per Cabinet SQ
Foot 48 Deep Cabinet
7U
400W
2,400W
480W
300W
14,700W
2,940W
1,838W
1U
700W
21
Now consider the watts-per-square foot difference for a 48-inch deep cabinet populated with 7U 400W
servers, compared to 1U 700W servers:
Table 4 Watts Per Square Foot Old Technology vs. New Technology
Cabinet Size
Server Size
Watts Per
Cabinet
Cabinets Total
Watts per
Data Center
Total SQ
Footage Of
Data Center
Watts Per
Data Center
SQ Foot
30
7U
2,400W
20
48,000W
322
149W
30
1U
14,700W
20
294,000W
322
913W
48
7U
2,400W
20
48,000W
469
102W
48
1U
14,700W
20
294,000W
469
927W
This table shows that based on currently available equipment the Watts per square foot data in The
Uptime Institute table is low and should perhaps be increased to show the following.
1
1 U of equipment mounting space equals 1.75 of vertical space.
Research and development efforts by todays data equipment manufacturers have shown the current maximum manageable heat
load for a cabinet with passive cooling is 10KW to 15 KW. Based on this with 1U servers at best only 50% of a cabinet can be
utilized.
2
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Table 5 - Suggested Updates to The Uptime Institute's, Inc. Data
Initial Watts / square foot
100150
100150
100150
100150
Ultimate Watts / square foot
650 950
650 950
650 950
650 950
THE ANSI TIA-942
The ANSI TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers has been adopted as
the industry standard for data center and computer room design. The standard addresses architectural
design, electrical and HVAC, bonding and grounding, and structured wiring.
The architectural design speaks to the size and construction of the space. It is important the computer
room and associated support spaces have the necessary space for both the equipment and the people
that will work on the equipment. It is also important the space and the equipment in the space be
designed to address both personal safety as well as equipment longevity. For example, it is possible to
develop a design for seismic bracing that provides a safe environment for personnel yet does nothing to
address the impact of a seismic event on hard disk drives.
Electrical and HVAC design are interrelated: the more electrical load within a space, the more HVAC
load, in other words, watts in means BTUs out. There is also the issue of the larger electrical load
presented by the high density electronics installed in computer rooms today.
Bonding and grounding are as important now as they have always been. This standard addresses that
importance and provides guidance for the design of the bonding and grounding system.
Structured wiring has been an important design issue for a number of years as well. Much has been
done to guide the designer in cabling office spaces. This standard brings the computer room into the
structured cabling design arena. The standards document provides a model for computer room design
based on zones or areas where similar systems and services are grouped. This provides designers a
model that allows for maximum utilization of space for active components while at the same time
providing for efficient interconnection of equipment through the structured cabling.
ANSI/TIA/EIA 942 defines four key areas for the computer room. Those areas are:
The Entrance Room (where service providers deliver service to the building)
There will often be diverse3 entrance paths for the service providers.
Diverse routing was defined by the telephone companies in the late 70s as being two service connections to a business whose
routes never come closer that 30 feet once they leave the customers property. This 30 standard came about because the typical
right of way for an alley is 20 in width while a typical street right of way is at least 50 in width. This allowed route diversity to be
provided with two cables on opposite sides of a street so long as the routes never traverse the same alley. This standard was
established because it is quite common for a construction excavation to be open across an alley while it was very uncommon for a
construction excavation to be open across an entire city street. Both legs of a diverse route might be dug up in an alley while it is
not likely they would both be dug up in a street.
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The Office and Support Areas
Note these are separate rooms not a part of the computer room equipment area.
A Telecom Room or Rooms
These rooms serve as the point of termination for the horizontal cabling coming from the office and
support areas. The workgroup switches serving the office and support areas will be located here.
The Computer Room
This is the actual equipment room/space of the computer room housing the network/computer
hardware. This room is further broken down into zones.
The Equipment Distribution Area houses the servers and application-specific hardware.
o The Equipment Distribution Area is connected to the Horizontal Distribution Area by
horizontal cabling.
In very large computer rooms/data centers, there are Zone Distribution Areas where a number
of Equipment Distribution Areas aggregate via horizontal cabling to a switch which is, in turn,
connected through horizontal cabling to the Horizontal Distribution Area.
The Horizontal Distribution Area houses the LAN/SAN/KVM hardware.
o The Horizontal Distribution Areas are tied to the Main Distribution Area by backbone
cabling.
The Main Distribution Area contains the routers, backbone switches, multiplex equipment, and
PBX.
o The Main Distribution Area has backbone cable connections to the Entrance Room and
the Telecom Rooms.
The following diagram provides representation of the areas and their interconnection in a computer
room as described by ANSI/TIA/EIA 942.
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Figure 1 ANSI/TIA/EIA 942 Computer Room Areas and Interconnection
Backbone Cabling
Access Provider
Access Provider
Horizontal Cabling
Data Center
Offices and
Support Areas
Telecom Room
Entrance Room
Computer Room
Main Distribution Area
Horizontal
Distribution Area
Horizontal
Distribution Area
Horizontal
Distribution Area
Equipment
Distribution Area
Equipment
Distribution Area
Zone Distribution
Area
Equipment
Distribution Area
PHYSICAL SPACE
Considering the information from The Uptime Institute and the ANSI TIA-942 Telecommunications
Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers, further discussion is necessary in the areas of physical space,
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power, HVAC, and IT system interconnection as they relate to the Computer Room within the Data
Center.
Raised floor versus solid floor will be the topic for energetic debate for years to come. Consider the
issues discussed above relating to cold air delivery to the cold aisle in a raised-floor environment. Also
consider the added cost of a raised-floor system over a solid floor. A detailed cost benefit analysis
specific to a project design might be necessary to show which solution is the best for that particular
project. In general, the problems outweigh the benefits. A solid floor computer room will have a lower
initial first cost and will have a more cost-efficient HVAC delivery system. The raised-floor environment
does not appear to.
CABINET SIZE
Before any recommendations can be provided for the overall size of a computer room, a decision has to
be reached regarding the size of the equipment cabinets that will be utilized in the space. In general,
considering the depth of new 1U servers, the cable management at the rear of the server, the power
delivery systems at the rear of the cabinet, as well as cabinet cable management in general, a deeper
cabinet will serve better than a shallower one. A 48-inch deep cabinet sounds like a waste of space,
however, all things considered, the difference may be the ability to have a cabinet with closed secure
doors at the rear versus an open cabinet.
Where in the past, we strived for 36-inch aisles, we now need to instead consider the aisle width
necessary for equipment installation in a 48-inch deep cabinet (and even the possibility of having to
replace the cabinet itself). A standard aisle width of 4.5 feet should now be the norm.
The actual dimensions of the computer room need to be based on an inventory of the equipment that is
to be initially installed and the forecast of equipment to be added over the next 10 to 15 years. In
addition, the three types of distribution areas identified in ANSI TIA-942 need to be established and
maintained. The following diagram shows the simplest computer room where there is a single cabinet
for the three areas: Main Distribution, Horizontal Distribution, and Equipment Distribution.
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Figure 2 Simple Computer Room Design
Computer Room
Main
Distribution
11'
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
13'
Expanding this model to include three rows of ten cabinets each results in the following:
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Figure 3 - 30-Cabinet Computer Room Design
Computer Room
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
Main
Distribution
Horizontal
Distribution
Equipment
Distribution
27'
30'
This 30 cabinet module could be used as a base section to model a larger computer room in multiples of
30 cabinets. In addition, the roughly 30-foot by 30-foot size will fit well into an architectural plan for a
building.
SEISMIC PROTECTION
The primary goal of any seismic protection system is preventing personal injury due to falling equipment
during a seismic event. To this end, most all seismic systems consist of hardware bracing and strapping
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that will keep the equipment upright and in place so long as the building structure to which it is attached
stays upright and in place. Looking at this from another angle one can readily see that if the structure is
moving in multiple directions in the horizontal plane at a relatively high frequency, then hard disk drives
within a chassis secured to a cabinet braced to the structure are, in turn, moving in multiple directions in
the horizontal plane at a relatively high frequency. In other words, during a seismic event in a
seismically braced environment, hard disk drives are subject to significant shaking. In the event the
power has not failed, these same disk drives probably have platens spinning at high speed when the
significant shaking occurs. The likely result is a hardware failure of the disk drives.
Putting this in worst-case verbiage, not only can a seismic event damage or destroy the computer room,
it can also likely damage or destroy the data in the computer room. Insurance can repair or replace the
computer room. Insurance can do nothing to restore the data. An alternate to the physical bracing
seismic systems is one that allows the equipment cabinets within the computer room to remain
relatively in place in reference to the space that is moving around them. A base isolation seismic system
results in both personnel safety as well as providing some level of protection to the hard disk drives with
the all important data.
CEILING HEIGHT
The ceiling height in the computer room is not usually a topic of discussion. It is actually an important
items of consideration, however, early in the design process. When careful consideration is given to the
vertical space occupied by the cabinets, the seismic platforms, the necessary clearance between the top
of the cabinet and the lowest cable tray4, the depth of cable runway including working space, and the
required space for HVAC ducting it is not uncommon to require a clear ceiling height of at least 12 6.
Depending on the type of construction, be it open web-truss or large beam, the distance from floor to
the bottom of the roof deck could be in excess of 14 6.
POWER PER CABINET
Power requirements in computer rooms can be a difficult topic. The most direct way is to begin the
study considering the possible load for a single cabinet. (It is important to stipulate this is a worst-case
discussion. It is likely a customer will make a conscious decision to not load the cabinets to the extent
used in this discussion.) Lighter loaded cabinets would result in slightly smaller electrical loads,
however, since it is possible to load a cabinet to the extent in my example that fully utilized cabinet will
be the basis for discussion.
Earlier In this document I showed where a single 42U cabinet equipped with 21 servers each with 700W
power supplies5 equals a load of 14,700W. When considering the electrical service to a cabinet, it is also
important to consider the effect of redundant power supplies on the circuits. Computer equipment with
redundant power supplies operates in a shared load condition when power is available to both the
primary and redundant power supplies. In the event of a power loss to one of the supplies, the entire
load is picked up by the other supply. Therefore, when systems with redundant supplies are connected
4
When a base isolation seismic system is used it is necessary to leave a minimum of 12 inches between the top of the cabinets and
the bottom of the cable runway. This clearance and the use of loose tails for power and network cable connections provides for the
lateral movement the cabinet will experience during a seismic event.
5
The HP DL360 G5 has dual 700W power supplies.
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to separate electrical feeds, it is important that the individual circuit not be loaded above 40% (based on
an overall requirement of not loading a circuit breaker beyond 80% of the circuits rated capacity). This
ensures that in the event of a circuit failure, the increased load will not overload the remaining circuit.
So considering the redundant power supplies, we can say the 21 1U servers have two equal loads or
7,350W or at 208V that is two equal loads of 35A at 208V. Remember, however, that since this is a
redundant power supply model, we have to consider that 35A to be 40% of the load. In the event we
loose the redundant supplies in all the servers, the load on the primary side will increase to the full 70A.
Using a 208V 3 phase 30A circuit as a standard, we will need 3 - 208V 3 phase 30A circuits for the
primary supplies and another 3 208V 3 phase 30 A circuits for the redundant side per cabinet. In
addition, to allow for some ancillary 120V equipment, we should provide a 120V 20A circuit to each
cabinet. Now it is a simple matter of multiplying this per cabinet requirement by the number of cabinets
to be installed in the computer room.
ELECTRICAL OUTLETS
The power circuits discussed in the previous paragraph would be considered technical outlets meaning
they will likely have network hardware connected to them. In addition to these technical outlets, the
computer room will need some number of convenience electrical outlets for use with test equipment
and other tools. The spacing for these outlets along the walls can be left to what the electrical code
requires. The only stipulation should be that each location be a quad outlet not a duplex outlet.
ADDITIONAL POWER SUPPLY
The remaining power issues to be discussed are UPS and generator. The first decision relates to
generator backup for the computer room. If there will be a generator, then the associated UPS run-time
will be shorter. If there will not be a generator, then the UPS run-time will be longer. Without a
generator, the UPS run-time needs to be long enough to allow for graceful system shutdown. Where
more than a few minutes run-time is required, a UPS with a battery string will be required.
In a generator backed-up computer room, consideration can be given to a kinetic or fly wheel UPS.
These systems have environmental benefits as well as lower maintenance costs as there are no
batteries. These systems can be prone to failure in a seismic event and as such may not be suitable in
areas where seismic events can occur.
HVAC
There are two key topics when discussing HVAC and computer rooms, system sizing and air handling
methods. The purpose of the HVAC system is to maintain the environment within the Data Center
within the following parameters per ANSI TIA-942.
The temperature and humidity shall be controlled to provide continuous operating ranges for
temperature and humidity:
dry Bulb Temperature: 20 C (68 F) to 25 C (77 F);
relative Humidity: 40% to 55%;
maximum Dew Point: 21 C (69.8 F);
maximum Rate of Change: 5 C (9 F) per hour;
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humidification and dehumidification equipment may be required depending upon local
environmental conditions.
A positive pressure differential with respect to surrounding areas should be provided.
SYSTEM SIZING
System sizing relates to the expected electrical load in the room. Using the concept of sizing per
cabinet, again consider the 42U cabinet with a 14,700W electrical load when fully loaded. Here again it
is important to stipulate this is a worst-case discussion.
50,186 BTUs = (3,414 BTU an hour/KW) x (14.7 KW)
50,186 BTUs require 4.2 tons of cooling:
4.2 tons = 50,186 BTUs 12,000 BTU/hr per ton
For the simple computer room described above, the HVAC system would be 12.6 tons.
4.2 tons x 3 = 12.6 tons
The HVAC system for the expanded computer room model, 30-foot by 30-foot the HVAC system would
be 126 tons.
4.2 tons x 30 = 126 tons
AIR HANDLING METHODS
Delivering the HVAC into the computer room is accomplished with a supply plenum and a return
plenum. The discussion above related to raised-floor systems suggest that a raised floor may not be the
best delivery plenum and, in fact, support designing a computer room with both the supply and return
air plenums ducted in the overhead. A continuous load of cold air dropped into the cold aisle ensures
the entire cabinet is supplied with the necessary cold air. A properly ducted return system limits the
flow of hot air back to the cold aisle. The concept of connecting the return air plenum to the top of each
cabinet on the hot side will result in the most efficient heat transfer system for the computer room.
As previously mentioned, todays IT hardware is designed for cooling by air flow from the front through
the equipment chassis to the back. As such, the delivery model utilizes a cold front aisle to a hot rear
aisle. Remember that air flows follow the path of least resistance. This concept helps explain the critical
need for sealing the spaces between the cold and the hot aisle. All the space at the cold aisle side of the
equipment cabinets that are not occupied by network hardware should be sealed to limit the flow of
cold air around, rather through, the network equipment chassis. There are a few discrete network
hardware items such as the Cisco 6000 series that require a side-to-side air flow. Computer rooms that
will include this hardware will need specific attention paid to that unique air flow requirement.
PO Box 1224
Marysville, WA 98270
Phone: (360) 913-0102
Fax: (206) 274-4886
Stoops Consulting, Inc.
Information Technologies
Planning / Engineering / Project Management
[Link]
April 22, 2008
Page 17 of 17
IT SYSTEM INTERCONNECTION
The ANSI TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers brings the concept of
structured cabling into the computer room. There is a tendency to work toward this by utilizing cabinet
space or at least floor space that could serve equipment cabinets as the location for racks or patch
panels. Consideration should be given to moving the interconnect fields to the walls of the computer
room freeing up the floor space for cabinets that can house equipment. At this centralized wall field
interconnect, consideration should be given to a cross connect system that does not require patch
cords. An interconnect system that utilized jumper wire allows for excellent cross connect management
as a matter of course; as the cross connects are installed, the cross connect wire is routed and managed
coincident with the installation. Patch panels with patch cords afford the technician an opportunity to
install a connection while ignoring the patch cord management system.
Patch panels serve as a convenient method of interconnection where one of the ends being connected
has to be an 8-pin modular jack such as the NIC on a server. This allows for the connection to be
accomplished with a patch cord. While these connections are easy to make, they can quickly become a
management nightmare. In addition, consideration needs to be given to how a device in Cabinet A
interconnects to a device in Cabinet B. In many locations, this connection is accomplished by patch
cords routed between cabinets. This results in an exacerbated cable management situation in addition
to increased difficulty for system maintenance. Once an agreement has been reached on the centralized
interconnect system, the design can be expanded to incorporate the equipment cabinets and switches
in the interconnect system. Each cabinet should have both copper and fiber multi-cable harnesses
installed from the cabinet to the centralized interconnect location. These harnesses would terminate in
patch panels at the cabinet. At the centralized interconnect location, the fiber strands would terminate
in fiber interconnect panels and the copper cables would terminate in jumper-wire-based termination
block. Multi-port Ethernet switches and voice systems should be provided with switch tail harnesses
that route from the hardware ports to the centralized interconnect location. The following steps would
complete the connection from a server NIC in Cabinet A to a switch port in Cabinet B:
1. In Cabinet A connect a patch cord from the NIC to a port in the cabinet patch Panel A-1.
2. In cabinet B connect a patch cord from the switch port to a port in the cabinet patch Panel B-1.
3. At the centralized interconnect location install a cross connect jumper from the Panel A-1
termination position to the Panel B-1 position.
PO Box 1224
Marysville, WA 98270
Phone: (360) 913-0102
Fax: (206) 274-4886
Stoops Consulting, Inc.
Information Technologies
Planning / Engineering / Project Management
[Link]