Telecommunications Rooms and Spaces - Inspection

What it is

The telecommunications rooms and spaces inspection is the substantial-completion record of one telecommunications room, equipment room, entrance room, common distributor room or telecommunications enclosure. It records the floor space against the outlets served directly, the plan dimensions, the clear height and ceiling height, the door, horizontal and vertical illuminance, dedicated and convenience receptacles, standby power and UPS rating, an architecture and access checklist, an HVAC, water, fire and bonding checklist, up to six racks or cabinets with their clearances, cable managers, rails and bonding conductors, and the building topology items the inspector can answer. Entries are metric. Temperature and humidity are recorded on the space environment Original and cable performance on the cables Original.

Why it is performed

A telecommunications room or entrance room must meet specified minimums for floor space relative to the outlets served, clear height, lighting, power and bonding before the cabling and equipment it was built for go in. A space that is too small, too dark, underpowered or without its bonding busbar will not support the cable runs and equipment racks it was designed to hold, leading to service outages, equipment failures or unsafe working conditions during maintenance. Inspecting against TIA 569-E, TIA 568.1-E and TIA 607-E at substantial completion, before the space is filled, ensures it can deliver the availability and safety the building owner and tenants expect and that the infrastructure design promised.

When it is performed

The inspection is performed at substantial completion of the space, when the room or enclosure is built, lit and powered and before it is handed over and filled with equipment, against the design documents recorded on the form. One space is inspected per record. If deficiencies are found, corrections are made and the space is re-inspected before final acceptance. Building-wide topology items are answered when known on any visit and are never required.

How it is typically performed

The inspector records the space type, since it decides which checks apply: rooms share the height, door, lighting, power and rack rules; distributor rooms add floor space and receptacle spacing; the equipment room adds its own minimum area and receptacles; an enclosure has its own few rules. The floor area is computed from the room length and width, or measured directly for an irregular room, and compared with the floor space the outlets served require; the smaller plan dimension is checked against the minimum. Clear height, ceiling height, door width and height, sill, opening and lock are measured and noted. Illuminance is measured 1 m above the floor in the middle of the aisles with the room lit as occupied, on the horizontal and the vertical plane. Dedicated receptacles are counted with their branch circuits, switching, rating and form, convenience receptacles with their largest spacing and height, and standby power and the UPS rating are noted. The two checklists are marked Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory or Not Applicable, with NA only where the item does not apply to the space type. Each rack or cabinet is measured for front and rear clearance and height, its vertical cable managers and their width, its mounting rails and its own bonding conductor. Topology items are answered when known. Implausible metric entries read as not entered with a check-units issue, since TIA 569-E and TIA 568.1-E are applied in metric.

What gets recorded

Identification: site, building, floor, space identifier, space type, whether an entrance room houses a distributor, building gross floor area and the design documents and revision. Dimensions: outlets served directly, floor area served, room length and width or the measured area of an irregular room, with the computed floor space and the required minimum. Height and door: clear height, floor to the lowest ceiling point, door width and height, sill, opening and lock. Lighting: horizontal and vertical illuminance in lux. Power: dedicated receptacle count, branch circuits, switching, rating and form, convenience receptacle count, largest spacing and height, standby power and UPS rating. The architecture and access checklist and the HVAC, water, fire and bonding checklist, each item marked S, U or NA. Up to six racks or cabinets: identifier, type, front and rear clearance, height, vertical cable managers and narrowest manager width, mounting rails and bonding conductor. Topology: a distributor room on every floor served, the longest horizontal run, backbone cross-connect levels, ICs between any HC and the MC, and cross-connects between any two HCs. The inspector, date, design documents checked, the light meter and measuring instruments, comments and deficiencies.

How results are evaluated

The record reads Conforms when every required item meets TIA 569-E, TIA 568.1-E and TIA 607-E for the space type: floor space at least the Table 3 minimum for the outlets served directly (9 m2 up to 100 outlets, rising with the outlet count), the smaller plan dimension at least 3 m (2.5 m wide for an entrance room), an equipment room of at least 14 m2, clear height at least 2.4 m, a door at least 0.9 m wide and 2 m high with no sill and lockable, at least 500 lux horizontal and 200 lux vertical at 1 m, dedicated receptacles in number, circuit, switching and form, convenience receptacles in number, spacing and height, every rack with its clearances, managers, rails and its own bonding conductor, a distributor room on every floor served, a backbone within two cross-connect levels with at most one IC between an HC and the MC and at most three cross-connects between two HCs, and no required checklist item Unsatisfactory. Any of these not met reads Does not conform. A Distributor A or B room smaller than the table may instead meet the TIA 568.1-E room size for its area served, and an issue names that basis. Recommended items raise an issue only: the 3 m ceiling height, an inward-opening door, the recommended room sizes, automatic standby transfer, a UPS over 100 kVA in the room, a rack taller than 2.1 m, the preferred clearances, enclosure lighting and the recommended checklist items. The record reads Not determined when the space type is missing, the core checklist items are unmarked, or the dimensions, door, lighting, power or rack rows for the type are incomplete. Building-wide items are graded only when answered. See TIA 569-E, TIA 568.1-E and TIA 607-E for the complete floor space table and the rules for each space type.