National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 50600‑2‑4:2023. It supersedes BS EN 50600‑2‑4:2015, which will be withdrawn on 18 September 2023.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee TCT/7/3, Telecommunications; Installation requirements: Facilities and infrastructures.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 April 2023.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 20 March 2023. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 50600‑2‑4:2023) has been prepared by CLC/TC 215 “Electrotechnical aspects of telecommunication equipment”.

The following dates are fixed:

This document supersedes EN 50600‑2‑4:2015.

The following major modifications have been made compared to EN 50600‑2‑4:2015:

the document structure has been completely revised;
the availability classes have been revised;
a clause on physical security has been added (Clause 7);
Annex C summarizing the requirements and recommendations of the document has been added;
Annex D with examples for cabling infrastructures including the location of active equipment has been added;
Annex E with an availability description has been added;
Annex F with specific requirements for colocation data centres has been added.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document has been prepared under a Standardizaton Request given to CENELEC by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Introduction

The unrestricted access to internet-based information demanded by the information society has led to an exponential growth of both internet traffic and the volume of stored/retrieved data. Data centres are housing and supporting the information technology and network telecommunications equipment for data processing, data storage and data transport. They are required both by network operators (delivering those services to customer premises) and by enterprises within those customer premises.

Data centres usually provide modular, scalable and flexible facilities and infrastructures to easily accommodate the rapidly changing requirements of the market. In addition, energy consumption of data centres has become critical both from an environmental point of view (reduction of carbon footprint) and with respect to economical considerations (cost of energy) for the data centre operator.

The implementation of data centres varies in terms of:

purpose (enterprise, co-location, co-hosting or network operator facilities);
security level;
physical size;
accommodation (mobile, temporary and permanent constructions).

The needs of data centres also vary in terms of availability of service, the provision of security and the objectives for energy efficiency. These needs and objectives influence the design of data centres in terms of building construction, power distribution, environmental control telecommunications cabling and physical security as well as the operation of the data centre. Effective management and operational information is required to monitor achievement of the defined needs and objectives.

Recognizing the substantial resource consumption, particularly of energy, of larger data centres, it is also important to provide tools for the assessment of that consumption both in terms of overall value and of source mix and to provide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate trends and drive performance improvements.

At the time of publication of this document, the EN 50600 series is designed as a framework of standards, technical specifications and technical reports covering the design, the operation and management, the key performance indicators for energy efficient operation of the data centre as well as a data centre maturity model.

The EN 50600‑2 series defines the requirements for the data centre design.

The EN 50600‑3 series defines the requirements for the operation and the management of the data centre.

The EN 50600‑4 series defines the key performance indicators for the data centre.

The CLC/TS 50600‑5 series defines the data centre maturity model requirements and recommendations.

The CLC/TR 50600‑99-X Technical Reports cover recommended practices and guidance for specific topics around data centre operation and design.

This series of documents specifies requirements and recommendations to support the various parties involved in the design, planning, procurement, integration, installation, operation and maintenance of facilities and infrastructures within data centres. These parties include:

owners, operators, facility managers, ICT managers, project managers, main contractors;
consulting engineers, architects, building designers and builders, system and installation designers, auditors, test and commissioning agents;
facility and infrastructure integrators, suppliers of equipment;
installers, maintainers.

At the time of publication of this document, the EN 50600‑2 series comprises the following documents:

EN 50600‑2‑1, Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 2-1: Building construction
CLC/TS 50600‑2‑10, Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 2-10: Earthquake risk and impact analysis
EN 50600‑2‑2, Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 2-2: Power supply and distribution
EN 50600‑2‑3, Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 2-3: Environmental control
EN 50600‑2‑4, Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 2-4: Telecommunications cabling infrastructure
EN 50600‑2‑5, Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Part 2-5: Security systems

The inter-relationship of the documents within the EN 50600 series is shown in Figure 1.

EN 50600‑2-X documents specify requirements and recommendations for particular facilities and infrastructures to support the relevant classification for “availability”, “physical security” and “energy efficiency enablement” selected from EN 50600‑1.

EN 50600‑3-X documents specify requirements and recommendations for data centre operations, processes and management.

EN 50600‑4-X documents specify requirements and recommendations for key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess and improve the resource usage efficiency and effectiveness, respectively, of a data centre.

This document addresses the specific requirements for the telecommunications cabling infrastructure in data centres used for the purpose of IT networking and building services (in accordance with the requirements of EN 50600‑1).

This document is intended for use by and collaboration between architects, building designers and builders, system and installation designers.

This series of documents does not address the selection of information technology and network telecommunications equipment, software and associated configuration issues.

Figure 2 shows the schematic and contextual relationships of the EN 50600‑2‑4 with other cabling and cabling installation related European standards.

The importance of the information technology and network telecommunications cabling infrastructure is similar to that of other infrastructures such as environmental control, power distribution and security systems. As with other utilities, interruptions to service can have a serious impact. Poor quality of service due to lack of planning, use of inappropriate components, incorrect installation, poor administration or inadequate support can threaten an organization's effectiveness.

1 Scope

This document specifies design principles for information technology and network telecommunications cabling (e.g. SAN and LAN) in accordance with EN 50173‑5, based upon the criteria and classifications for “availability” and “physical security” within EN 50600‑1.

This document addresses the telecommunications cabling infrastructures used in data centres. It describes:

for design, the application of generic cabling standards in the EN 50173 series;
for installation specification, planning and practices and quality assurance, the application of standards in the EN 50174 series (and related standards).

In addition, this document specifies requirements and recommendations for the following:

general information technology cabling to support the IT operation of the data centre;
telecommunications cabling to monitor and control, as appropriate, power distribution, environmental control and physical security of the data centre;
other building automation cabling;
pathways, pathway systems, spaces and enclosures for the telecommunications cabling infrastructures.

Safety and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements are outside the scope of this document and are covered by other standards and regulations. However, information given in this document can be of assistance in meeting these standards and regulations.

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations

3.1 Terms and definitions

3.2 Abbreviations

4 Conformance

5 Telecommunications cabling within the data centre

5.1 General

5.2 Requirements for cabling supporting the IT operations in all data centre spaces

5.3 Requirements for cabling providing distributed building services in all data centre spaces

5.4 Requirements for cabling for IT and network telecommunications to and within the computer room space

6 Implementation of cabling in accordance with EN 50173‑5

6.1 General

6.2 Functional elements

6.3 Distribution areas and spaces

6.4 Infrastructures supporting the functional elements of EN 50173‑5

7 Physical Security

7.1 General

7.2 Protection against unauthorized access

7.3 Protection against internal events

8 Availability classification for the telecommunications cabling infrastructure, infrastructure elements, facilities and spaces

8.1 General

8.2 Availability design principles for telecommunications cabling infrastructure

8.3 Overview about the availability classes for telecommunications cabling

8.4 Availability Class design requirements and recommendations

9 Management and operation of the telecommunications cabling infrastructure

9.1 General

9.2 Automated infrastructure management systems

Bibliography

BS EN 50600-2-4:2023

Information technology. Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Telecommunications cabling infrastructure

Current

Published:

30 Apr 2023