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May 27, 2008 -- Members of the Telecommunications Industry Association's (TIA) Fiber Optics LAN Section (FOLS) believe that the recent merger of the TIA engineering committees FO-4, Committee on Fiber Optics, and TR-42, User Premises Telecommunications Cabling Infrastructure, represents a positive move in the industry.
"The resulting committee comprises a body of companies ideally suited to maintain standards and make progress in new areas, such as the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) market," comments Rodney Casteel, FOLS chair. "We believe that this merger will ensure that standards will stay current with emerging markets."
"While there will be little short-term impact on the responsibilities and activities of these committees and their subcommittees, there are some longer-term benefits expected," adds Herb Congdon, chair of TR-42 and FOLS' standards chair. "The TIA's technical committee saw an opportunity to bolster the FO-4 engineering committee, which has experienced a decline in participation in the past few years. The increasing use of optical fiber in customer-owned networks, such as commercial buildings and data centers, and the recognized absence of optical fiber component and testing expertise meant that the TIA TR-42 engineering C committee was a likely partner for FO-4."
In February 2007, the two engineering committees started co-locating their meetings and hosting joint leadership meetings. According to TIA, throughout the year, it became apparent that there were multiple synergistic benefits to be realized from the merger, such as: balancing the component and testing expertise for balanced twisted-pair cabling in TR-42.7 with component and testing expertise for optical fiber cabling in TR-42.8; incorporating optical fiber into new and existing common and premise standards; and capitalizing on new applications that are based on optical fiber.
According to a press release, now that the merger is complete, the committee leadership is revising the scope of the TR-42 engineering committee, and re-numbering the FO-4 subcommittees. For simplicity, the FO-4 subcommittees have been re-numbered as follows:
FO-4.1 will be TR-42.11
FO-4.2 will be TR-42.12
FO-4.3 will be TR-42.13
FO-4.5 will be TR-42.15
The subcommittee leadership of the FO-4 subcommittees was not affected by the merger. However, regularly scheduled elections in February resulted in some new leadership in several subcommittees. The merged TR-42 plenary officers elected were Herb Congdon (Tyco Electronics) as chair and Bob Jensen (Fluke Networks) as vice-chair. Congdon had served as chair of TR-42 prior to the merger, and Jensen was serving as interim chair of FO-4.
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