What is a Telecommunications Enclosure (TE) and is it supported by Standards?

A telecommunications enclosure (TE) can serve as a second (or third or more) telecommunications room (TR) in certain implementations as described in TIA/EIA 568-B.1 Addendum 5, approved in February 2004.

In a FTTE installation, backbone fiber is run from the entrance facility through the telecommunications room (TR) (which is still required on every floor) to active equipment housed in TEs. The TE acts as a “tiny TR”, providing consolidation, distribution, and a point of termination closer to the work area. The final link to the desktop can be via fiber, UTP cable, or wireless.

FTTE takes advantage of the extended distances offered by Centralized Cabling and adds greater flexibility for reconfiguration; critical for applications that require frequent moves, adds & changes (MACs). Current analysis also shows it to be one of the most cost-effective architectures available.