Term of the Day: TC

[Keefe]

Short for Telecommunications Closet, an area, typically a room or closet, that houses all the equipment associated with telecommunications wiring systems. The TC also serves as a termination point for the horizontal cabling system of a network, the point of circuit administration and contains the network's distribution panels, cross-connects and backbone. All telecommunications wiring is channeled through the TC. The TC may also house auxiliary power supplies for workstation equipment. The larger the network, the more TCs are needed since the end workstations can only be a certain distance away from the TC because of constraints in the type of wiring used. Networks that span multi-level buildings, such as hospitals, typically have a TC on each floor.