ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / When designing data transport systems, Telemetry and Communications engineers always face the risk that their chosen hardware will not be available or supported soon after the hardware has been installed. The best way to reduce this risk and ensure the longevity of the system is to select an open architecture standard that is supported by multiple manufacturers. This open architecture should also have the ability to be easily upgraded and provide for all of the features and flexibility that are required to be a reliable carrier-grade edge-device. The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) developed the MicroTCA open standard to address the specific needs of these Communications and Network System Engineers. This paper describes the MicroTCA architecture and how it can be applied as the ideal edge-device solution for Networked Telemetry Systems applications.