Electrical connector assembly

An electrical connector assembly comprising:

• a housing extending between a mating end and a mounting end, the housing defining plural contact cavities that extend through the housing between the mating end and the mounting end;
• signal contacts disposed in corresponding contact cavities of the housing, the signal contacts being arranged in rows along row axes extending in a longitudinal direction and being arranged in columns along column axes extending in a lateral direction, the signal contacts being arranged in pairs, each pair of signal contacts being populated on at least one side along the corresponding row axis with another pair of signal contacts and each pair of signal contacts being populated on at least one side along the corresponding column axis with another pair of signal contacts;
• wherein each pair of signal contacts define either a column pair or a cross pair, the signal contacts of the column pair being arranged in-column along the corresponding column axis, the signal contacts of the cross pair being arranged across the corresponding column axis;
• and wherein each column pair is surrounded on all populated sides by cross pairs and each cross pair is surrounded on all populated sides by column pairs;
• and
• ground contacts arranged in-column between each alternating cross pairs and column pairs.

An electrical connector assembly comprising:

• a header assembly comprising a header housing extending between a mating end and a mounting end, the mating end having a chamber, the header assembly comprising header signal contacts held by the header housing and arranged in an array in the chamber having a first layout, the header signal contacts being arranged in rows along row axes and being arranged in columns along column axes, the header signal contacts being arranged in pairs, a first set of pairs of header signal contacts defining column pairs being arranged in-column along the corresponding column axis, a second set of pairs of header signal contacts defining cross pairs being arranged across the corresponding column axis, wherein adjacent pairs of signal contacts along the column axes alternate between column pairs and cross pairs, and wherein adjacent pairs of signal contacts along the row axes alternate between column pairs and cross pairs, the header assembly having header ground contacts arranged in-column between each alternating cross pairs and column pairs of the header signal contacts;
• and
• a receptacle assembly comprising a receptacle housing extending between a mating end and a mounting end, the mating end being received in the chamber of the header housing, the receptacle assembly comprising receptacle signal contacts and receptacle ground contacts held by the receptacle housing, the receptacle signal contacts being arranged in a second layout complementary to the first layout along row axes and column axes such that the receptacle signal contacts are mated with corresponding header signal contacts, the receptacle ground contacts being mated with corresponding header ground contacts.