Fresh air-natural asset [telecommunication equipment cooling]

This paper outlines BT´s approach to economic cooling of its telecommunication network equipment over the past two decades detailing how fresh air cooling has evolved with changes in operational philosophy and equipment technology during this period. With nearly 2,000 exchanges cooled with fresh air, including almost all of BT´s trunk network telecommunication centres, the challenge for the future is to adapt fresh air cooling for future equipment, especially as the telecommunication industry is coming to terms with the increasing telecommunication equipment heat density which is expected to be in the order 5 plus kW/m² within 18 months. Discussed is the emphasis that BT places on conformance with European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) standards and in particular with environmental parameters in ETSI EN 300 019 and the use of Computational Fluidflow Dynamics (CFD) modeling techniques to achieve new fresh air cooling systems. The use of CID modeling techniques provided answers to numerous questions about how to deploy cooling solutions and how fool-proof they are and what, if any, safe guards were required to ensure successful application.