An update on the field trial concerning underground solution for FTTCab architecture

The concept of the energy-saving strategy has become in recent years one of the top priorities of Telecom Operators and Governments. To this end, the deployment of the Next Generation Networks represents one of the main drivers towards the reduction of the energy bill. The NGN architecture can include different scenarios: FTTE, FTTCab, FTTB or FTTH. Among these, the FTTCab certainly brings the greatest challenges concerning the issue of heat dissipation. To this end, the present paper describes the first field trial (jointly carried on by Telecom Italia and Huawei) results for an innovative cooling solution: the Underground Cooling Cabinet. This system adopts a certain number of heat pipes (sealed hollow tubes containing a solution of ammonia) installed underground with the aim of refreshing the hot air coming from the equipment. The cooling process is simply pursued with the support of one fan, and is therefore far more efficient with respect to traditional solutions involving for example mechanical air conditioning systems. Data collected from the field trial and concerning internal/external temperature, as well as humidity, will be reported in the following. Finally, the next steps of the trial will be anticipated.