The Convergence of Central Office and Customer Located Power Equipment

This paper reviews the power system used in British Telecom (BT) Telephone Exchanges (Central Offices) and the growing customer located power equipment demands. The increasing switching density of modern telecommunications equipment and the changes in power density of converters and batteries are the major factors in the revolution in power supply systems. The adoption by BT of high frequency converters and sealed batteries as the recommended provision for new power plant is a major step forward and leads to the possibility of standard power modules suitable for both Central Office and customer located systems. With the expansion of telecommunication systems and facilities, flexibility of power supply is a major factor and the advantages of standard power units in modular form, which can be built into a variety of systems meeting the reliability requirements, virtually off the shelf, are discussed. The present power rack system using relatively small rectifiers increases the overall reliability. The next step and the limit of convergence are considered.