Backwards compatibility, for safe future [telecom. energy systems]

Today´s trends of development in the telecommunication industry and consequently in energy systems applications show a decreased technical lifetime of products. Not long ago, 20 years useful/market lifetime was a realistic approach. Nowadays, this is being reduced drastically due to the rapid development of new, better and more cost-effective components and technologies. These improvements imply much more frequent product changes which in normal cases lead to more maintenance costs from a customer perspective. In order to introduce a new generation of products which take advantage of newer technologies, components and result in less maintenance costs for the customer, it is absolutely necessary to take into consideration the backwards compatibility issues