Since ANCIS' roots can be traced to the legendary Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), one of the largest telecom R&D organizations in the world, we have extensive knowledge of telecom central offices as well as standards writing. The most important aspect of a telecom facility is to provide a physical environment that ensures reliable and uninterrupted operation of critical network equipment without excessive energy usage. The following examples describe two representative projects.
High-Density Point Load Strategy Central offices are evolving into diverse environments including high-density data center gear that is generally less robust. Designing and managing these diverse and evolving equipment environments are a true challenge.A leading telecom company stepped up to the challenge and tapped into ANCIS' expertise. The complex task was to develop a strategy or standard for deploying high-density point loads in more than 130 large switching centers. A point load may be a single rack or a cluster of racks with a significantly higher heat density than the average rack density. Providing guidelines for deploying point loads is not a trivial matter. The approach taken by ANCIS was to perform Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and Rack Cooling Index (RCI) analysis on a number of existing switching centers. This approach resulted in an unmatched capability to develop a company-wide design standard with explicit requirements and objectives.
Enclosed Hot-Aisle Architecture
A key service provider turned to ANCIS to develop solutions and company-wide policies for improved thermal and energy management. The goal was to create a design foundation for the next generation of central offices. The specific project objective was to provide recommendations for improving several enclosed hot-aisle designs. Separation of hot and cold air in the equipment space improves equipment cooling and energy efficiency, and one way of avoiding mixing is to enclose the hot aisles.
Advanced simulations techniques were used to systematically analyze the thermal conditions with enclosed hot aisles, raised-floor cooling, and targeted supplemental cooling. The subsequent analysis highlighted some design challenges with the original designs, and a number of modifications to the systems were recommended to improve the overall performance. The final designs provide outstanding thermal and energy characteristics--with reduced design complexity.
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