ICT Today

October/November/December 2020 I 43 from -40°C to +65°C (-40°F to +149°F) and Class 3 from -40°C to +70°C (-40°F to +158°F). Equipment categorized with these temperature ratings is safe to operate without cooling methods that require chilled gas or liquid. Any outdoor equipment outside of this range is considered non-temperature hardened equipment and requires active cooling to maintain its inlet air condition to meet its spe- cific operating temperature and humidity range. Equip- ment deployed with a liquid or immersion cooling system must meet its hardware compatibility requirement. Server, storage, and switch gear power levels are on the rise, thereby driving higher power dissipation in racks and making cooling more of a challenge. There are differing views as to what the average power levels per rack are today and will be in the future. This complicates things further because ICT professionals do not know all the use cases planned in the new 5G network, which will drive processing power, the amount of storage and the associated switches that connect these devices to the network fabric. If rack power levels will be in the range of 10 to 20 kW per rack for the next five or even ten years, EDCs can likely employ more traditional cooling methods and take advantage of an established supply chain that affords scale deployments and well-understood cost models for not only the cooling equipment, but also for the servers, storage devices and switch gears. However, if rack power densities surpass the 20 kW level in the near future, then developing and deploy- ing EDC infrastructure with the more traditional cooling methods that only support less than 20 kW per rack would decrease performance, effi- ciency and flexibility. If rack densities are greater than 20 kW per rack, the industry should be driving technol- ogy partners and a supply chain to support the need for these newer cooling methods and large-scale deployments. Allowable ranges, depending on equipment, extend the temperature range to as wide as 5°C to 45°C (41°F to 113°F) for A4. • A1: 15°C to 32°C (59°F to 89.5°F) • A2: 10°C to 35°C (50°F to 95°F) • A3: 5°C to 40°C (41°F to 104°F) • A4: 5°C to 45°C (41°F to 113°F) For equipment deployed in the traditional data center environment, ASHRAE TC9.9 recommends new network- ing equipment designs to be front-to-rear airflow rated to a minimum of ASHRAE Class A3 (40°C) and preferably ASHRAE Class A4 (45°C). For networking equipment where the chassis does not span the full depth of the rack, it is recommended to have an airflow duct that extends to the front face of the rack. Furthermore, ASHRAE TC9.9 recommends the equipment be designed to withstand a higher inlet air temperature than the data center cooling supply air; this applies if the equipment is installed in an enclosed space that does not have direct access to the data center air cooling stream or the equipment has a side- to-side air flow configuration inside an enclosed cabinet. Temperature hardened equipment is critical for the outdoor application with limited cooling capacity. Telcor- dia GR-3108 General Requirements for Network Equipment in the Outside Plant classify allowable ranges as Class 2 Integrated Network Communications for Educational Applications Learn more at www.gofrontrow.com Learn more at www.gofrontrow.com From classroom audio to campus-wide communication, FrontRow makes communication effortless in any learning environment. We offer superior solutions that are simple and easy to manage. C a m p u s C o m m u n i ca t i o n D e v i c e M a n a g e m e n t C o m m u n i c a ti o n S a f e ty & E m e r g e n c y C l a ss ro o m A u d i o

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