A case study on the impact of free air cooling on telecom equipment performance

Energy consumption and its environmental impacts have become key concerns in the telecommunications industry and its data centers. As an energy-efficient approach for cooling, some data centers are adopting free air cooling, which uses ambient air outside the data centers, rather than air conditioning, to cool the electronic equipment. Traditionally, telecom equipment qualifications are based on passing a set of tests of industry standards that assume pre-defined environmental conditions. However, free air cooling changes the operating conditions and may go beyond those pre-defined conditions, which may affect the reliability and performance of the telecom equipment. This paper evaluates impact of free air cooling on the performance of telecom equipment. It compares the performance variations of telecom equipment under free air cooling with those under the traditional air conditioning to identify the impact of free air cooling on the telecom equipment performance.