ISE Magazine, November 2017
NOVEMBER 2017 ISEMAG COM 37 While these trends affect many aspects of network operations let us dive into each of them to understand what they are and how they impact the types of backup power that are most applicable to network operations Like most situations in life its entirely possible the best choice is going to change over the next several years TREND 1 Improving Efficiency Through Smaller Sites and Lower Power Draws The telecommunications market is demanding an increasingly efficient operations model one that decreases energy consumption reduces remote site footprint and lowers maintenance requirements while increasing sustainability According to an April 2017 article in AGL magazine US wireless carriers collectively spent an estimated 9 less in capital expenditures in 2016 than they did in 2015 with a trend toward smaller less costly wireless sites 1 The traditional macro site model featured high powered cell sites with multiple technologies from multiple specialty vendors Large shelters were needed to house multiple generations of radio technology as well as future hardware growth which also necessitated large DC power plants to serve site loads and AC generators to meet peak needs from HVAC units for cooling and DC power plant recharging As the architectural and operating efficiencies of network equipment have improved with the latest wide scale deployment of 4G LTE technologies the power requirements to support these networks have decreased dramatically The improvements in power amplifier efficiency and the reduction in cable loss provided by a remote radio head architecture have resulted in reduced overall power consumption at the base station POWER Figure 1 Backup power solution strength relative to current trends in telecom
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