Efficient Migration of Street Cabinet Powering for 5G & IoT Infrastructure

Context

Our customer, a telecommunication operator, has over 500 cabinets for telephony and internet spread over 2.500km2. For many years, these cabinets were powered by our 500W rectifiers.

Today, telecom infrastructures are facing new challenges, such as the introduction of 5G and the spread of IoT. One of the consequences is a change in power needs. Therefore, the solution was no longer adapted and it was time to look for an alternative.

Challenges

The objective was to replace the powering of all cabinets by 300W rectifiers. But it goes further: the continuity of operation has to be ensured, costs have to be limited and changes in the cabinet infrastructure had to be kept to a minimum.

Alpha Innovations' solution

To answer all the customer requirements, we have developed a customized rectifier. This module already matched the power requirements but required mechanical adaptation to fit in the existing shelf. It enables to keep the same shelves and cabling, limit the costs but also the effort to make the change as the swap only takes few minutes per shelf.

Even if modified, the module keeps all its functionalities such as:

Hot-swappable feature enabling easy replacement and maintenance while operating
Improved efficiency compared to previous solution resulting in costs reductions
Wide temperature range (-20°C to 70°C), ideal for harsh environment

What’s next?

The roll-out of 2.500 modules is in progress across the infrastructure. In order to further improve the operation and maintenance, the customer will install our local monitoring unit, COMPAS, on 200 sites.