UPS in the Central Office; A TelCo engineer's perspective

The telecommunications industry is evolving toward a more distributed system architecture. Stored Program Controlled switching machines will interface with feature processors so new services can be integrated into the network. This is expected to reduce the financial outlays, and lead times previously expended to implement hardware dependent new features. Additionally, computerized Operational Support Systems are increasingly utilized for system testing, troubleshooting, and switch administration. Most of the computers used for these purposes are AC powered. The "Real time" nature of telephone service, the Volitile nature of some computer memory elements, and the necessity of system reliability accentuate the need for uninterruptible power. Accordingly, these systems are being deployed for use in the central office. For the moment, it appears that UPS is a technology more germane to the data processing side of the business, since this is where it evolved. This paper is intended to point out features which make an UPS system more utile to a telephone engineer or Operations Manager. Some features already exist in a few UPS systems, and some do not. Obviously, the systems best suited to the needs of the telecommunications customer, will enjoy a larger share of that market. Though highly developed, there are design alterations which could make UPS systems better suited to the central office environment.