Thermal design of central office telecommunication equipment

Thermal design is in the critical path of all telecommunication equipment product development because of the steady, unabated increase in equipment power densities to satisfy the level of features, services, and performance demanded by customers. Proper thermal design contributes to the overall quality, functionality, and reliability of Alcatel-Lucent solutions and can provide a marketing advantage as a differentiator with respect to the competition. This paper describes in detail the thermal design process for a typical telecommunication equipment application in a central office environment. Experience is shared on the challenges, pitfalls, and common tools/approaches for both system-level and board-level (circuit pack) thermal design, as well as the thermal testing of prototypes.