Experimental liquid cooled base station

Present radios base stations are cooled by passive fins with or without fans. Fanless products are used in mast applications and they are equipped with tall fins and power is limited. For higher power applications or when size is an issue, namely indoors or cabinets, fans are used to enhance heat transfer from surface to air. Fan cooling has also its limits and power used for cooling increases rapidly when heat transfer is increased. Remaining problem is also that what is done for heat removed from the equipment. Another issue is, when miscellaneous racks are located in an indoor area, equipment are not always nicely arranged (hot and cold aisle). In these bad conditions, hot air exhausting from equipment could be blown to inlet of another one. Liquid cooling can tackle challenges coming from higher power consumption [2] need to handle higher data rates. Firstly, liquids can transfer more heat than air from the same area and heat can be transferred away from the device with one system. This allows higher capacity products in same or smaller size and new site locations as heavy ventilation or A/C is no longer needed. Despite the improved cooling performance, power consumption to run liquid cooling system is same as power needed to run rotational fans but same time more heat could be removed from system. Compared to a mechanical compression air conditioning system, energy consumption is significantly reduced. All in all liquid cooling can provide next leap in electronics cooling and allow many new opportunities for operators to provide better service for end customers. This article focuses on use experiences, performance and future opportunities of liquid cooled radio base station site compared with conventional air cooled radio base station site