Checklist For Building An Edge Data Center CO-111612-En
Checklist For Building An Edge Data Center CO-111612-En
Checklist For Building An Edge Data Center CO-111612-En
What is the best location for the edge data center? Does this building have adequate heating
and air conditioning?
– How close is it to the desired target market?
–– See Heating & Cooling below for more questions
Is the geographical location prone to natural disasters
to consider.
such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, ice
storms or excessive heat? Can the building obtain multiple high-speed
network links?
How much square footage is available in nearby
existing facilities or central offices? –– Ideally, network connections should enter and exit at
different points in the building.
–– If an existing site has limited room, is there room outside
of the building that can house a modular data center Does the building have a lot of windows?
solution? Or, is there an opportunity to retire and
–– Windowless facilities are best to better control indoor
remove old equipment?
climate and security.
How many racks or cabinets initially will be installed?
Are pathways such as doors, aisles, hallways and
–– – What will the data center look like 3 to 5 years from freight elevators large enough for equipment,
now? racks and/or cabinets to be moved in and out?
Does the building already have any Do regulations or internal rules require that the
infrastructure already in place? edge data center area be physically separated
from the rest of the telecom space in for example
–– – If not, how easily can this building be retrofitted?
an existing central office?
Does the building currently have sufficient power?
Does the edge data center space need to be separated
–– – See Power below for questions to consider. by a physical firewall?
2. Power
Power planning for today and for the future is one of the most critical items in the edge data center. To ensure the
edge data center is always operational, consider redundancies that meet the service provider’s requirements and
plan accordingly.
Can the utility company or multiple companies provide How many uninterrupted power supplies (UPSes)
enough power now and in the future? have been planned to be used?
Can the building be serviced by multiple utility grids? –– UPSes should support the entire infrastructure for at
least 150% of the time it takes for generators to
–– In a best-case scenario, power should enter the facility
come online.
from different entrance points.
What is the average power requirement per rack
Can power be supplied directly or will conversion
or cabinet?
equipment be required?
–– Typical data center racks require 5-10 kW of power
–– Consider conditioning the electrical power to avoid
while ultra-high density racks may need up to
spikes or surges.
50-60 kW.
Is there enough back-up power from the generators?
–– Generators should be able to support the edge data
center for at least 48 hours during a power outage.
How many BTUs can the space/building support? Consider a plan to minimize climate control costs.
–– Ideally, the ambient temperature should remain around –– Adopting a free-cooling design can also be a cost-
70°–74° F (21°–23° C) with 45–50 percent humidity. effective solution to temperature control.
How will the data center’s temperature be monitored? Consider walling off or utilizing curtains to better
control the climate off the data center equipment.
–– Utilizing temperature sensors on the racks are the best
way to monitor temperature. –– Controlling humidity and dust is critical to healthy
servers and switches.
How will the data center be cooled?
–– Using a hot-aisle/cold-aisle design can simplify
temperature control.
–– Slab floors can work well too, but often require in-aisle
cooling solutions
4. Design
Whether converting a telecom site like a central office or building a data center from scratch, one crucial part of
design is planning the infrastructure. The following are a few questions regarding overall design and security.
Does the data center design account for lighting? Does the facility have enough fire alarms and escapes?
–– LED lighting uses the least amount of power and –– Local codes inform how fire safety preparations should
doesn’t generate heat. be made.
Is there a plan to secure the physical premises? What kind of fire suppression system is right for
the data center?
–– Consider biometrics in addition to key cards for an extra
layer of security. –– To prevent expensive equipment from getting wet,
special inert gas fire-suppression systems are often
Consider a way of protecting rows or racks of
employed.
equipment from visitors if creating a customer
co-location area.
Spine Switches
Core
Spine Spine Network
Spine Spine
ODF
Edge Devices
Consider a phased 3 to 5-year roadmap for the data components are installed, our unique link loss calculator
center architecture. confirms the correct installation. Our link loss/ fiber
performance calculator can be downloaded for free.
–– The physical layer infrastructure should be designed to
support multiple upgrades— with migration paths that The data center should easily support both duplex and
can support up to at least 400G. parallel applications.
Because many carriers/service-providers will build –– Consider CommScope’s MPO-24 with LazrSPEED OM5
the majority of their SDN/NFV or Cloud/ compute to provide duplex and parallel fiber value and migration
environments on the edge of the network flexibility. The MPO-24 solution offers multiple parallel
(CO, MTSO, CRAN Hub, regional DC), the size and (MPO-8, MPO-12 or MPO-24) and/or duplex ports via a
scale of these environments should be such that the single MPO-24 trunk.
physical infrastructure requirements can be supported For additional information on CommScope’s High Speed
by multimode fiber optic cabling. Migration fiber infrastructure solutions please go to:
www.commscope.com/hsm/
Data center designs that propose longer channel paths
or extra connections should consider components that Is there a plan to manage the infrastructure and its
adhere to loss budget parameters. connectivity as the data center grows?
–– CommScope’s unique design tools can help speed and –– Consider using automated infrastructure management
simplify design and planning. Our application support (AIM) systems to help the data center become more
guidelines provide the supportable distance limits efficient—from tracking down ghost ports or switches
for every supported application based on fiber type, and loose connections to providing detailed mapping
connector type and number of connectors. Once the for moves, adds or changes.
Since there is so much that goes into planning and designing an edge data center, this checklist
cannot possibly cover every detail of any given project. CommScope and our PartnerPRO™
network of local experts around the globe would be happy to work with you to make sure that a
service provider’s future edge data center becomes everything they want it to be.
commscope.com
Visit our website or contact your local CommScope representative for more information.
CO-111612.1-EN (03/18)