Network visibility

Fri Oct 22 04:59:12 UTC 2021

On 10/21/21 22:50, Lady Benjamin Cannon of Glencoe, ASCE wrote:

> Outside the datacenter is where DC power really shines in my opinion.  Inside the DC, everything is AC now and probably for the best.
>
> We never came up with a modular standard for -48VDC. Perhaps that could have changed things.
>
> But it sure is nice having 72hrs of battery run time in the field/edge - although those are becoming mini data centers themselves and are in turn also slowly going AC.

I suppose it depends what business you are in.

If you are a mobile operator and have towers in all sorts of places 
where utility mains may be unavailable or spotty, I guess having to 
convert DC to AC makes little sense if that's your primary source of 
power (especially since solar PV, wind turbines and batteries all output 
DC power anyway).

We run a fair bit of Metro-E network in the countries we operate, and 
most of that is in standard commercial buildings that are not data 
centres. Even there, we run AC, with a UPS, and rely on the building 
generator for an alternate AC source in case of a mains outage.

But yes, for our terrestrial Transport network, that's all DC anyway, 
regardless of the power source.

Mark.