Scott Thompson; President, Oberon™, a Division of Chatsworth Products (CPI)

Over the past two decades, wireless technology has evolved as an essential means to provide internet connectivity and transmit voice, data, and video to and from people and devices. According to Statista, the number of wireless local area network (WLAN)-connected devices is estimated at more than 22 billion globally, with smartphone users alone surpassing 6 billion in 2022, equating to more than 83% of the world’s population. Now with trends like remote and hybrid working fueled by the pandemic, global e-commerce, and emerging Internet of Things/Industrial Internet of Things (IoT/IIoT) applications that are increasing demand for more wireless connectivity, it’s no wonder that a recent report by Markets and Markets estimates the wireless market to grow from $69 billion in 2020 to $141 billion by 2025.
 

By Michael Moore, Sr Product Manager - Open Architecture and Tom Cabral, Field Applications Engineer

According to the Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018-2023), global M2M connections will grow 2.4-fold, from 6.1 billion in 2018 to 14.7 billion by 2023, and there will be 1.8 M2M connections for each member of the global population by 2023.

Additionally, connected home applications, such as home automation, home security and video surveillance, connected white goods, and tracking applications, will represent 48 percent, or nearly half, of the total M2M connections by 2023. For the network engineers responsible for designing and managing the enterprise and premise networks upon which these and countless other connections will depend, especially when it comes to ensuring availability and speed of these networks to business users, there are a number of technologies that should be considered when planning network upgrades.

This white paper, by Chatsworth Products (CPI), summarizes one such technology—Power over Ethernet (PoE)—and its impact on the physical premise network, while highlighting the most recent advancements in cable management and equipment storage that will help with network upgrades and ensure a smooth, reliable deployment of PoE-enabled systems that are poised to become instrumental in the fast-rising world of M2M connections highlighted above and beyond.

By John Thompson, Field Applications Engineer, Chatsworth Products and Amir Radmehr, Ph.D. Director and Member of Technical Staff , Innovative Research, Inc. (IRI)

One of the main operational challenges in data centers is optimizing cooling performance. Optimizing cooling performance improves capacity utilization and may allow cooling system adjustments that reduce cooling costs and OPEX. In air-cooled data centers, the key is to understand how changes in the site impact cooling, and how airflow management can be used as a tool for optimization.

There are practical limits to how much power or air can be delivered to a cabinet depending on each room design. However, today’s average cabinet density of 8-10 kW is well within the cooling capacity of typical airflow supplied to the cabinet. With this in mind, it is likely many organizations still have some unused or possibly wasted cooling capacity in their air-cooled data center, especially if they do not practice a comprehensive airflow management strategy.

By Ashish Moondra; Sr Product Manager - Power, Electronics & Software

Although advanced technologies are taking a more prominent role in our day-to-day life, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry faced unprecedented challenges in 2020: how to immediately transition administrative and professional staff and students to remote work and learning, how to maintain the network with limited access to facilities? Reliable connectivity was no longer a privilege, but a necessity. For data centers, uptime became critical. And to support the huge amount of connected devices and sensors, edge deployments sprawled. As a result, critical factors such as power management, cooling capacity and physical security have now taken on even greater importance. How will these trends impact the ICT infrastructure in a post-pandemic reality?

By David Knapp Product Marketing Manager, Chatsworth Products and Ashish Moondra Sr. Product Manager Power, Electronics & Software Chatsworth Products

In an interconnected world, where organizations use a mix of enterprise-owned and cloud-based services, managing assets and white space remotely has become increasingly important. That process begins with a focus on the data center cabinet (rack) and gaining an understanding of how the subsystems in the cabinet form an ecosystem to support Information and Communications Technology (ICT) equipment.

By integrating the data center cabinet with hardware and software into a single platform, data center managers can truly gain visibility and understanding of the different dynamics within the data center to make informed decisions. Furthermore, the integration of IT infrastructure, hardware and software from the same manufacturer eliminates the challenges and confusion that result from pairing different products from different providers.

This white paper defines key considerations for remote management and operational efficiency in data center cabinets and shows how selecting an integrated solution will help simplify white space management.

Chatsworth Products

The care given to communications cable during installation and use is the primary factor in maintaining high circuit performance. Industry standards recognize this fact and recommend installation and management practices that will minimize changes in the physical properties of cable.

Chatsworth Products, Inc. (CPI) Cable Management Solutions support and protect cables to help maintain cable performance. This guide will help you understand how to specify the right Cable Management Solution for CPI Rack Systems including freestanding two-post and four-post racks.

By: Tom Cabral Products Application Specialist; David Knapp Product Marketing Manager

Fifth generation (5G) digital cellular networks have arrived. Carriers are beginning to deploy the first phases of 5G to provide enhanced download speeds, and a strong buildout is expected going forward. 

5G will initially bring slightly faster speeds than 4G LTE but will eventually bring up to 20 times the speeds of current 4G for certain applications. That will rival current landline speeds. However, 5G is not just a speed upgrade. It is a fundamental change in network architecture, a shift to more software-defined networking, and designed not just for fast downstream data, but for much faster and higher capacity upstream data as well. 

It is also important to understand that 5G is not a carrier-only upgrade. 5G will impact all physical networks, including enterprise-owned premise networks. If you are responsible for ensuring availability and speed of the network to business users, it is important to be aware of what 5G enables and how it may impact your network. 

This white paper, by Chatsworth Products (CPI), summarizes the impact of 5G on the physical network, and highlights advancements in equipment storage and remote monitoring that will help to protect your network as you prepare to upgrade.

By: David Knapp Product Marketing Manager; Sam Rodriguez Sr. Product Manager - Industrial Enclosure Systems

As more organizations continue to pursue the promise of intelligent, data-driven business decisions, the importance of properly deploying and managing the physical networks that connect manufacturing environments to the rest of the organization intensifies. This may seem like the exclusive role of the Information Technology (IT) department at first glance, but the entire organization, including those in Operational Technology (OT) are key stakeholders as well. 

This is especially true for systems control/automation engineers, manufacturing engineers, maintenance engineers or facilities managers with specific, first-hand knowledge that can help IT and the rest of the organization realize the potential of data-driven decisions. These specialists know what data to capture, where to best capture it and how to manage the facility where the physical network that collects and connects that data must be built and maintained. 

This paper, then, provides key considerations to help drive meaningful IT/OT collaboration for those actively engaged in the design, deployment and continuous maintenance of the data capture network in the manufacturing environment.

By: David Knapp Product Marketing Manager

Rack-mount power distribution units (PDUs) and power strips are a well-established solution for distributing power into Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) equipment racks. If you are responsible for selecting or advising selection of these critical components, be sure to review the impact of phase, level of redundancy, functionality on monitoring and reporting capabilities and the ability to integrate other rack-level monitoring hardware through the PDU in your overall consideration.

By: David Knapp Product Marketing Manager

Almost every Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) equipment rack used to store compute, storage or network equipment requires a rack-mount Power Distribution Unit (PDU) or power strip  to distribute power to equipment. But, if you are unfamiliar with electrical power distribution systems or even the differences in industry jargon, selecting a PDU or power strip can be challenging.

This white paper, by Chatsworth Products (CPI), presents an overview of the basics of selecting PDUs and power strips. It covers the key questions to ask about the site, rack and equipment to help simplify the selection process and quickly identify the right PDU or power strip. It concludes with additional resources that will help you select the right PDU or power strip for your application.