Clearfield (NASDAQ: CLFD) announced a new air conditioner option to its FieldSmart Fiber Active Cabinet (FAC) product line for outdoor enclosures, further expanding its application of active outdoor cabinets. The new fiber cabinet feature is intended to support the deployment of routers, switches and other non-hardened devices closer to the end customer.
"Customers are telling us they need to place non-hardened active equipment deeper in the network, requiring climate-controlled air conditioners that maintain operating temperature inside the cabinet," said Johnny Hill, Clearfield's chief operating officer. "The challenge our customers face is that the development times to engineer these devices so that they can be deployed in the outside plant isn't feasible if they want to take early advantage of market demand. By adding this feature to our FACs, we're solving that problem for them, with the added benefit of having one partner that's able to work with them on any deployment."
The FieldSmart Fiber Active Cabinet (FAC) is designed for modularity and flexibility, while maintaining a maximum cooling capability for the active electronics. The new FAC air conditioner option provides a single opening for the conditioned (supply) air to be discharged into the cabinet and for the indoor air to return to the air conditioner. FieldSmart FAC sizes that accommodate the air conditioner option include:
FieldSmart FAC 3200 with two front and rear 16-RU 23" frames that can accommodate up to 32 RU of active electronics while providing up to 576 internal fiber distribution ports for deployments
FieldSmart FAC 5400 with two swing frame front and rear 27-RU 23" frames that can accommodate up to 54 RU of active electronics and provides up to 1,152 internal fiber distribution ports for deployments
FieldSmart Fiber Active Cabinets are designed to accommodate a variety of standard options, such as a rectifier system, battery warmers and field upgradeable fiber bulkheads. FieldSmart FAC air conditioner products are scheduled for general availability in March 2020.