Telecom and Network Equipment Cooling Cooling Solutions -- DC Fans | Herays
Application Solution

Telecom and Network Equipment Cooling

Reliable airflow for communication equipment and network infrastructure

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Problem Space

Industry Challenges

Understanding the specific thermal and environmental demands of Telecom and Network Equipment Cooling environments is the foundation of every Herays solution.

Telecommunications infrastructure — base station equipment, optical transport nodes, edge computing chassis, and network aggregation units — operates under carrier-grade reliability requirements that place demands on cooling fans that no other commercial electronics application matches. A server in a data center gets routine maintenance; a fan in an outdoor base station cabinet is expected to run for 7–10 years without access. The thermal management system must be designed around this reality from the start.

What distinguishes telecom equipment cooling from general industrial applications:

  • 48V DC is the industry standard — telecom power architecture runs on −48V or +48V rectified battery bus. Cooling fans must run directly off this voltage to avoid the losses, cost, and additional failure points of a 12V or 24V converter stage.
  • Carrier-grade MTBF requirements — NEBS Level 3 (North America) and ETSI EN 300 019 (Europe) call for fan MTBF of 100,000+ hours at operating temperature. This must be referenced to actual operating conditions, not the standard 25°C test temperature.
  • N+1 redundancy with hot-swap capability — most telecom chassis require fan modules that can be removed and replaced under power without interrupting traffic. This means tachometer feedback to the system controller and fail-safe airflow continuity from remaining fans.
  • Wide operating temperature — outdoor base stations and street cabinets may see −40°C cold starts and +65°C ambient under solar load. The fan must be rated across this full range, not just at a comfortable 25°C center point.
  • Low EMI and conducted noise — telecom chassis carry high-sensitivity RF and optical measurement circuits. Fan motor switching noise must meet the EMI limits of NEBS GR-1089 or equivalent to avoid interference with co-located equipment.
  • Altitude derating — cell tower and rooftop installations may operate at 2,000–4,000 m altitude where air density is 20–35% lower. Airflow ratings referenced at sea level must be derated for the actual installation altitude.

Herays 48V DC axial fans are designed for telecom equipment cooling, offering ball-bearing construction, tachometer output, and CE/RoHS certification across the HR1225 and HR1238 series.

  • HR1225 48V — 120×120×25 mm, 134 CFM, 13.9 mmH₂O, ball bearing. The standard 120 mm size for 1U and 2U telecom chassis fan slots. Direct 48V operation, no intermediate converter needed.
  • HR1238 24V — 120×120×38 mm, 186 CFM, for high-density chassis with greater thermal loads per slot. Available in 48V on request.

Tachometer output (−SF variants) enables the chassis management controller to monitor each fan’s actual speed, detect bearing degradation before failure, and trigger N+1 failover. This is the standard integration path for managed telecom equipment.

Is a 48V fan meaningfully different from a 24V fan with a DC-DC converter? Yes — every converter is an additional failure mode with its own MTBF. In carrier-grade equipment where the goal is achieving 99.999% uptime (“five nines”), eliminating unnecessary components is not an optimization, it’s a design requirement. A 48V-native fan removes the converter entirely from the cooling path.

How do I account for altitude derating in my airflow calculation? Multiply open-frame CFM by the ratio of air density at your installation altitude to sea-level air density. At 3,000 m altitude, air density is approximately 74% of sea level — a fan rated at 134 CFM at sea level delivers approximately 99 CFM at that altitude. Size the fan to meet your thermal requirement after this derating.

Can I use the same fan in both indoor and outdoor telecom enclosures? For outdoor enclosures, specify IP54 or higher and UV-stabilized materials. For indoor controlled environments, open-frame fans are appropriate. The electrical and mechanical specifications are otherwise the same; the difference is in the environmental protection of the fan housing and motor seal.

Herays supplies 48V cooling fans to telecom equipment OEMs and system integrators with custom cable assemblies, connector configurations, and documentation for NEBS or ETSI compliance packages. Contact us with your chassis specifications and thermal budget.

Herays Approach

Our Solution

Precision-engineered DC fan technologies tailored to the performance and reliability requirements of Telecom and Network Equipment Cooling applications.

Why Herays

Key Features for Telecom and Network Equipment Cooling

Infrastructure uptime

Fan choices for 24/7 telecom, networking, and edge equipment operation.

Outdoor-ready options

Waterproof and dust-resistant options for cabinets and exposed environments.

Control compatibility

PWM, tachometer, connector, and voltage customization for system integration.

Application Engineering

Ready to find the right cooling solution for Telecom and Network Equipment Cooling?

Our application engineers are available to help you select the right product for your system requirements.

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