【Networking Power Supply】 Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS)

Ideal network services rely on servers, but also other equipment, such as good and highly reliable power supplies, to produce the optimal effects. Asian Power Devices engages in research and development of high-quality, high-performance, and eco-friendly power supplies for use in networking power supply equipment and places great emphasis on legal and regulatory compliance, such as compliance with the NEBS requirements, which is essential to entry into the North American market. Our objective is to ensure that our power supply products can fully satisfy customers’ strict requirements for network safety.

Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) is a set of standards for assessing the safety and reliability of a network communication system. Network communication systems have the grave responsibility of conveying important information, including information intended to seek help for those in danger, and therefore these systems have reliability requirements totally different from general consumer electronics.

Based on a concept proposed by Bell Labs in 1970, the NEBS standards were established in 1995 to facilitate the design and manufacture of safe and reliable network systems by equipment manufacturers. The NEBS standards have been accepted by North American telecommunication service providers as one of their basic requirements in equipment procurement.

The NEBS standards require compliance with the following two core standards:

• GR-63, and
• GR-1089.

GR-63 deals with environmental requirements for physical protection and involves the construction and setup of machine rooms and data centers, covering prevention and protection from fire, vibrations, and moisture; control of ambient temperature and humidity; and wiring management, among others. GR-63 requires that the entire network system of a data center be assessed together with the building of the data center.

GR-1089 regards requirements on electrical safety and electromagnetic compliance. The electrical safety requirements can be met with UL 62368-1 certification. The GR-1089 test on electromagnetic interference (EMI) is conducted in a way similar to those of EN 55032 and FCC, but a different frequency band is used.

The GR-1089 method of testing electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is similar to those of EN 55035 and K21 but has more stringent test levels because relatively high reliability is required to maintain operation in a harsh environment.

In addition, although the criteria of NEBS include only criterial ”A” in concept, the criteria are applied to an entire communication system after set-up, so the assessemt results may differ depending on such factors as whether the system is set up in a redundant power supply configuration, whether the machine room has an additional lightning protection device, and whether there is UPS protection. That is to say, the assessment result is determined not by the test result of a single power supply alone, but by the test results of the entire sytem.

Asian Power Devices has for years invested in and contributed to the field of networking power supplies and has ample experience in developing highly reliable power supply designs for networking applications. We are confident that our products comply with the safety regulations of many countries in the world, and we are always ready to provide customers with reliable and legally compliant power supplies. We have incorporated the design requirements of NEBS into our standard design specifications to ensure that our products comply with the NEBS standards and can enter the North American market and the global market.