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CASE STUDY: Glide Business C-Type Mini Cabinet

Glide Business uses state-of-the-art cabinet solutions from Cannon Technologies to keep vital equipment protected and secure.

Good things come in small packages

As one of the UK’s fastest growing providers of high-speed Internet to business parks, industrial

estates, and metropolitan and rural areas, Glide Business uses state-of-the-art cabinet solutions from

Cannon Technologies to keep vital equipment protected and secure.

Glide started life as separate businesses delivering broadband, utilities and communications services

to different markets across the UK. For decades, we’ve been known for delivering exceptional

connectivity and original solutions to the best universities and biggest businesses in the country.

Cabinet meeting

Rapidly growing its geographical spread, Glide Business implements a mixture of FTTX technologies

including fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP), as well as sub loop unbundling

(SLU). It is committed to using state-of-the-art equipment and, recognising the role that its outdoor

street side cabinets play in maintaining excellent levels of service, has worked closely with Cannon

Technologies. Having already used a product based on the highly successful Street Wise Active

Cabinet, Glide Business felt that a smaller, more compact solution would be more suitable for some

of its forthcoming planned projects.

Ben King, Glide Business founder, comments, ‘As always, when it comes to outdoor cabinets our

chief concerns are high levels of security, robustness, resilience and functionality. However, we

CASE STUDY: Glide Business C-Type Mini Cabinet

thought that it might be possible to encapsulate these qualities within a smaller unit, so asked

Cannon Technologies to give us the benefit of their expertise in design to manufacture and suggest

alternatives.’

As the outdoor cabinets are sited on pavements and roadsides, the smaller they are, the less likely it

is that they will obstruct walkways. Glenn Conlon, sales director at Cannon Technologies, takes up

the story and says, ‘We needed to configure a cabinet that could meet Glide Business’s brief and

provide easy access to the equipment housed inside. It soon became clear that we could produce a

solution based on our C-Type Cabinet, and so the C-Type Minicab was born.’

Features and benefits

Installed using an ‘in-ground root or plinth’ mounting system for location into or onto a concrete

pad, the up-to IP65 rated C-Type Minicab comes in at a width of just 600mm. It offers easy access to

the consumer unit, Krone distribution frame or fibre management cassettes/patching, DSLAM

equipment, UPS and main power & communications cable entry ducts. As well as housing the mains

electricity input fuse and meter, a consumer unit also connects power from the regional electricity

authority to connect to the thermostatically controlled fans and equipment. The thermal system can

also be upgraded with Cannon Guard which monitors fan fail, fan speed, door entry, flood, smoke

and over/under temperature alarms via SNMP traps over IP.

One less obvious benefit of its smaller size is its reduced weight – instead of using a specialist crane,

two engineers can lift and shift it into place.

The main body of the cabinet and the doors are manufactured from 2mm thick Z600 pre-galvanised

steel sheet. Conlon states, ‘Z600 denotes a total of 600gm/m² of zinc applied in an oxygen free

atmosphere to the steel substrate. In addition, the units have been painted to Glide Business’s

specific colour requirements with a 90μ powder coating, which provides a tough outer layer.’

Security guard

The C-Type Minicab offers the highest levels of security and thwarting the efforts of those who want

to access the active equipment inside requires special measures. Each door that allows access to the

thermal chamber is locked by a single Cannon Technologies stainless steel swing handle lock, which

can be locally operated. All locks are further deadlocked using an approved double D profile lock

body, which can then be keyed against a specific geographical area. An additional advantage of the

Cannon lock is the capability for electronic keyless entry, a great feature for companies wanting to

restrict the issue of keys which could be lost or stolen.

The locking system has been approved to The Loss Prevention Certification Board’s (LPCB) LPS1175

Security Rating 3 (SR3). Approval to this standard ensures that the security products used in the

cabinets provide the reliable delay and means of detection required to protect against intrusion.

Products certified to LPS1175 SR3 standards have resisted a series of professional attacks, each

lasting up to 20 minutes, using a wide variety of tools.

Fan club

Limiting the size of the cabinets brought its own challenges from a thermal management

perspective. Ensuring that the environmental conditions in the cabinet are kept within defined

parameters is vital in ensuring the correct operation of the equipment housed inside.

‘Each cabinet can be configured with a choice of cooling technology,’ says Conlon ‘The basic option

uses an electro/mechanical thermostat, which simply turns a one-speed fan on and off when certain

defined temperatures are reached, and an additional fan provides redundancy when necessary. This

can be used in conjunction with a hardened digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM), which

is designed to withstand higher temperatures. However, we have also designed a more intelligent

system that limits the energy used and noise created by running the fans at lower speeds. It

continually monitors the internal conditions to ensure only the necessary amount of air flow is

created to cool the equipment and this also helps reduce unnecessary wear and tear on the

components.’

This thermal management system is controlled and operated via a series of strategically located

sensors, which monitor air temperature and condensation levels. It is also possible to remotely

monitor and control the cabinet via the Cannon Guard management system, a fully integrated

hardware and software management package that is designed to support local or remote

installations.

Cannon Internal Climate Test Chamber with solar Heat Gain

Need for speed

It’s not just Glide Business’s business park-based customers that are set to benefit from the

introduction of the C-Type Minicab. Cannon Technologies believes that it is especially useful for the

rollout of superfast broadband to rural areas.

Conlon explains, ‘Despite the government’s stated objective to have superfast broadband in 98 per

cent of the UK by 2020, the fact is that around 1.88 million premises lack superfast access in the UK.

Many communities are choosing to join together and put in their own money to acquire a service

that meets their needs. For these smaller installations, the C-Type Minicab is perfect.’

It can also be manufactured according to a customer’s specific requirements, including two and

three bay options, and with bespoke mounting options to accommodate the use of 19-inch, ENSI or

DIN equipment. It can also be fitted with various copper termination modules and be pre-configured

with a range of internal fixings and layouts.

Out and about

450+ C-Type Minicabs have already been delivered to Glide Business, with further units in

production, and Ben King concludes, ‘Once again Cannon Technologies has come up with the goods.

We now have a flexible and cost-effective containment solution for our smaller customers, and we

are delighted that this has been achieved without any compromise in terms of the features and

technology we have grown accustomed to.’

Cannon also provide up-to Level 4 integration and installation services

ENDS