Clim@Lan: A powerful artificial climate facility designed to test telecommunication equipments

To extend the supply of xDSL services, telecommunication operators have to put their active equipments in outdoor cabinets or underground enclosures. Those containers are submitted to solar heat flux and ambient temperatures. Performing thermal tests in real conditions (both in outdoor or underground cases) is not very easy because outside climatic conditions (wind, rain, temperature and solar radiation) cannot be controlled. Thus, France Telecom R&D division has developed a facility that allows unsteady simulation of France strongest summer conditions. Examples of experiments are shown for a typical underground enclosure and for an outdoor cabinet