Five Degrees May Decide Whether Outdoor Networks Survive Rising Heat, Extreme Networks Executive Says

The article said extreme heat, wildfires, severe storms and prolonged periods of high temperatures are putting IT infrastructure under pressure in places that were never designed for such conditions. At the same time, the hardware inside networks is becoming more powerful and densely packed, making it harder to keep cool.

Outdoor wireless equipment has traditionally been designed to operate at temperatures of up to 60°C, accounting for both heat outside the equipment and heat generated by the hardware itself. Some vendors are now lowering that ceiling to around 55°C. As temperatures rise and access points generate more heat of their own, that five-degree difference could be critical, the article said.

Access points have gone from housing two radios to three or four, and each extra radio adds more heat that has to be dissipated. Wi-Fi 8 could raise the stakes further: future wireless platforms are expected to incorporate more AI-assisted processing at the edge, increasing demand for compute resources, memory and power. That extra processing power and memory will also need more power and generate more heat, creating another challenge for vendors trying to keep equipment reliable in demanding environments.

Solar load is also a critical factor. Direct solar exposure can raise equipment temperatures well beyond ambient conditions, so outdoor network design must consider both how hot the air around the equipment is becoming and how much additional heat the hardware absorbs from the sun. Together, this extra heat can push already hot equipment much closer to its limits.

Designing hardware to operate reliably across a wider temperature range is more complicated than it might seem. Every component has its own operating limits, so each part needs to be selected based on the temperatures it is expected to encounter. Building access points capable of operating at temperatures closer to 70°C might require industrial or automotive-grade parts, which can be significantly more expensive and are not always as widely available globally, creating supply chain challenges.

Cooling increasingly powerful access points brings trade-offs. Fans help dissipate heat but add more moving parts and another potential point of failure. Larger heat sinks and liquid cooling can help, but they also make equipment bigger, heavier and more expensive. Customers want more powerful and capable equipment at competitive prices, while vendors face higher hardware cost and complexity when building outdoor access points that can withstand higher temperatures.

Lowering the maximum operating temperature can help keep costs down. But the article said the five-degree reduction matters because it can limit the countries, climates and outdoor environments where an access point can be reliably deployed.

Organizations should look beyond day-one performance specifications and consider how equipment will cope under sustained heat, solar load and other environmental stresses throughout its expected lifespan, the article said. The concern is not that an access point will suddenly fail the moment temperatures rise, but that thermal management becomes increasingly important as equipment becomes more powerful and densely packed. Designing hardware to operate reliably in demanding conditions can help protect performance, reliability and the lifespan of the investment, according to the article.