The existing environmental solutions in telecommunications facilities have inherent limitations. For example, most mature central offices have limited space available for large air duct installations that are required for cooling high heat density equipment rooms. Furthermore, steep temperature gradients develop quickly should a cooling outage occur; this has been well documented through computer modeling and direct measurements and observations. Although environmental backup systems may be in place, there are situations when they will not help. In a recent case, telecommunications equipment in a major central office was overheated, and critical services were interrupted by a complete cooling shut down initiated by a false smoke alarm.