Critical Facilities
Are You and Your Network Ready?
Our Critical Facilities courses equip you with the knowledge and skills to manage network infrastructure effectively—whether under routine operations or during unexpected disruptions.
Prepare Yourself—and Your Network—for the Unpredictable
- Are you ready to overcome common causes of downtime, such as hardware failures, network glitches, software issues, and application bugs?
- Are you ready to implement new decision-making structures, processes, and tools to handle unpredictable events like power outages or natural disasters?
- Are you ready to manage surges in network traffic from emerging technologies such as FTTx and the shift toward Distributed Access Architecture (DAA)?
- Are you ready to audit your facilities’ processes and personnel to ensure operational reliability?
- Are you ready with mission-critical structures in place to respond to incidents safely, efficiently, and competently?
- Are you ready to evolve your access network to meet the growing demands of residential, commercial, and wireless customers as networks scale to 10G?
With our Critical Facilities courses, you’ll be ready for it all.
Who Should Take Our Critical Facilities Courses?
These courses are ideal for individuals pursuing careers in the cable telecommunications industry—whether with a cable provider, contractor, or vendor. Roles that will benefit include:
- Network Operations Center (NOC) Engineers
- Network Operations Personnel
- Headend and Hub Engineers
- Inside Plant and Field Engineers
- Maintenance Technicians and Plant Technicians
- Technical Operations and Engineering Managers
Here’s what you get with our courses:
Course 01: Critical Facilities
This course will help learners:
- Understand the history and legacy of the facility.
- Define the key requirements of a critical facility.
- Grasp the essential principles of planning, installing, and maintaining an effective facility-operating climate.
- Explain routing methods and practices, including labeling, as well as the types of cables and connectors used in facilities.
- Understand OSHA regulations, safety standards, and security procedures related to headend site layout and personnel.
- Describe the operations, procedures, and practices involved in headend and facility network system monitoring.
- Understand facility rack design in relation to organization, specifications, and environmental performance.
- Define the theory, architecture, methods, procedures, and specifications used to ensure proper facility grounding and bonding practices.
- Describe the powering of commercial and standby facilities.
Course 02: Critical Infrastructure
This course will help learners:
- Distinguish the components that make up the network infrastructure.
- Explain facility structures and their respective components.
- Interpret standard facility cleaning procedures.
- Explain the theory, operation, and procedures of headend fire safety equipment and its related components.
- Identify OSHA regulations, safety standards, and security practices related to headend site layout and personnel.
- Describe the facility design principles used in critical infrastructure environments.
- Assess the environmental impacts of various facility designs.
Course 03: HVAC
This course will help learners:
- Identify HVAC mechanical systems, direct expansion (DX) systems, precision cooling solutions, and capacity and efficiency ratings.
- Define the environmental requirements necessary for optimal HVAC system functionality.
- Evaluate air-conditioning systems based on performance and suitability.
- Compare air circulation methods, cooling topologies, cooling towers, water supplies, and chillers, and explain their roles in critical facility operations.
- Explore headend rack placement and aisle configurations as they relate to airflow and cooling performance.
- Analyze cooling system monitoring tools and technologies.
- Examine procedures for recovering from cooling system failures.
Course 04: Powering
This course will help learners:
- Interpret the types of AC and DC power systems used in critical facilities.
- Examine commercial power delivery systems used by network operators.
- Estimate power requirements for critical facility operations.
- Explore the operation and key components of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems.
- Explore the operation and key components of generators.
- Explain power distribution within facilities, including phases of power, bonding, and grounding.
- Describe power conditioning methods and their benefits.
- Describe electrostatic discharge (ESD) and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events and their potential impact.
Course 05: Disaster Recovery
This course will help learners:
- Identify the processes that must be followed when systems fail.
- Learn methods for detecting and addressing system vulnerabilities through test-induced emergency simulations.
- Analyze how to correct configuration changes that negatively impact systems by practicing response in change-induced emergencies.
- Explore how to identify weaknesses in operational processes by studying process-induced emergencies.
- Identify procedures to follow when natural disasters disrupt part or all of a facility.
- Understand how to build a postmortem culture to avoid repeating past mistakes and foster continuous improvement.
Course 06: A Greener Facility
This course will help learners:
- Evaluate a facility’s environmental impact by measuring power consumption, carbon footprint, generator emissions, heat waste, and water usage.
- Explore the use of renewable energy sources—such as biofuels, fuel cells, solar, wind, and hydroelectric power—to operate a facility more sustainably..
- Review sustainable cooling strategies, including optimal equipment temperature settings, heat recovery and reuse, efficient mechanical systems, and energy-conscious equipment room layout.
- Examine how system consolidation, virtualization, and automation contribute to greener facility operations.
- Review green building techniques, including facility siting, architectural design, and environmentally responsible material selection.