scope:

Electrical Protection

The purpose of this ATIS Standard is to assist the service provider in choosing appropriate primary protection methods for xDSL communications circuits. For the purposes of this specification, the definition of a primary protector is a device typically installed by the service provider to mitigate large lightning- and/or AC power-related transients. Additional information on lightning-related transients can be found in Annex A. The primary protector in some instances may be integrated within equipment as a convenience to the service provider. Primary protectors are typically required on outside plant telecommunications circuits per the National Electrical Code^® (NEC^®) NFPA 70 [10]. This ATIS Standard describes protector characteristics that may impact broadband xDSL systems for outside plant, and inter-building applications and the services running over these links. These protectors are categorized by technology type and configurations. This document describes protectors in their non-operating state and their effect on these services, and also considers the effects of protector response to a surge event and how that operation may affect these services. This is a subtending document and is intended to be used with the Broadband umbrella document and is in support of the Broadband Document, ATIS-0600012[1]. These protectors are designed and installed to protect against both induced lighting and ac power fault events.

It is not the intent of this specification to describe secondary and tertiary protectors and their usage.

Equipment Covered

This ATIS Standard applies to the electrical protection at all xDSL network equipment locations. Examples include: xDSL equipment at Central Office (CO) Type facilities, remote sites, and at the customer location (including the entrance or interface point, and equipment at the customer location). This equipment may interface with various types of cable media, such as coaxial cable or twisted pair that provides the xDSL signal and possible power.

Although a variety of existing and proposed xDSL equipment types are considered, the merits of the different technologies, and/or architecture types, are not covered.

The following are examples of equipment/items included in this ATIS standard:

• Primary protectors.
• CO equipment.
• Remote equipment.
• Cell Site equipment.
• NIDs, iNIDs, NIUs, ONTs, BETs, and other points of demarcation.
• CPE such as Set-Top Boxes (STBs), xDSL splitters, telephones, etc.