COMM/DATA PROTECTION GUIDE - Tii Network Technologies

Network Protection
Sophisticated Equipment Demands Sophisticated Protection
• An unprotected or insufficiently protected communications network is a hazard to both your employee’s
safety and your bottom line.
• When a communications line is protected by Porta Systems products, hazards are quickly and safely shorted to
ground.
HAZARDS TO YOUR NETWORK
Lightning:
By far the most common cause of electrical surge damage to the communications network
is lightning. Lightning can enter your network in a number of ways. It might strike a telephone
or power line, causing high voltage to enter the equipment through incoming lines,
or it might strike the ground and travel along buried cables.
Power Crosses:
Power crosses refer to incidents where a communications line comes in physical contact
with an electrical power line. This could be caused by a downed telephone pole where
phone and electrical lines have crossed. These incidents cause excessive AC current conditions
to be carried into the communications system.
Power Faults:
Power faults should not to be confused with power crosses. In most buildings, the power
company’s neutral line is bonded to the telephone company’s cable. If current is introduced
onto this neutral line by any means, it can be transferred to the communications line and
into the equipment.
Induction:
Communications lines need not come in direct physical contact with lightning or power
overloads for a voltage spike or surge to be introduced on a line. These hazards can
be induced from nearby sources such as the magnetic field surrounding a power line.
Furthermore, when a brown out occurs, the power surge that accompanies the return to
normal service can be transferred to nearby communications lines.
Electrostatic Discharge:
Most people have experienced the effects of electrostatic discharge in the home by simply
walking across a carpet, touching a metal object and receiving a small shock. Similar type
of shocks can be transmitted to communications circuits through the build-up and discharge
of energy in dry climates.
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