Solutions for telecommunications

Telecommunications have become a central nervous system of modern times, since the capability of communicate belongs to the key elements of all areas of human activities. The collapse of communications may result in critical loss of life or property, and bring about other damages. It is therefore necessary to protect the communication technologies from atmospheric or industrial overvoltages which endanger them fatally. Such a danger may also be enhanced by a nearby transmission tower situated on the top of a hill and functioning as a large lightning conductor. In the case of a lightning strike extremely high current levels (up to 200 kA) may be generated, followed with strong electromagnetic impulses, huge differences of electric potential across short distances (hundreds of kV/m) and high discharge currents.These absolutely destroy sensitive electronic circuits and the related infrastructure up to a distance of several kilometers.

SALTEK® offers comprehensive overvoltage protection solutions for all types of telecommunication sectors:

Radio communications, incl. TV and radio broadcast
Mobile network operators (GSM, GSM-R, LTE, 5G,…)
Data transmissions - Ethernet, data centres, structured networks,…
Air traffic control and telecommunication systems for the army
Traffic telematics
Satellite communications
Commercial transmitter-receiver technology
Others

Comprehensive overvoltage protection of communication systems means in particular protecting the following gateways:

AC/DC power supply – here it is advantageous using combined protections of FLP-B+C MAXI or FLP-12.5 types to protect AC power supply, or DPF overvoltage protections for DC power supply systems
BTS, transmitters and transceivers – HF sender ports can be fitted with coaxial-type overvoltage protections of the HX and ZX (50 Ω) series. For satellite communication ports the FX and SXN (75 Ω) series are suitable. Particular attention is to be paid to the BTS (Base Transmission Station) transceivers for mobile communication (GSM, LTE, 5G) as well as to other systems sharing close frequency ranges for signal transmission and reception. For these applications SALTEK® offers protective elements of special design, with extremely low level of passive intermodulation products for keeping the highest possible distance from distorting intermodulation products. The appropriate selection of overvoltage protections for modern digital modulation methods is described in a special chapter of the manual.
Receivers – a steady increasing sensitivity of radiocommunication receivers means higher susceptibility of input ports to overvoltages, linked with damages resulting from such effects. Technological components in which useful signals in the order of microvolts (or even smaller) are being processed, are not resistant to dynamic overvoltage impulses, and consequently have to be protected. SALTEK® offers a set of effective SPDs (HX, ZX, FX, SXN) for both professional and commercial receivers, with excellent HF properties for frequencies up to 3.8 GHz.
RET – the LTE and 5G systems are using advanced methods of antenna radiation electronic control (the so called RET systems) which in principle represent a physical combination of DC power supply units with RS-485 data lines. The systems are mounted at the highest point of a telecommunication mast and therefore need to be protected, in particular from atmospheric overvoltages. In order to achieve a maximum simplicity of the installation SALTEK® offers a general-purpose RET protection, which is reverse compatible for all versions of AISG standards.
Microwave radio communication links – for modern “all outdoor” connections. SALTEK® offers a portfolio of DL series of SPDs for Ethernet networks with a data throughput of up to 10 Gbps, simultaneously with integrated PoE protection (all standards). Conventional “split” connection can easily use an appropriate type of the HX or SXN coaxial overvoltage protections.
Data networks – common Ethernet lines or structured cabling (incl. PoE) may use the series of DL data line SPDs.
Supporting technologies: telecommunications as a key infrastructure are using a broad range of supporting technologies (fire alarm systems, security alarm systems/intrusion detection systems, air conditioning, camera systems, …) which require protection from overvoltages. The reason for using this technology is not so much the danger to the equipment as such, but more often the risk of overvoltage carry-over into the telecommunication technology in case the protection of the latter has been disregarded.