Lightning surge observations for determination of telecommunication equipment registibility

As speeds increase and levels of power consumption and operating voltages fall, various items of equipment which support our highly developed information society are becoming more fragile against lightning surges. The development of lightning-surge protection technology and of standards on protection against lightning for communications equipment are thus important in terms of overall network-system reliability. We thus carried out observations in Malaysia, which has one of the world's highest incidences of lightning strikes to gain the basis of a standard for lightning protection of network appliances. In this paper, we investigate the frequencies of occurrence for lightning surge voltage between the lines and the ground, of the generation of surges on cables and lines running to communications-center buildings, and of the generation of surges on internal lines in cases of direct strikes; we also introduce a contact-free probe that allows the observation of in-service circuits, along with other new observation systems.