Motivation

Study Group 5 has produced safety recommendations which provide key information to the telecommunications industry on the:

• safety requirements for telecommunication equipment;
• safe working practices for network operator personnel.

This question will provide the route for the maintenance of these recommendations. The question will determine when these documents need updating or amending and ultimately provide guidance on when they can be deleted and when a new safety subject needs to be studied.

The following Recommendations, in force at the time of approval of this Question, fall under its responsibility:

• K.50, K.51, K.64 and K.75.

Question

This question will review existing K-series safety recommendations to ensure that they remain accurate and appropriate to the telecommunications industry and environment. It will ensure that changes in the environment or in technology (for example the introduction of new broadband systems) will produce an updated version to ensure that these documents remain current and valid.

This question may recommend further areas of study.

Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:

• Risk of people injury due to overvoltages and overcurrents on telecommunication lines due to lightning in collaboration with Question 5/5 (high priority);
• Investigate whether IEC 60950 and draft IEC 62368 take into account network operator requirements. (high priority)
• Investigate whether IEC TR 62102 takes into account the normal field situation (medium priority);
• Effects of induced voltages by electric power and railway lines in normal conditions on safety voltage limits on telecommunication lines (medium priority).

Tasks

Tasks include, but are not limited to:

• A new Recommendation K.injury on reduction of risk of injury to people (telecom personnel and user of the telecom network) due to overvoltages and overcurrents on telecommunication lines due to lightning.
• A new Guide on applying the IEC 60950 and 62368 standards to network telecommunication equipment and IEC TR 62102 for classifying equipment interfaces, if necessary.
• A new recommendation K.mag. This includes evaluation techniques and working procedures for compliance with limits to power-frequency magnetic field exposure of network operator personnel.
• Maintenance and enhancement of existing recommendations.

An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the SG 5 Work Program (use URL as shown in the table below).

Relationships

Recommendations:

• K-series

Questions:

• 4, 5, 9 and 13/5

Study Groups:

• ITU-R SG6

Standardization bodies:

• IEC TC 108, ETSI