Electrical protection, reliability, safety and security of ICT systems
(Continuation of Questions 1/5 and 5/5)
Motivation
The widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is dramatically changing society, keeping people and things connected to information network, regardless of their location. Dependency among social infrastructures such as the communication and information networks, power, water/sewerage and transportation systems increases much more in future society. Therefore, deficiency of some infrastructure function will cause serious social disruption. The reliability of infrastructure is essential for stability of society. Especially, the communication and information networks will act as “nerve system”, and the importance of its reliability and security grows more.
The infrastructure is composed of telecommunication network equipment, which are susceptible to damage or interference produced by external physical phenomena, such as nearby lightning strikes, disturbances in the neighbouring electric power system, electromagnetic attack and neutrons from cosmic rays. Therefore, if not properly protected, a highly-sophisticated telecommunication system can be placed into an out of service condition by such phenomena. This Question aims to provide cost effective protective measures in order to improve the telecommunication network’s reliability as well as keeping the continuity of customer services from these events.
Specifically, lightning, attacks using extreme electromagnetic field such as High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and High Power Electromagnetic (HPEM), and soft errors which are caused by particle radiations such as high-energy neutrons created from cosmic rays are emerging threats for ICT societies.
This Question is related directly and indirectly to climate change. The direct relationship is the reduction of e-waste, represented by the significant reduction of equipment replacement due to electric damages, and the need of improved protection levels as storm intensities increase. The indirect relationship is associated to the improved reliability and sustainability of the telecommunication system, which reduces fuel consumption, as people do not need to travel for face-to-face meetings as much when real-time video services are available.
The following Recommendations, Directives, Handbooks and Supplement, in force at the time of approval of this Question, fall under its responsibility:
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ITU-T K.6, K.7, K.8, K.9, K.13, K.14, K.19, K.26, K.27, K.29, K.35, K.39, K.40, K.46, K.47, K.54, K.56, K.57, K.66, K.67, K.68, K.71, K.72, K.73, K.78, K.81, K.84, K.87, K.89, K.97, K.101, K.104, K.105, K.107, K.108, K.109, K.110, K.111, K.112, K.115, K.119, K.120, K.124, K.125, K.130, K.131, K.134, K.138, K.139, K.142, K.146, L.75;
- Directives (except Volume VIII);
- Handbook on Earthing and Bonding;
- Handbook on Lightning;
- K-series Supplements 5, 6, 11.
Question
The purpose of this Question is to produce new or revised Recommendations or Supplements regarding the protection of telecommunication systems against the effects of nearby lightning strikes, disturbances from nearby electric power systems.
Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:
- Lightning protection of wireless access systems, in particular radio base stations having equipment (e.g., remote radio head) installed in high structures exposed to lightning strikes, as well as miniature remote distributed base stations intended to provide wireless access in densely populated areas;
- Lightning protection of fixed telecommunications lines;
- Consideration of customer safety from the results of nearby lightning strikes and potential power fault events whereby telecommunication ports become influenced by the electric field of the electric power grid;
- Lightning protection of home network cabling, including the unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and shielded twisted pair (STP) used for access to internet services and the new challenges related to the power over Ethernet (PoE) and power over data line (PoDL) as this technology evolves into outdoor environments;
- Lightning protection of telecommunication stations (central office and access nodes), in particular those that make up part of the network’s backbone, which requires a higher reliability;
- Lightning protection of specific telecommunication systems installed in exposed environments, such as the systems used for remote video surveillance;
- Utilization of the data from lightning location systems (LLS) to optimize the network protection;
- Protection of users of telecommunications services from the dangerous effects of lightning strikes;
- Bonding configurations and earthing of telecommunication installations, including earthing of power feeding systems for protection against lightning strike and extreme electromagnetic phenomena;
- Requirements for earthing and equipotential bonding under transient conditions, as those caused by lightning strike and extreme electromagnetic phenomena;
- Protection of telecommunication installations where desired earthing conditions cannot be achieved;
- Damages and hazards caused by electric power and electric traction systems to telecommunication systems;
- Damages and hazards to telecommunication systems by the emergence of harmonics flowing on power systems, as a result of the dissemination of distributed power generation, such as inverters of the photovoltaic (PV) systems;
- Protection against the effects of short-circuits in the nearby electric power lines due to the possible malfunction of newly adopted self-healing systems by the power utilities;
- Requirements for the deployment of telecommunication systems on structures used by the power utilities, considering also its use for smart grid applications;
- Technical requirement for preventing information leaks by unexpected radio emission from equipment (EMSEC: Electromagnetic emanation security);
- Protection of telecommunication and data centres from attacks using high power radio waves (high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) and high power electromagnetic (HPEM));
- Methods for mitigation of malfunction and damages caused by high electromagnetic field by applying measures including electromagnetic shielding;
- Total design methodologies of ICT equipment/systems for applying soft error countermeasures;
- Requirements for soft error test facilities consisting of particle accelerators to produce neutron irradiation and test procedures for ICT equipment:
- Quality estimation method to find reliability in the real installation based on neutron irradiation test;
- Countermeasures based on the phenomena found in the neutron irradiation test.
TasksTasks include, but are not limited to:
- Recommendations and Supplements on the assessment of the conformance of radio base station regarding lightning protection and earthing;
- Recommendations and Supplements on the lightning protection and earthing of miniature wireless base station;
- Recommendations and Supplements on the use of data of lightning positioning system for network protection;
- Recommendations and Supplements on the protection of small-size telecommunication installation with poor earthing condition;
- Recommendations and Supplements on the lightning protection and earthing of video surveillance system;
- Recommendations and Supplements on the dangerous effects and protective measures against electromagnetic disturbances when internet data centre is co-sited with high-voltage substation;
- Recommendations and Supplements on the damages and hazards on telecommunication transmissions on copper lines to cover railway interference on ADSL/ADSL2/VDSL2/G.fast and other new broadband delivery services;
- Guides on the use of lightning protection, earthing, and bonding Recommendations;
- Basic Requirements for providing information about soft errors caused by particle radiations such as high-energy neutrons created from cosmic rays or Alpha particles;
- Methodologies for the total design of ICT equipment/systems to ensure the quality and reliability of ICT equipment/systems;
- Maintenance and enhancement of existing Recommendations on security concerning electromagnetic phenomena (HEMP, HPEM, information leakage);
- Recommendations for the test method and procedures against HEMP, HPEM and information leakage;
- Requirements for soft error test facilities consisting of particle accelerators used to produce neutron radiation;
- Selection of test methods, test procedures, test period and methods to monitor errors in ICT equipment subjected to testing;
- Quality and reliability estimation methods and guide for applying countermeasures resulting from soft error testing;
- Recommendations concerning semiconductor devices required for design of ICT equipment applying soft error mitigation measures;
- Revision and maintenance of the existing publications (Recommendations, Handbooks, and Directives) under the Question responsibility, as required.
Relationships
WSIS Action Lines:
Sustainable Development Goals:
Recommendations:
Study Groups:-
ITU-T SGs
- ITU-R SGs
- ITU-D SGs
Standardization bodies
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IEC (e.g. 37A, IEC TC 47, IEC TC 77/SC77C, IEC TC 81, TC107, IEC JTC 1)
- IEEE (e.g. EMC TC5)
- CENELEC (e.g. TC 81X)
- ETSI (e.g. TC EE)
- CIGRE (e.g. JWG C4.31, C4.206 WG)
- UIC
- JEDEC
