Recommendations for protection and grounding in rooftop stations

Deployment of small, rooftop mounted, communications electronics packages (CEP), is starting to proliferate, particularly in downtown cores. These systems may be installed in a variety of different setups, configurations and sizes. They may be mounted directly on the rooftop, in a hut located on the rooftop, or on a tall pole protruding from the rooftop. The building on which the CEP is mounted may also be the tallest building in the downtown core. The CEP is usually powered by commercial AC distributed from within the building on which it is mounted and must communicate with a separate controller inside the building. This paper focuses on: overall definition of the CEP environment and in particular, expected surge characteristics, the physical elements of a CEP installation (such as cable shields, conduit and hollow metallic poles) and how those elements may have inherent protection capability that can be utilized and incorporated as part of an overall, cost-effective protection scheme, functional specifications for surge protection devices that may be required to supplement the physical protection elements. The paper concludes with recommendations for an overall design and implementation strategy that can be utilized for global deployment of CEPs