For the past couple of years we have lost routers due to lightning on an annual basis.
We are in a region with no natural high sites, and obviously our towers become the best grounding and attract lightning.
I was wondering if you guys could share your experiences on protecting against lightning, I know there is nothing foolproof to protect against lightning, but looking at ideas that could possibly be implemented to reduce the risk as far as possible.
I used to use lightning arrestors, and lost more routers and radios as a result, now I have non on my RF cables
Most strikes so far seem to have come via the utility providers power cables, so ideas on how to protect against that would be more valuable to me, however don’t hold back on other ideas to help protect the high sites themselves as well.
Looking forward to hearing some info on how to protect our routers.
I’m not the wireless guy at the company, but i can say that 80% of our problems with lightening were solved by using Fiber to the tower instead of Ethernet cable.
3 x Big earth mat near base of tower/ connect tower earth and building earth as well as utility earth together so you dont get potential difference between them/. lighning arrestors on everything that come from outside. you cant guarantee but you can reduce losses.
I dont have any pictures on hand . we normally use an old elextrical cable 25mm2 strip off the shielding and make our own. Bury it ± 2 meters down and then drive a earth rod down further. Bond the mat and earth rod together run a 25 mm2 cable from that earth distribution point where we bond all earths together.
We attempt to get to moist soil but not always possible, at which point we increase mesh and depth of rods as far as we can.
I have also had good success with grounding using old vehicle coolers (radiator) burried as deap as we can go. Its not the most ideal conductor but it has good surface area.
adding salt and ash improves conductivity as well. if you can dig to better soil or bring in better soil from surrounding area putting below and above earth mat
What about power - you are still using some copper
Fiber will help protect your switch ports - however - a lightning strike can still destroy lots of things.
With fiber - you may want to also consider using a high-end POE surge suppressor - and ground everything. And consider a copper ring around the inside of your tower-located equipment building to help with emi pulses during lightning strikes.
We usually rent space on towers, so power related grounding is handled by owners, we still have some service interrupts because of lightening, but equipment stays operational, before there was lots of issues including blown ports on switches.
