Wireless devices used in communication can be damaged by lightning strikes or electrostatic discharge. Lightning protectors and surge protectors are used to ground the harmful effects of lightning spikes to prevent damage and increase lifespan of these equipment.

The protectors work by diverting surges from the electronic devices to the ground. Some electronic devices have ESD protection built-in. However, adding the external spike/surge protection to the installation provides an additional layer of protection to the network.

Lightning and surge protection devices have specific surge thresholds that they can handle. This can either be max surge voltage or maximum surge current that can be discharged. Other parameters that characterize these protection devices are insulation resistance, capacitance, response time and whether they pass or block DC voltages.  Coaxial protection devices also have a specific frequency range of operation which are specific to particular wireless equipment.

Check out the table below for various coaxial and ethernet cable surge and lightning protection devices.