Telecommunications corrosion control

After the plant is in place, local corrosion problems have to be taken into account. These corrosion problems do not exist everywhere, and built-in corrosion control would be prohibitively expensive. The primary corrosion control at this stage is protection against the effects of stray DC currents. Preventing or minimizing the pickup of stray ciurent, draining the stray currents back to their source through low resistance bonds, and applying cathodic protection, can accomplish this. Other corrosion problems of the in-place telecommunication cable plant are discussed below. 

For electrical safety reasons, the telecommunication cable plant has to be grounded and bonded. This means that some bare metallic components of the plant have to be directly exposed to corrosive environments. Some of these alloys are not particularly corrosion resistant, and at some locations they require corrosion-control measures. An example of such a condition is where the galvanized-steel support hardware is part of the ground in a flooded manhole. 

Electronic Equipment Enclosures (EEEs) (Controlled Environment Vaults (CEVs), Walk-In Cabinets, Cabinets and Huts) are remote telecommunication centers that fulfill some of the functions of central offices (COs) but are located closer to the subscriber loop. EEEs can be constructed of reinforced concrete, steel, or fiberglass. All these locations have their own power and are required to be grounded. Regardless of the material of construction, the grounding electrodes may be stray-current pick up or discharge points thus, they can corrode or cause corrosion elsewhere. If the material of construction is steel, corrosion problems of this material also have to be taken into account. 

There are two fundamentally different methods of controlling corrosion in the telecommunication cable plant... 

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