“Survivability” of critical low-voltage and power infrastructure can mean different things to different people. And, so, it is necessary to protect all kinds of power and low-voltage infrastructure from many potential risks. Fire events pose a great risk, because the associated losses and downtime for a fire event in critical facilities can be catastrophic.
This article will focus on the cabling, including the splitting/splicing and related components, that is distributed along those pathways.
When it comes to protection of certain critical infrastructure, some stakeholders, such as building, electrical, and fire code enforcers, can be focused solely on the regulatory minimum requirements.
Convergence has placed many life safety and security systems onto the common IT backbone, blurring the lines between regulatory mandates and other stakeholders’ requirements. In these cases, engineers are compelled to keep an eye on the mandates for secondary power, pathway integrity monitoring, and "survivability" for regulated systems’ functions, such as Style N data circuits from National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 72, “National Fire Alarm & Signaling Code.”
Figures 1 and 2 represent typical life safety applications and the basic difference between protection through "built" fire-rated assemblies and rated product assemblies.
Building codes drive criteria directly or indirectly (e.g., standards such as NFPA 72, UL 1221, NFPA 70, etc.). These regulations address services such as: