Detecting and reporting the status of an overvoltage protection device

Abstract

A first overvoltage protection and reporting system comprises input and output transceivers and input and output surge protection devices coupled respectively to the input and output transceivers. The input surge protection device includes first and second gas discharge tubes coupled to the input transceiver only at, respectively, a first input and a second input. The output surge protection device includes third and fourth gas discharge tubes coupled to the output transceiver only at, respectively, a first and a second output. A second overvoltage protection and reporting system comprises input and output transceivers, a processor coupled between the input and output transceivers, and an output surge protection system that includes a surge protection device coupled to the output transceiver and a sensor receiver coupled between the output transceiver and the processor. The processor detects a failure of the surge protection device based on a signal received from the sensor receiver.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.