The purpose of this ATIS Standard is to assist the service provider in choosing appropriate protection methods for Ethernet communications circuits. This ATIS Standard describes protector characteristics that may impact Ethernet systems for outside plant, intra- and inter-building applications, and the services provided over these links. These protectors are categorized by technology type and configurations. This document describes protectors in their nonoperating state and their effect on these services, and also considers the effects of protector response to a surge event and how that operation may affect these services. This is a subtending document and is intended to be used with the Broadband umbrella document ATIS-0600012, Electrical Protection Considerations for Broadband Systems.