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News |
| MaxCell mention in "The OSP Gets No Respect" in OSP Article |
| 7/15/2011 |
 It’s always interesting to hear comments such as “What is there to outside plant besides digging holes and setting poles?” Or: “Just dig a trench and throw the cable in it.” And perhaps my favorite comment of all: “Someday wireless systems will eliminate the need for outside plant.”
To think that for the longest time, I thought those towers, antennas, cables, and down guys was considered outside plant (OSP). But if not, what are they considered?
The truth of the matter is that OSP is a vitally important part in the information transport world. It always has been and many will argue that it always will be. You can ask any data person what percentage of his or her network failure rate is somehow cable related (ISP or OSP), and most of them will agree that it’s probably in the 85 to 95% range. Yet the question remains, does OSP/ISP get the respect (and the financial consideration) it deserves?
Maybe our OSP infrastructure needs some marketing and sales efforts that clearly demonstrate what it does (or doesn’t do) for the end users. Maybe it’s about time we shared the money-saving secrets we’ve learned about installing OSP.
We can’t ignore that the good ol’ days of 4200 pair cables, lead cables, iron/copper open wire circuits and 82A carrier systems are fading rapidly. So it seems we need to say a sad farewell to the pot wipers, cable hookers, tramps, and lead dressers that used to be an everyday part of the job.
6 Planning Tactics That Deliver Savings
The industry has evolved quite rapidly in fact. And thankfully, the ingenuity, foresight, and outright industry savvy of the OSP personnel have evolved right along with it. They have been leading cost-saving efforts with technologies that have been born from the field -- and necessity.
Cost Saving Strategy A: Investigating Innerduct Choices
Take fiber optic cables as an example. They are incredible in many ways; one strand can now handle far more bits and bytes than multiple copper cables could in the past. In terms of their physical nature, fiber optic cable has a very small outside diameter and weighs nearly nothing in comparison to similar size copper cables. So, by using these smaller cables that have seemingly endless capabilities, we can see that our entire OSP infrastructure can (and should) change accordingly.
For example, we should look at how many conduits are needed between pull points: handhole to handhole; handhole to building, and maintenance hole (MH) to maintenance hole. The 4200 pair previously mentioned had a 3.89” outside diameter (OD), so that obviously required one 4-inch (ID). Shouldn’t we define ID here like we just did with OD? Conduit. Now, since the arrival of fiber, we can sectionalize that same 4-inch conduit with fabric mesh innerduct, and place 9 fiber optic cables that can handle the capacity of well over two hundred 4200 pair cables. By sectionalizing these conduits, the benefits are incredible -- less conduit, less trench width and depth, less restoration, less labor, and more cost-savings for the customer.
A prime example within this type of technology is a fabric innerduct solution for multiple cabling applications. Significantly reducing project costs, one such technology called MaxCell is able to fit up to 3 times as many cables per conduit. It also assists field crews to easily install cable (even in occupied conduit), minimize labor, and stay on schedule. The arrival of this new type of technology is paramount to saving money on OSP installations.
Read Full article at http://www.ospmag.com/issue/article/The-OSP-Gets-No-Respect  |
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