What is Cable Plant Management?
Cable plant management is the design, documentation, and management of the lowest layer of the OSI network model-the physical layer. The physical layer is the foundation of any network whether it is data, voice, video or alarms, and defines the physical media upon which signals or data is transmitted through the network.
Approximately 70% of your network is composed of passive devices such as cables, cross-connect blocks and patch panels. Documenting these network components is critical to keeping a network finely tuned. The physical medium can be copper cable (e.g., cat 5), coaxial cable, optical fiber (e.g., single or multimode), wireless or satellite. The physical layer defines the specifics of implementing a particular transmission medium. It defines the type of cable, frequency, terminations, etc. The physical layer is relatively static. Most change in the network occurs at the higher levels in the OSI model.
Key components of the cable plant include the entrance facility, equipment room, backbone cable, backbone pathway, telecommunication room, and horizontal distribution system. We can show you how to develop an online inventory and management system that will let you take control of these critical infrastructure resources.