Documenting the Fiber Network
Documenting the Fiber Network
Background
Celerity was awarded a project to reconcile network documentation to the actual field conditions that exist in a California city’s splice cases and enclosures with the goal of determining splice assignments. Their network needed to be audited in order to gain further accuracy within internal records for reliability and proper documentation. Services were called upon to audit a scope of a projected 90 splice points, 262 cables with an approximate total of 17,000 fibers to be audited and documented.
The Challenge
The time required to complete an audit of this magnitude is hard to predict, particularly for cases with multiple cables. Celerity’s scope, time and cost estimate was based on the information provided by the customer, but due to uncertainty in the pre-existing records, the risk of the project running over schedule or budget was of great concern. As it would turn out, the magnitude of the fiber network to be audited would greatly increase in size. During a kick off meeting between Celerity and the customer, a newer version of the original network map showed a dramatic increase in the number of fibers to be audited. The new scope of work showed an increase in the number of cables that had been added to the network over the years since the original build and documentation of the network, swelling the contents of the splice points to a total of 424 cables with a greatly increased total of 28,480 fibers.
Celerity began the project as planned. The splice points that contained a high number of cables were labor intensive to complete. As with most networks that have been in existence for a long period of time, additions, moves, changes, repairs and even environmental factors can affect the tidiness of the splice cases. For example, it was not unusual to find splice cases with as many as 14 cable entries: (7) 144 count cables, (1) 48 count cables, (5) 12 count cables and (1) 2 count cable. Not only were there 14 cables in this example, this splice point contained various roadblocks that lengthened the auditing process: instances of tray jumps, pre-existing dead fibers, signs of moisture, kinked and dead buffer tubes, unattached strength members, and mislabeling on splice trays. (See Pictures)
The Outcome
Ultimately, the deftness of Celerity’s crews along with minor adjustments to the customer’s schedule allowed Celerity to complete the work within the anticipated timeline. The project, post completion, factored to an astounding 70% increase to the scope of work. The project was successfully completed due to the execution and trust in Celerity’s work efforts by the customer. Before this project began, the customer estimated the accuracy of their records to be about 85%. The increase in the scope of work required proved the customer’s actual record accuracy to be closer to about 50%. Ultimately, through the collaborative efforts of Celerity and our customer, the final result was a 100% complete picture of their existing network.
