PDF of this tutorialTo appreciate the value of using a single source provider with project-management capabilities, one must understand all of the components involved in deploying a telecommunications network.
A simple analogy to describe the process for deploying an integrated telecommunications network today is that of a new subdivision that has just been developed. Within this subdivision, 500 new homes must be connected to the existing telephone network in the community. This example assumes that a remote-access node will be built within the subdivision. The process of connecting this subdivision to the local-access network switch, which connects to the long-distance access switch, which, in turn, connects to the rest of the world, is a multiple-step process (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Example of Building an Integrated Telecommunications Network for a Subdivision
Step 1: Outside-Plant Network Design (Engineering)
In keeping with the analogy mentioned earlier in the tutorial, the outside-plant designer for the project is responsible for route selection between the houses in the new subdivision and any reinforcement to the local switching center. In the design, the outside-plant designer can plan for the placement of underground, buried, aerial, submarine, or building cable installation or wireless installation, depending on a number of factors including the terrain, existing infrastructure, environment, etc. Specifically, the network designer is responsible for the following:
- route planning
- identifying right-of-way requirements and potential design conflicts
- negotiating right-of-ways
- determining specialized design, plan, and digital mapping requirements
- preparing preliminary designs based on clients’ specifications
- developing firm price quotations based on preliminary design and estimating tables
- providing as-built plans and specifications
- completing final design and specifications for installation and ongoing design changes as required during installation
- identifying material requirements and providing material ordering input to client or external suppliers as required
Step 2: CO Design (Engineering)
The design of the CO involves understanding what equipment must be installed to make the network work. Keeping with the subdivision analogy, we are assuming that there will be a remote-access node in the subdivision. In this particular example, the designer will be responsible for the following:
- determining what equipment must be added to the existing switching center
- determining the sizing of the access node
- designing the transport system between the remote and the host
- determining the digital equipment and transport system that will be used between the switch and the remote
- reviewing the power system to see if it must be reinforced (power study)
Step 3: Outside-Plant Construction
Once the design and specifications have been determined, the installation of the cable (copper, fiber, or coaxial) must be installed to those specifications. This work is generally performed by highly skilled splicing and line technicians who are qualified to place and connect cable in a variety of outside-plant networks, including live circuits. Their responsibilities also include testing continuity and troubleshooting in existing networks. If it is determined that wireless technology is to be used, the infrastructure (i.e., towers) are built at this stage.
Step 4: CO Equipment Installation
The next step is to install and commission the specialized equipment to make the whole network work. Most CO and switching equipment is housed in a localized switching center or access nodes (remote switch) that is located within the subdivision that links back to the switching center. The CO equipment (COE) technicians are suppliers trained to install the specialized equipment that routes the calls to the appropriate switch. Some of the many types of equipment that must be installed and maintained by these technicians are as follows:
- switching equipment—including Nortel digital multiplex system (DMS) technology
- transport equipment—such as channel banks, fiber multiplex transport (FMT), digital access and cross-connect system (DACS), Newbridge, and various miscellaneous peripherals (i.e., asynchronous transfer mode [ATM], frame relay, and network-management hardware)
- access remote—includes remote carrier urban (RCU) 600/900, DMS–1U, remote switch concentrator (RSC), and remote line concentrating module (RLCM), which are installed into various walk-in cabinets and environmentally controlled manhole enclosures
- FMS equipment—patch panels, routers, bridges, and active hubs
- power—The technicians regularly install, replace, and upgrade rectifiers, inverters, batteries, and mechanized frame administration (MFA) power plants. They also install grounding into COs, access nodes, and customer-owned telephone rooms that are required to meet the grounding standards.
- synchronous optical network (SONET) transport—The COE technicians are also experienced in building large Internet protocol (IP) networks and are supplier-trained to do system lineup and test (SLAT), including software upgrades on live equipment and optimization. They are also trained in optical carrier–3 (OC–3), OC–3E, OC–12, OC–48, OC–192, access nodes, and access node express.
Step 5: Commissioning
The commissioning of the newly installed network involves testing to make sure the network is up to specifications before it is turned on. Once it is determined that everything is operating according to specifications, it will be integrated into the live network.
