Tài liệu Fiber Managment System Delivers Quick ROI for Central Office doc

CASE STUDY
FIBER MANAGMENT SYSTEM DELIVERS QUICK ROI FOR CENTRAL OFFICE
TracerLight Decreases Outages and Speeds Service Turn-Up
CHALLENGE
• Reduce time for troubleshooting and tracing fiber jumpers.
• Improve service turn-up intervals.
• Decrease network outages.
SOLUTION
• Shortened maximum fiber jumper length from 275 to 30 feet by
adding an intermediate distribution frame between each aisle of
multiplexers and the fiber main distribution frame using ADC LGX
fiber frames.
• Replace existing jumpers with TracerLight Connector Identification
System jumpers that provide visual indicators at each end of jumpers
with flashing LEDs.
RESULTS
• Reduced trouble-tracing time by 72 percent with an estimated savings
of $7,100 to $11,600 per month in labor.
• Eliminated over 200 abandoned or cut jumpers that cancelled a
$59,000 capital project to install new troughs to support OC-192
equipment.
• Reduced outages and improved service turn-up intervals
CASE STUDY
Situation
For years at a large central office for an
independent local exchange carrier, the number
of fiber cables within the facility was limited
so that installation and rearrangements neither
taxed manpower nor presented serious issues for
customers. However, with introduction of new
high-speed, high-density fiber platforms, fiber

cable congestion was starting to become an
operations issue.
With an increase in fiber cables in the CO for
transport and customer circuits, inability to quickly
and safely identify and trace fibers started to
appear. As a result, more errors and outages were
creeping into the operation. It was clear that if
left unchecked, there would be increased outages
and delays in service turn-up.
Working under a mandate to do more with less,
CO personnel decided to proactively attack the
issue by designing a standard fiber management
system for the CO. The objectives were to reduce
trouble-tracing time, improve restoration time,
and allow growth with minimal new investment
in infrastructure. Of course, the plan required
immediate payback.
Reduce Jumper Lengths with
IDF Architecture
The solution consisted of two related parts. The
first part was to reduce maximum fiber jumper
length from 275 feet to 30 feet by adding an
intermediate distribution frame (IDF) for each
aisle of multiplexers. By permanently cabling
multiplexers to an IDF using ADC LGX frames,
which were then cabled to the fiber main fiber
distribution frame (MDF), the work of installation,
rearrangements and disconnects was limited to
a defined work area “island” with short semi-
permanent jumpers. Once terminated, active

equipment is never handled again during the
service life of the equipment.
The plan reduced trough congestion by
eliminating long fiber runs between aisles. Setting
LGX frames between multiplexers and the MDF
enabled moves and changes using jumpers on
the front of distribution panels instead of using
multiplexer equipment cables, resulting in faster
changes with less disruption of service.
Creating an office with much shorter fiber
jumpers was also a best practices initiative for
long-term reliability and service availability. Before
the project, just having long fiber jumpers around
the CO was an invitation for technicians to use
them by wrapping extra fiber lengths around
cable managers and clogging fiber pathways
unnecessarily by laying extra jumper lengths back
and forth in troughs. Excessive piling of jumpers
would eventually cause attenuation problems and
outages. Eliminating long fiber runs immediately
reduced the volume of jumpers in troughs and
helped avert misery just waiting to happen,
according to CO personnel.
Improve Fiber Identification
and Tracing
With IDFs and shorter jumpers in place, there still
remained the second issue of tracing fiber cables.
Labeling in multiplexers was not to be trusted—
labels often fell off, were not legible or provided
insufficient information about a circuit. With

a growing number of unprotected broadband
circuits leaving the office and fiber rings with
subtended multiplexers, it was becoming difficult
to explain on a small label the identification and
destination of individual fibers.
Instead of relying on labels, all existing fiber
jumpers were replaced with ADC TracerLight
Connector Identification System jumpers. The
TracerLight jumpers feature a termination point
on each end with a flashing LED. By lighting
the TracerLight LED, technicians have instant
visual recognition of fiber jumper end points
without fishing cable, reaching into troughs and
potentially disturbing service on adjacent circuits.
The flashing LED also minimizes the risk of
removing an incorrect fiber from service.
CASE STUDY
Data Confirms ROI
With the new fiber management system deployed
in the network, field personnel kept logs detailing
their time using TracerLight jumpers. In addition,
other measures such as service turn-up and
restoration time were watched. With two years
of data showing operations performance prior
to, during and after conversion, the ROI on the
project was compelling.
There was a 72% reduction in trouble tracing
time using TracerLight as compared to regular
jumpers. As a result, the time required for
turning-up an optical circuit was reduced 30

minutes per circuit. Data collected in the CO also
showed a 50% reduction in the time required to
install a jumper.
In addition, outages due to jumpers dropped
dramatically. Improved bend radius protection,
simplified cable routing paths, expanded cable
access and ample fiber storage provided more
protection for fiber jumpers. Human errors such
as incorrect fiber disconnects were reduced by
not having to rely on labels in multiplexers that
were falling off, unreadable or incorrect. Instead,
technicians accurately trace jumpers in seconds
using TracerLight.
With the fiber management system in place that
reduced outages due to jumpers and required less
time for jumper tracing, service restoration and
installation of new jumpers required fewer labor
hours. Using straight work time, the new fiber
management system equates to labor savings of
approximately $7,100 to $11,600 per month.
There were other defined savings on the project.
Over 500 fiber jumpers valued at $10,000 were
removed and scheduled for use at other CO
locations. Removal of over 200 abandoned and
cut fibers also cleared fiber troughs. By removing
the unused cables, a $59,000 capital project for
new troughs to support new OC-192 equipment
was effectively eliminated.
Averting a Service Disaster
Of course, it is hard to measure the impact of

outages that never occur, even though service
level guarantees present steep revenue penalties.
By preventing an incorrect fiber disconnect or
disruption of service while fishing through a cable
manager to trace a circuit, the impact of not
causing an outage may be subjective, but still
speaks to the value of the project. However, there
were many examples of how TracerLight helped
the CO extend mean time to failure (MTTF) and
meet its obligations to customers.
In one instance, technicians had turned-up a
new gigabit Ethernet switch and sales secured
a new business customer with a performance
guarantee contract. Forty-eight jumpers were pre-
wired from the switch back to the multiplexer.
On a Friday at four p.m., a technician went to
turn-up service and found that all jumpers were
labeled incorrectly. There was a sure risk of missing
scheduled turn-up and starting off on the wrong
foot with the customer—not to mention financial
penalties of missing the scheduled service turn-up.
Instead of two people taking at least two hours of
overtime to do the rework of identifying circuits,
a single technician was able to turn service up on
time by simply lighting-up TracerLight on each
jumper. Avoiding this one problem paid for all of
the TracerLight jumpers deployed in the CO.
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CASE STUDY
Conclusion
As is often the case, it is the little things that distinguish great service from superb service. The fiber
management system that defines each row of multiplexers as an island, adding IDFs to shorten jumper
runs, and using TracerLight fiber jumpers was a small investment with significant returns.
In the end, the CO personnel found that to deliver superb service, it was not wise to entrust a valuable
customer circuit to someone’s abbreviated pencil writing on the side of a multiplexer. The team was able
to create consistency in termination, routing and storage of jumpers within each aisle and created a
fiber management system that helps technicians work quicker with far fewer errors.