PATCH MANAGER interface – Outside plant – Campus overview
A cable plant is the complete copper and fiber optic subsystem deployed to transmit electrical and optical signals between active communication equipment. The cable plant constitutes the lowest layer of the OSI network model – the physical layer. Cable plant management is the design, documentation, and maintenance of this physical layer.
This article describes what cable plant management is and outlines why it is important. Following this, it introduces PATCH MANAGER as the ideal solution for cable plant management.
What is cable plant management?
A cable plant is the complete copper and fiber optic subsystem deployed to transmit electrical and optical signals between active communication equipment. The cable plant constitutes the lowest layer of the OSI network model – the physical layer. Cable plant management is the design, documentation, and maintenance of this physical layer.
A cable plant is typically sub-divided into two main areas – inside plant and outside plant.
- Inside plant refers to the cabling and equipment installed within a building. Key components of an inside plant include entrance facilities, equipment rooms, backbone cabling, and telecommunication rooms.
- Outside plant refers to the cabling and supporting infrastructure (such as conduits, cabinets, splice junctions, hand-holes, towers, or poles) located between buildings.
PATCH MANAGER interface – Inside plant – Data center connection tracing
The importance of cable plant management
The physical layer assets and connectivity are vital elements of any infrastructure and constitute the foundation of the network stack. Since higher level network issues can often be traced back to problems in the lower level, the importance of managing these vital elements can therefore not be undervalued.
Effective management of physical assets and connectivity requires a specialized solution that offers comprehensive capabilities in the domain. These capabilities should include, but not be limited to:
- Documentation and management of every component of the physical layer
- Connectivity management
- Change management
- Reporting
- Visualization
- And many more
PATCH MANAGER is the comprehensive cable and asset management software
PATCH MANAGER is the leading software solution for cable and network asset management and is designed at the core to support both outside and inside cable plant networks. It assists you to plan and troubleshoot by providing detailed modeling, visualization and reporting on all aspects of your end-to-end physical layer network infrastructure.
PATCH MANAGER helps you to manage your change processes and audits through work orders and customizable workflows and provides an extensive REST API for third-party system integration.
If you would like to know more about PATCH MANAGER’s features and benefits, visit our website or request a personal online demo here!
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