DemandFlow® Fibre & Outside Plant
Every strand, splice and port, traced end to end.
Model the fibre network down to the individual strand, from the duct in the street to the port on the ODF. Trace any path end to end with a loss budget, read OTDR files in the browser, and find the circuits sold as diverse that share a duct. One record of the plant, kept in the same platform as the services that run over it.
The Challenge
The plant record lives in a drawing, a spreadsheet and an engineer’s memory
Splice records sit in spreadsheets, routes in a GIS, test results in a folder of OTDR files and patching in a notebook at the exchange. When a fault comes in or a new connection is designed, someone pieces the path together by hand, and nobody can say with confidence which circuits share a duct.
Paths rebuilt by hand
Tracing a circuit means opening several files and trusting that each one is current.
Diversity on paper only
Two routes sold as diverse can share a duct for a few hundred metres, and nobody finds out until both fail.
Capacity guessed, not counted
Spare strands, closure trays and ODF ports are counted when someone asks, not tracked as the network changes.
Physical plant
A model of the plant down to the strand and the port
Cables, strands, ducts, subducts, chambers, poles, cabinets, splice closures, ODFs, patch cords, splitters, WDM muxes, access terminals and ONTs are all records in one model, each with a lifecycle from proposed through as-built to live and retired. Give a cable its specification and every strand is created in standard colours. Cable cross-sections show tubes and fibres in colour, and duct cross-sections show subducts with a fill check.
Strands generated from the spec
Strands are created in TIA-598 colours from the cable specification, with used, spare and unusable counts derived.
Ducts and subducts
Duct cross-sections with subducts and microducts, and a fill check against standard limits.
Owned and rented plant
Your own ducts and poles alongside Openreach PIA ducts and poles, with ownership recorded on each.
Splicing and patching
Splices and patches recorded where they happen
Each splice closure has a splice diagram and matrix showing the cables on each side and every splice between them, and the next free tray and slot are offered when a splice is added. ODFs show front and rear, port by port, for patching and termination. Rules stop a strand end being spliced twice or a terminated port being reused, so the record stays consistent.
- Splice diagram and matrix on every closure
- ODF front and rear views, port by port
- Splitter inputs, outputs and PON budget
- DWDM and CWDM channel tables on WDM muxes
Trace and loss budget
Any path, end to end, with the loss budget worked out
Trace from a strand, a port or a saved path through every patch cord, splice and splitter to the far end. Set the wavelength, launch power and receiver sensitivity and the loss budget returns pass or fail with the margin. Save a trace as a fibre path to reuse it. Find any fibre by typing a reference such as a cable and fibre number, or an ODF and port.
Through splices and splitters
Traces follow the light through every patch, splice and splitter leg.
Pass or fail, with margin
The loss budget accounts for the wavelength, launch power and receiver sensitivity you set.
Find fibre
Type a cable and fibre, or an ODF and port, and go straight to the strand.
Testing
OTDR results read in the browser, against the strand
Drop a Telcordia .sor file onto a strand and the trace is read in the browser, with the events table beside a loss against distance chart and the original file kept for download. Bulk import matches a folder of .sor files to their strands. The latest result for each wavelength is written back to the strand, and a ready-made report finds splices and tests with loss outside tolerance.
- OTDR, insertion loss, return loss and inspection results
- Bulk .sor import matched to strands
- Latest measured loss written back to each strand
- Splice and test loss outliers by closure and technician
Map and shared risk
See the network on the map, and the risk in it
The fibre explorer shows ducts, cables, chambers, poles, cabinets, closures, ODFs and sites on a 3D map beside a grid, and filtering one moves the other. Pick a circuit and the explorer draws its path and flags every duct it shares with the circuit it is meant to be diverse from. A shared risk report lists every circuit that shares a fibre, cable or duct with another, and every diverse pair that is not.
- Map layers for ducts, cables, chambers, poles, cabinets, closures, ODFs and sites
- Grid and map kept in step
- Shared ducts flagged between circuits sold as diverse
- Shared risk report by strand, cable and duct
Capacity
Capacity counted from the record, not by a site visit
Ready-made Workbooks reports read the plant directly and run on schedule, so the weekly capacity picture arrives without anyone counting.
See Workbooks
Fibre utilisation
Strands by status per cable, route and region, with the cables close to full.
Closure and chamber capacity
Splice and tray use, with closures close to full and stale counters flagged.
ODF port utilisation
Port status by site, the sites short of free ports and the cords in service.
Bring your records in
Load the plant you already have
The import wizard maps your columns, runs a dry run first and gives a downloadable error report before anything is written. Cable specifications, cables, closures, splice sheets, ODFs, ports, patch cords and circuit segments come in from CSV or Excel. Routes and points come in from GeoJSON, KML and KMZ or ESRI Shapefile and snap to the nearest chamber or site.
- CSV and Excel, including splice sheets in range and colour formats
- GeoJSON, KML, KMZ and ESRI Shapefile for routes and points
- Dry run and error report before import
- OTDR .sor files in bulk
What changes
One record of the plant, trusted by the people who use it
- Paths traced in seconds, not rebuilt from several files
- Diversity checked against the actual ducts
- Capacity reported from the record, on schedule
- Test results held against the strand they describe
- Field and office working from the same plant record
- The fibre layer connected to the services and circuits that run over it
Built for fibre networks
Fibre altnets and FTTx builders, dark fibre and wholesale providers, mobile operators with fibre backhaul, utilities and transport networks with their own fibre, and the OSP engineering teams and contractors who build and maintain them. Book a demo and see your own plant in DemandFlow®.
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