Best practices for tracking intra-facility crossconnects

Mon Aug 8 17:14:57 UTC 2016

Hey all,

I am looking to see what the community's experience has been with different
types of labeling systems and XC tracking systems for intra-facility
crossconnects.

In addition to the standard practice of labeling every fiber at both ends,
if you're using a system that wraps a cable marker around the cable every 3
ft/1 meter, what type of system are you using to track XCs?

If you have implemented a standards-based system with some type of GUID for
every cable, and a unique per-cable tracking system that is utilized with a
ticketing system for each distinct cable (whether -48VDC, fiber, cat5e,
alarm wire, whatever), what did you have to customize for your needs?

If you have implemented such a system in an older facility where every
cable did not previously have a unique ID#, what hiccups did you run into?

If you were designing such a system from a 'green field' approach for a
brand new datacenter/colo/IX facility that is yet to be constructed, what
would you do differently (both at OSI layer 1, and in the operational
support software tracking the XCs?)