Small structure housing connection points for underground cables
Two pedestals (light gray boxes with orange cap) on an American roadside
A telecommunications pedestal is a ground-level housing for a passive connection point for underground cables. Technicians require access to connection points. Placing such a point underground (e.g., in a utility vault) is expensive, so pedestals are preferred when they are an acceptable choice. Pedestals are used for CATV (known as a cable box in such a situation), telephone, passive optical networks, and other telecommunications systems.
A pedestal is generally a sheet metal or plastic housing that encloses a passive termination block. The pedestal is usually about 3 feet high and has a diameter of less than one foot, with a circular, rectangular, oval, or "rounded rectangle" cross-section. The pedestal either has an access panel or removable housing. One, two, three or (occasionally) more underground distribution cables rise from the ground into the bottom of the pedestal and the individual circuits from the cables are terminated on the termination block. In addition to distribution cables, the pedestal may terminate one or more individual underground subscriber cables. The cables are cross-connected as needed at the termination block.
In telephony, a main distribution frame is a signal distribution frame for connecting equipment to cables and subscriber carrier equipment.
In telecommunication, the term outside plant has the following meanings:
Components of an electrical circuit are electrically connected if an electric current can run between them through an electrical conductor. An electrical connector is an electromechanical device used to create an electrical connection between parts of an electrical circuit, or between different electrical circuits, thereby joining them into a larger circuit. Most electrical connectors have a gender – i.e. the male component, called a plug, connects to the female component, or socket. The connection may be removable, require a tool for assembly and removal, or serve as a permanent electrical joint between two points. An adapter can be used to join dissimilar connectors.
In telephony, the demarcation point is the point at which the public switched telephone network ends and connects with the customer's on-premises wiring. It is the dividing line which determines who is responsible for installation and maintenance of wiring and equipment—customer/subscriber, or telephone company/provider. The demarcation point varies between countries and has changed over time.
In electronics, electrical termination is the practice of ending a transmission line with a device that matches the characteristic impedance of the line. Termination prevents signals from reflecting off the end of the transmission line. Reflections at the ends of unterminated transmission lines cause distortion which can produce ambiguous digital signal levels and mis-operation of digital systems. Reflections in analog signal systems cause such effects as video ghosting, or power loss in radio transmitter transmission lines.
In telecommunications, a distribution frame is a passive device which terminates cables, allowing arbitrary interconnections to be made.
Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) is a telecommunications industry term for a broadband network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. It has been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s.
An access network is a type of telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to one another. The access network may be further divided between feeder plant or distribution network, and drop plant or edge network.
In telecommunications, structured cabling is building or campus cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements called subsystems. Structured cabling components include twisted pair and optical cabling, patch panels and patch cables.
A passive optical network (PON) is a fiber-optic telecommunications technology for delivering broadband network access to end-customers. Its architecture implements a point-to-multipoint topology in which a single optical fiber serves multiple endpoints by using unpowered (passive) fiber optic splitters to divide the fiber bandwidth among the endpoints. Passive optical networks are often referred to as the last mile between an Internet service provider (ISP) and its customers.
A 66 block is a type of punchdown block used to connect sets of wires in a telephone system. They have been manufactured in four configurations, A, B, E and M. A and B styles have the clip rows on 0.25" centers while E and M have the clip rows on 0.20" centers. The A blocks have 25 slotted holes on the left side for position the incoming building cable with a 50 slot fanning strip on the right side for distribution cables. They been obsolete for many years. The B & M styles have 50 slot fanning strip on both sides. The B style is used mainly in distribution panels where several destinations need to connect to the same source. The M blocks are often used to connect a single instrument to such a distribution block. The E style has 5 columns of 10 2 clips rows and are used for transitioning from the 25 pair distribution cable to a 25 pair RJ21 style female ribbon connector.
An optical fiber connector joins optical fibers, and enables quicker connection and disconnection than splicing. The connectors mechanically couple and align the cores of fibers so light can pass. Better connectors lose very little light due to reflection or misalignment of the fibers. In all, about 100 different types of fiber optic connectors have been introduced to the market.
The serving area interface or service area interface (SAI) is an outdoor enclosure or metal box that allows access to telecommunications wiring.
In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband Internet access which uses the same infrastructure as a cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable Internet access provides network edge connectivity from the Internet service provider to an end user. It is integrated into the cable television infrastructure analogously to DSL which uses the existing telephone network. Cable TV networks and telecommunications networks are the two predominant forms of residential Internet access. Recently, both have seen increased competition from fiber deployments, wireless, and mobile networks.
Fiber to the x or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic cables are able to carry much more data than copper cables, especially over long distances, copper telephone networks built in the 20th century are being replaced by fiber.
Parallel SCSI is the earliest of the interface implementations in the SCSI family. SPI is a parallel bus; there is one set of electrical connections stretching from one end of the SCSI bus to the other. A SCSI device attaches to the bus but does not interrupt it. Both ends of the bus must be terminated.
Pedestal may refer to:
In telecommunications, radio frequency over glass (RFoG) is a deep-fiber network design in which the coax portion of the hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network is replaced by a single-fiber passive optical network (PON). Downstream and return-path transmission use different wavelengths to share the same fiber. The return-path wavelength standard is expected to be 1610 nm, but early deployments have used 1590 nm. Using 1590/1610 nm for the return path allows the fiber infrastructure to support both RFoG and a standards-based PON simultaneously, operating with 1490 nm downstream and 1310 nm return-path wavelengths.
ANSI/TIA-568 is a technical standard for commercial building cabling for telecommunications products and services. The title of the standard is Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard and is published by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), a body accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Copper has been used in electrical wiring since the invention of the electromagnet and the telegraph in the 1820s. The invention of the telephone in 1876 created further demand for copper wire as an electrical conductor.
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