As I was on final approach to the airport last night, I looked out my window (I usually sit on the aisle, but today I picked a window seat). I noticed from 10,000 ft. that the western part of my state is laid out in a very organized patchwork grid. The patches were different colors — browns, greens and many shades of each. But what really caught my attention was the layout of the roads. You could see a city in the middle, then this grid of roads going east to west and north to south in straight lines. If you were wondering, it is for organized expansion.
I had some time in college to study civil engineering, and we always looked to make the straightest roads possible because it made it easier to expand if the town decided to annex neighboring properties. Since we don’t know if expansion is going to come, we had to make that process as easy as possible.
Networks are the same. If we organize on the front end — coupled with an easily expandable platform, it becomes easier to handle the increased capacity later. So, now you can see one of the ideas behind the Clearview Cassette. You don’t have to build the entire network capacity into the front end, you just have to PLAN for it. By using the Clearview Cassette in your Headend or Central Office, using it in a cross-connect or PON cabinet and even in customer premise products, you can build for the future without even knowing what that future will be. If you experience growth at any point in your network, add a cassette…simple as that.
Take a look at your network today and ask yourself the question, “will I be able to manage growth? If so, how much will that cost?” You’ll be surprised that a typical network designs it costs much more to expand later sometimes to the point that it becomes prohibitive. If that’s what you’re seeing, give us a call here at Clearfield! Let us introduce you to the Clearview Cassette and all the associated products that can make your next expansion (and even ones you don’t know about yet) painless and less costly.
By Scot Bohaychyk