LOCAL LOOP

In telephony, the local loop (also referred to as a local tail, subscriber line, or in the
aggregate as the last mile) is the physical link or circuit that connects from the
demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the common
carrier or telecommunications service provider's network.
At the edge of the carrier access network in a traditional public telephone network, the
local loop terminates in a circuit switch housed in an incumbent local exchange
carrier or telephone exchange.

Infrastructure
Traditionally, the local loop was an electrical circuit in the form of a single pair of
conductors from the telephone on the customer's premises to the local telephone
exchange. Single-wire earth return lines had been used in some countries until the
introduction of electric tramways from the 1900s made them unusable.
Historically the first section was often an aerial open-wire line, with several conductors
attached to porcelain insulators on cross-arms on "telegraph" poles. Hence party line
service was often given to residential customers to minimise the number of local loops
required. Usually all these circuits went into aerial or buried cables with a twisted pair for
each local loop nearer the exchange, see outside plant.
Modern implementations may include a digital loop carrier system segment or fiber optic
transmission system. The local loop may terminate at a circuit switch owned by a
competitive local exchange carrier and housed in a point of presence (POP), which
typically is an incumbent local exchange carrier telephone exchange. A local loop
supports voice and/or data communications applications in the following ways:

Analog voice and signaling used in traditional POTS

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
Variants of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL).

The term "local loop" is sometimes used for any "last mile" connection to the customer,
regardless of technology or intended purpose (Fig.1). Local loop interrelations in this
sense include:

Electric power lines.

Cable connections used with television, internet and telephone.
Wireless signals or local loop (WLL): LMDS, WiMAX, GPRS, HSDPA, DECT
Satellite connections for beamed signal.
Optical or fiber optics services such as FiOS.

Figure 1: Basic Local Loop Diagram

The purpose of the local loop is to provide the customer with access to the public
switched network (Fig. 2). The customer's call travels across the local loop to the switch,
which either:

The customer to another customer (intra-office call), or

Routes the call across trunks to another switch and another local loop to its
destination.

Figure 2: Public Switched Network

There are six main component parts of the traditional local loop (Fig. 3):

Feeder cable - F1
o Underground
o Conduit

Serving Area Interface (SAI) - B-Box

o Feeder cable meets distribution cable

Distribution Cable - F2
o Aerial
o Buried

Distribution Cable and Drop Wire Cross-Connect Point

Aerial
o Pedestal
o Buried Plant

Drop wire
o Buried
o Aerial

Subscriber or Standard Network Interface (SNI)

Figure 3: Components of Local Loop

Feeder Cable
Feeder (or F1) cable is the largest cable used in the local loop, usually 3600 pair copper
cable. Demand from the distribution cables is aggregated to determine the proper size
for the feeder cable. Feeder cable comes out of the Central Office and goes to the SAI.

It is usually placed in conduit, accessed by manholes and sometimes referred to

as underground cable.

Serving Area Interface (SAI)

A cross connect point is used to distribute the larger feeder cable into smaller
distribution cables. The feeder cable is terminated on pins mounted on the back of the
terminal panel inside the SAI. The distribution cables are terminated on adjacent panels.
To accomplish the cross-connection between the two cables a jumper is run on the front
side of the panel.
Wire Termination
There are three different ways to terminate the cables and jumpers. A binding post is a
threaded stud with a nut. The insulation is stripped off and the wire is wrapped once
around the stud. Then the nut is screwed down on top of the wire. A wire wrap is
performed by inserting a wire into a wire wrap gun, which will wrap the wire very tightly
around a pin. A punch down is performed by inserting a wire into the punch down pins.
It requires a special tool that forces the wire between the pins.

The wire insulation is cut and the wire is crimped between the pins.

Distribution Cable
Distribution (or F2) cable is a smaller version of feeder cable. It contains a smaller
number of twisted pair wires.

Its sheathing varies based on its placement (i.e., buried versus aerial).

Distribution Cable Termination

Depending upon the existing facilities in a given area, and city ordinances, distribution
cable, drop wire cross-connect device can be either an aerial terminal, pedestal, or
handhold.
Drop Wire
The drop wire terminates at the Subscriber Network Interface (SNI).
Subscriber Network Interface (SNI)
The Subscriber Network Interface is the device which serves as the demarcation point
between local exchange carrier (LEC) responsibility and customer responsibility for
telephone service. It is usually a gray box with modular telephone jacks inside Central
Office Termination
Cable Vault

The feeder cable, in conduit, travels underground from the first manhole into the cable
vault or cable entrance facility. Inside the cable vault the feeder cable enters a splice
case where it is di vided into 100-pair riser cables. At this point, the (black) feeder cable
is spliced to a (gray) cable called a riser cable. Riser cable is fire retardant; feeder cable
is not. Because the cable vault is usually below ground, the feeder cable travels
horizontally into the vault from the street. Once feeder cable is spliced to riser cable, it
usually will travel vertically up the walls of the cable vault through the ceiling/floor above
to the protector blocks (either on an MDF or protector frame).
Conventional Main Distribution Frame (MDF)
The conventional main distribution frame (MDF) provides the point of cross-connection
between the OSP cable pairs and the office equipment (switch).

One side of a conventional main distributing frame is known as the vertical side
or outside plant (OSP) cable termination

The cables coming from the local loop are terminated on protector blocks on the vertical
side of the MDF. The MDF protector blocks terminate 100-cable pairs.

Each line is separately identified by cable number and pair number representing
the Fl cable.

MDF Functions
Main Distributing Frames perform 7 functions.
1. Termination of Facilities and Equipment.
2. Cross-Connection.
3. Flexibility.
4. Technological Transition.
5. Separation.
6. Test Access.
7. Administration.
One More Function of MDF
In addition to the seven basic functions, Main Distributing Frames perform one more
function:

Electrical Protection
Electrical protection devices on the MDF prevent surges of voltage on OSP cable from
entering the central office and endangering equipment and personnel. These devices
are referred to as heat coils. MDF Physical Characteristics. The conventional MDF is a
double-sided steel structure composed of a vertical and horizontal side. Height Length

Because of their heights, lengths, and shapes, MDFs can be unwieldy to work on
and tend to be labor intensive.

As mentioned earlier, outside plant cable terminates on protector blocks mounted

on the vertical side where electrical protection is provided.

Cable from central office equipment (switch) is terminated on equipment blocks

usually mounted on the horizontal side.

The blocks on this side of the frame also terminate 100 lines that are separately
identified by office equipment location. Thus, the cable pair from the local loop is
permanently terminated to the vertical side of the conventional MDF. Cable from the
horizontal side of the MDF is permanently connected to the office equipment/switch.
Only the jumper wire which connects the vertical side to the horizontal side of the MDF
is connected when the customer's line is put in service.
Modular Frames
As our network grew, so did the problem of jumper congestion on conventional frames.
Increased capacity of new switches required more terminations on the frame. As frames
exhausted their capacity, they were augmented, and sometimes in awkward ways
because adequate floor space was not available. In some cases, room additions were
built to accommodate frame growth. Modular frames were an important turning point in
the evolution of cross connect systems because they provided:
1. Front facing one side operations
2. Higher denisity per foot of frame space
Modular Frame Physical Characteristics
Modular frames are usually single-sided and about 7 feet high. The frames have
horizontal bars for mounting connector blocks that terminate office equipment and
outside plant cable pairs. Terminations are normally restricted to subscriber cable, line
equipment, and tie cable. Nonswitched special services such as trunk cable, T-carrier,
and Metallic Facility Terminals (MFT) are terminated on a separate frame. A separate
protector frame is required for electrical protection.

Note: The COSMOS program keeps track jumpers and the inventory of COSMOS is
known as COSMIC.
Protector Frame
Because heat coil protectors take a lot of space on the frame and defeat the purpose of
high-density termination, a separate protector frame evolved. Note: When space is
limited, single-sided protector frames are available for wall mounting. Riser cable is:
1. First terminated on a protector block;
2. Then coupled to the modular frame.