Precision Valley Communications (PVC) is nestled in the hills of Springfield, Vermont. Recently, they completed over 6,000 miles of network using the Bentley Communications products. One of these projects is for Metrocast of Connecticut. The task was to upgrade their existing 550MHz plant to 1GHz for half of the towns and the other half was a complete aerial rebuild with an equipment upgrade in the underground areas. The goal is the expansion of digital services to provide expanded voice, video, and data services.
The process works as follows. A preliminary fiber route is made using Bentley Fiber. This allows the designer to place the correct number of fibers to each node per the customer guide-lines (six in this case). The fiber route will begin from a head-end and flow throughout the designated towns to eliminate the need for three additional head-ends. The preliminary fiber routing is then provided to the customer to verify that it is the best route to take. During the ride out process there are several things that are considered. Make ready costs, splice points for future growth, construct ability, and maintenance. The approved routing is received from the customer and the connectivity of the nodes with fiber cable is completed. Slack points, expansion loops, splice points, distances, and optical coupling (if needed) are added to the model. Splicing diagrams and documentation, as well as an itemized bill of materials is then sent to the customer.