CaTV | Outside Plant System Design

In telecommunication, OSP refers to the outside plant. It applies to all of the equipment, cables and infrastructure that are located outside of a building. While the term outside plant can be used when referring to communications networks like telephone or cable, today we’ll dive into OSP fiber networks, the foundation upon which the internet is built.

The term "outside plant" (OSP) originated in the late 1800s. As Alexander Graham Bell's invention grew in popularity and the Bell System was formed, the new company needed to organize its operations into manageable areas of responsibility. These areas were defined as "plant departments." "Inside plant" (ISP) encompassed the switchboards that were later replaced by telephone switching machines we now call central offices. OSP referred to the facilities and all related components from the switchboard to the subscriber's telephone set.

Let's talk about a quick overview of the general anatomy of a fiber to the premise, or FTTP, network so that we can see where OSP fits in.

Fiber to the premise describes a fiber optic network that connects homes, businesses or any building (the “premise,” or service location) to high speed broadband service. An example of a widely recognized brand name in FTTP networks is Verizon Fios, but FTTP is offered globally by internet operators of every size and shape. As broadband funding heats up in the US and beyond, rural electric cooperatives, utility companies, school districts and an almost unlimited variety of other institutions are becoming ISPs, entering the fiber space to offer fiber to the home, business and beyond.

Every fiber to the home network is unique, making generalizations about fiber to the home network design difficult. To define OSP, the description of network design offered here will be a simplified example of only one type of possible fiber to the home design.

A fiber to the premise network starts at the central office, or CO, also referred to as a headend, point of presence (PoP) or data center. The CO is the start of a fiber to the premise network – picture a big server room with lots of wires and equipment, the “brain” of the operation. The network begins here, pushing an optical light signal out to other locations via distribution cables.

Outside Plant represents all of the physical cables, equipment and locations outside of a building. In the above example, outside plant starts at the point at which the distribution cabling leaves the central office, and ends at the termination point on the outside of a premise receiving internet service. All of the physical, tangible assets that enable your network between two “inside” locations make up the outside plant network. 

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