Overview

An access network is built once and opened for years. The duct goes in while the street is open; the subscribers arrive one at a time over the following decade, as they order service. Everything between those two moments is decided by how easy it is to reach one more subscriber.

A distribution route is not short of capacity in the way a backbone route is. It is short of independent capacity: the ability to connect one more subscriber without disturbing the ones already connected, and without going back to the street.

 

What this environment imposes

• The route is built before the demand exists. The duct serves a street; how many subscribers that street will hold is decided later, by the market.

• Subscribers arrive one at a time. An access route is opened repeatedly, for single connections, over many years.

• The last leg crosses a boundary. One service crosses duct, facade, riser and interior — four fixing conditions on one cable, and the route changes character at the building line.

• What repeats is the visit, not the cable. In an access network the recurring cost is not the fibre; it is going back to the same chamber again.

• The route has to stay legible. A distribution route with no identification is one that gets cut by the next team that opens the chamber.

 

The route, stage by stage

The sequence starts like every other duct route and ends in a building. That handover is what makes this page different from the others in this section.

Stage	Products	Product pages
1. Distribution subdivision	Fabric Innerduct	/fabric-innerduct/
2. Cable installation	Cable Pulling Tape	/cable-pulling/
3. Entry sealing	Duct Sealing	/inflatable-duct-sealing-system/
4. Drop and in-building	Flat Drop Cable · Drop Cable Clamps & Hooks · Pigtail & Patch Cord · Boxes, Splitters & Closures	/flat-drop-cable/

 

1. Distribution subdivision — how many times the street is opened

The subdivision on an access route is chosen for the number of subscribers the route will eventually serve, not for the number of cables going in on the first day. It is the one decision in the sequence that is made while the ground is open, and the only one that is expensive to revisit.

• Cell count — two to three cells is common in distribution and access routes, because what is being bought is the ability to connect one subscriber without touching the others.

• Conduit size — matched to the duct it goes into, from 1.25″ up to 4″.

• Custom builds — cell count, dimensions, metre marking and packaging to order, which matters where the same configuration is repeated along a street.

 

2. Cable installation — the pull that happens many times

On an access route the pulling is not one large operation. It is the same small operation, repeated for every subscriber who joins the network.

• Cable Pulling Tape — installed with the innerduct along the whole route, so a subscriber connection made years later is a pull between two chambers rather than a construction job. Selected on width and breaking strength, and available with a detectable trace wire where the route may need to be located from the surface.

• Cable Pulling Grips and Swivels — used where heavier feeder cable runs on the same route, selected on cable outside diameter and rated pulling load.

The measure of a good access route is not how fast the first cable goes in. It is how fast the hundredth one does.

 

3. Entry sealing — closing a route that stays open to change

Sealing on an access route has to survive repetition. The chamber will be opened again, and the seal has to be able to come with it.

• Inflatable duct sealing system — seals the duct around the cable where it enters a chamber.

• Reusable / self-inflating sealing bag — a removable seal, which on a distribution route is the normal choice rather than the exception, because the route is re-entered many times.

• Duct plugs — selected on duct inner diameter and type: blank, single-cable, multi-hole or split.

 

4. Drop and in-building — where the duct hands over to the building

At the building line the route stops being a duct and becomes a cable fixed to surfaces. This is the stage that makes the access application different from the others on this site: it is the only one that spans both product ranges.

• Flat Drop Cable — the last leg, from the distribution point to the subscriber.

• Drop Cable Clamps & Hooks — the fixings that hold that cable to poles, facades and interior surfaces.

• Pigtail & Patch Cord — the connectorised assemblies that terminate the fibre.

• Boxes, Splitters & Closures — the enclosures where the fibre is divided, protected and terminated.

The duct side and the building side are usually specified by different people, on different days, against different drawings. They are one route, and they have to be chosen together: the number of cells in the duct is what decides how many subscribers the building side can ever serve.

 

Choosing the innerduct for an access route

If you are choosing…	Start with	Because
By subscribers — how many premises the route must eventually serve	By Cell Configuration	The cell count sets how many connections can be made independently; 1, 2, 3 and 4 cell versions are each a distinct product
By fit — what duct it has to go into	By Conduit Size	Conduit size sets physical compatibility with the existing bore, from 1.25″ to 4″
By project — the same configuration repeated along a street	Custom OEM	Cell count, dimensions, metre marking and packaging made to order

 

What goes wrong on an access route

• Sizing the duct for the first subscribers. Cell count is decided while the street is open, and that is the only time it is cheap.

• Specifying the duct and the building as two separate jobs. They are one route, and the duct sets the building’s ceiling.

• No tape in the first installation. On a route that is opened for single connections, the tape is what makes the second connection cheap.

• Seals that cannot be re-opened. A distribution route is sealed and opened many times over its life.

• No identification. A distribution chamber is opened by different teams over the years, and an unmarked route gets cut.

• Treating the drop as an afterthought. The subscriber’s experience of the whole network is decided in the last few metres, not in the duct.

 

Where this fits in the route

This is the access leg of the outside plant route. It uses the same sequence as the other applications — subdivide, pull, seal — and then crosses into the building, which is what makes it the only page here that spans both product ranges.

Related applications: Outside Plant (OSP) — Duct & Pathway Systems, where a route is built from the ground up; Mobile Backhaul & 5G, where the same route serves many sites rather than many premises; and Data Centres and In-Building Pathways, where the subdivision happens inside a building.

Related product ranges: Fabric Innerduct, Duct Installation Systems, FTTH Products.

 

Datasheet and ordering

Access network materials are ordered against the route they have to fit, so the data sheet is issued against your specification rather than published as a fixed table. Tell us the following and we will confirm the materials, the datasheet, a sample and the price together.

• The distribution route: duct size, length between chambers, and whether it is new or already in service.

• How many premises the route has to serve on day one, and how many it must eventually reach.

• What is already in the duct, if anything.

• The building side: how the fibre enters each premises — facade, riser or interior route — and where it terminates.

• The cable being installed: type and outside diameter.

 

FAQ

Why does the duct matter when the drop cable is so small?

Because the duct sets the ceiling for the whole access route, and the drop cable is installed years later. A duct with too few independent cells limits how many subscribers the street can ever serve, whatever the cable can do.

How many cells does a distribution route need?

Enough independent cells for the number of subscribers the route is expected to reach, not for the number connecting on day one. Two to three cells is common, because the requirement is access rather than capacity.

Can a subscriber be connected without re-opening the street?

That is what subdivision together with pre-installed pulling tape is for. Where tape was installed with the innerduct, connecting a subscriber later is a pull between two chambers rather than a construction job.

Why does an FTTH page cover drop cable, boxes and closures?

Because an access network is one route that crosses the building line. The duct side decides how many subscribers can be served; the building side is how they are actually served. Specifying them separately is the most common mistake in this application.

Is access different from mobile backhaul?

Both are routes that are added to repeatedly, but they are sized by different things. A backhaul route is added to site by site; an access route is added to subscriber by subscriber, and it ends inside a building rather than at a mast.

How do we get a datasheet?

The data sheet is issued against your route. Send the duct size, the expected number of premises and how the fibre enters the buildings, and we will confirm the materials and the data.