Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Alcatel-Lucent DMXtend 1665



I encountered one of these bad boys while working an assignment for Level 3 the other day.  I can't speak authoritatively on this.  My guess is this is a multi-plexer for multi-tenant services within the building.

In other words, L3 would bring a high-capacity fiber into the building and the use the DMX to split it into individual fiber channels to feed different tenants within the building.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

CradlePoint Site Survey kit

A CradlePoint is a router/switch that is primarily designed to use cellular 4G/3G data for Wide Area Network Access.  It is frequently used in small business locaitons as a backup WAN connection.  Before making an investment in a particular Cellular carrier, it makes sense to run a test with each of the major carriers (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) in the location where the signal is needed.

This little guy comes in a hardened carrying case (like a fat brief case).  It contains 3 CradlePoint units.  Each of which is outfitted with a different Celluar Provider's SIM card.

The laptop which is also contained in the case runs a script.  This script tests the speed, the latency and signal strength of each carrier's signal relative to the locaiton.


Ideally, you'll want to have the test kit situated at the same altitude (6, 8, or 10 feet) where your intended equipment would be installed.  I used a Ladder for this.