What is an ODF?

The frame or panel where fibre cables are terminated onto pigtails and connectors, so equipment can be patched in.

Why: It's the managed meeting point between the cable plant and the equipment: tidy terminations, labelled ports and patching without touching the cable splices.

Where: In nodes and equipment rooms. On high-capacity routes, segmentation ODFs (S-ODF) split the cable into sections and nodal ODFs (N-ODF) sit where sheaths meet.

Where the rules are

• NR/L2/TEL/30160 cl 7.3what an optical termination (ODF, pigtails, patching) must provide
• NR/L2/TEL/31200 cl 5.3segmentation ODFs
• NR/L2/TEL/31200 cl 7.4where an N-ODF is required
• NR/L3/TEL/30162 cl 8.3housing pigtail splices in cassettes/ODFs
• NR/L3/TEL/30162 cl 8.4through-splicing at ODFs

What to order

• Splice UK 18 Tray Wall Mounted ODF · Splice UK · GSMR1589
• N-ODF 600x300x46U 48-tray, Lexan door, RH · Splice UK · 0900252-22
• Cassette 24F LC/APC, ODF type · Splice UK · 0500542-21

PADS numbers with free sign-up on each part page. More in the parts finder

On the drawing

Shown on the node design and termination schedule; fibre allocation shows which fibres terminate.

• NR/L2/TEL/30160 cl 9fibre allocation — which fibres are spliced or terminated

Also called: fibre frame, S-ODF, N-ODF, patch panel

Guidance in our words. Read the current issue of each standard before you design to it.