Plexus — Leo Brown

Plexus grew out of one of my “lockdown ideas gone mad”, Brighton Fibre. When everything outside became very unforgiving, uninterrupted connectivity became paramount. I wanted to build a local fibre network that people could depend on and feel part of. I had to design things from scratch — and that meant digging the ground and finding something to help remember what went where when it all disappeared from sight. Plexus became that thing: a detailed, interconnected record of infrastructure, of ducts and chambers, fibres and lasers, and everything they tell us.

Recording the physical network

Once cable is installed, much of it disappears underground. Plexus records ducts, their bores and available space, cables and joints. Built on open-source software and hardware, it relates that infrastructure to the streets and properties above it, supporting capacity planning as the network grows.

Plexus geographical network view showing routes and infrastructure beneath Brighton’s streets. — A geographical view of the Brighton Fibre network.

Tracing the optical connections

Geography is only part of the record. Plexus follows individual fibres through each splice, connecting the street map to the optical path between an exchange and a customer. Those joins make it possible to trace a connection through multiple cables.

Plexus splice view recording connections between individual fibres. — Individual fibre joins and splice records.

Keeping records close to the work

Engineers can add evidence and reports from the field as they extend the network. The records need to follow the infrastructure as it changes.

Watching optical performance

Plexus also tracks customer optical readings. Its OLT loss analyser groups readings by port, helping identify differences worth investigating. Mapping and monitoring sit together: the route, the joins along it and the performance of the connection.

Plexus OLT loss analyser showing optical readings grouped across the network. — Optical readings in the OLT loss analyser.

Read the fuller story, Recording the Unseen, on Brighton Fibre.