Wirelists

A spreadsheet as a wire list

Any complex project will have a wire list, uniquely numbering every cable, with sufficient meta data that the cable type and function can be clearly identified. In very large projects, a wire list is derived from the underlying project database. In smaller projects, we just create one in Excel. In this course, we focus on ISO11801 and EN50600, however in a real project, you may be dealing with heterogeneous cabling.

Separate the worksheets based on FD/BD/CD.

CAT6 cable count should be shown here per room with a distance estimate per cable to allow for budget estimation.

All trunk cables/fibers/phone should be shown, distance is also needed.

For a small project, I would use prefabricated fibers, it is cheaper. Alternatively, you could buy all the parts (trays, pigtails, fiber, etc.) but them you must pay for a terminator, it’s a very specialist job. And you then need to test the fibre and document the results!

The best wire lists have analysis columns and totals for 1gbs/POTS/IPPhone/ISDN/etc. This allows a single document to be used for master planning and budgeting. This is useful even with VoIP phones.

It is a spreadsheet so for no extra effort, you can show totals, add things up, etc. Make sure you use the formula, not just a number.

In some of my assignments, you have no details for some locations, so plan for a small cabinet and building interlinks only.

Take a look at this video from 2020.