City Wide Fiber Optic Network

CobbFendley has worked with the City of Pearland on multiple projects to implement their master fiber-optic network plan by developing fiber-optic network plans to connect various City-owned and maintained equipment and facilities. These plans connected and upgraded traffic controller cabinets, school zone flashing beacons, storm drainage/sanitary sewer lift stations, water treatment facilities, water storage facilities, and city (police, fire, city hall, and public recreation) buildings. These locations and components have been connected to the City’s expanding WAN.

Each project included the installation of 96 strand single-mode fiber strands for infrastructure communications and 12 strand fiber strands for traffic engineering monitoring and control functionality. At the beginning of each project, CobbFendley reviewed the City’s existing and proposed fiber network layout in order to integrate the new segment into the existing network configuration.

Over the past 10 years, the City of Pearland has been actively transitioning their former communication network comprised of leased lines, cellular, and wireless methods to a City-owned and maintained fiber communication network. As their municipality grew, the Public Works Department needed a faster and more reliable network to keep operational and maintenance costs within a reasonable amount. Initially, fiber was placed in a single conduit for the sole purpose of connecting their signalized intersections to be managed from a single, remote location. Other city agencies saw the benefits of reliable communication using fiber optics and the Public Works Department began installing multi-duct conduits for future expansion of their network.

Based on input from the various City agencies and in coordination with the City’s IT Department, CobbFendley developed the appropriate network design component which included the amount of fiber and the connection equipment (switches, routers, amplifiers) essential to handle the system’s requirements and demands which includes SCADA, ethernet, TCP/IP and routing protocols. Additionally, our team collaborated with their permitting department during the design process to ensure the proposed design was in compliance with the City’s underground utility policies.