The City ofLoma LindaCalifornia

The Loma Linda Connected Community Standard, hereinafter “The Loma Linda Standard” was brought about as a public-private partnership between the City of Loma Linda, California, its citizens, and real estate developers to foster standardized, high-quality communications assets for both new construction, and existing homes and businesses. These standards were built to ensure a long investment life, using referential standards that provide one of the fastest and most resilient communications infrastructures in the nation.

To achieve this high common denominator, the Loma Linda City Council in conjunction with builders and city IT executives, designed a modular high-speed fiber optic design around the city using numerous redundant rings. The City Council also promulgated connectivity standards into the City’s building codes to ensure that each new residence or commercial building would be connected to this City fiber utility using a methodical approach and common structured wiring scheme. These additions to the Loma Linda Building Codes were the first in the United States to reference this high common denominator of data communications speed with referential integrity throughout.

Loma Linda runs a city-wide Internet/connectivity matrix consisting of multiple and redundant fiber optic loops and wireless communications coverage areas. These areas serve municipal services and residential/business communities at a data rate that’s among the highest in the world. The Loma Linda Standard assures a consistent interface between utilities and structured building wiring in new construction for communications purposes. Each component cited in the Loma Linda Building Code is referential to common US industry standards.

The Loma Linda Standard mandates that new construction connect to the City’s fiber optic communications infrastructure. Other vendors and wiring plans can optionally be installed provided the building meets the minimum Codes. The Building Codes describe specific compatible communications components and architectures into each new building, describe development and use of City right-of-ways for communications connectivity, and standardizes specific wiring standards for structures.

At the end of construction, each development has capital communications assets deployed in an easily understandable, highly usable configuration. There is no requirement to use City Communications Utilities, but there is a considerable cost savings.

According to Loma Linda’s Building Codes, builders of new residential or commercial structures work with the City from the design phase through to post-construction inspection to ensure compliance and high-availability of the agreed-on communications structure as outlined in the Building Codes. Liaison is provided at each construction phase to ensure a positive and desired outcome.

Each construction permit requires liaison with the City to both ensure that standards are met, but also to assist builders in compliance with the Building Codes. Typically, compliance costs are born both by the final owner of the property and the City in a public-private partnership. In turn, the highest gradients of communications are realized through this highly available, highly redundant system. The City runs this fiber-based system as a utility, terminating in the Loma Linda Civic Center, in a state-of-the-art network operations center (NOC). Municipal communications services also terminate in the same NOC along with tie points to Network Access Points (NAPs).

The Loma Linda Standard specifies a unified but flexible methodology for distribution of numerous services over its utility fiber optic infrastructure. Services to all structures include, but are not limited to: basic Internet connectivity, voice-over-IP (with analog or digital phones/handsets), TV/video distribution, telemedicine, distance learning, web/web services hosting, and other digital services.

Traditionally, each vendor has their own network/communications cabling plan, none of which have been standardized?leading to multiple cabling plans in residences and commercial installations. Although the Loma Linda Standard allows any vendor to attach any cabling system to any home or commercial structure, it also mandates a specific structured wiring plan for each structure. This plan mandates a fiber termination with the City utility, and a structured wiring distribution frame to be installed in each new home or business that follows accepted (and codified) industry standards.

Residential construction Building Code sets the number of data outlets and TV/Video/coaxial cable connections per room and measure for each home. In turn, these connections terminate, usually in the master bedroom closet to a distribution frame containing an uninterruptable power supply, as well as fiber-to-data cable conversion within an Ethernet switch/router. Which in turn, is connected to the data jacks in each room of the home?

Commercial wiring follows IEEE, ANSI, and BICSI standards, and also refers to industry-accepted referential models for uniform communications infrastructure. Together, the Loma Linda Standard framework builds a community-wide, highly available communications infrastructure with referential integrity that can grow when new standards for performance are made.

• ANSI/EIA/TIA-455-A-1991, Standard Test Procedures for Fiber Optic Fibers, Cables and Transducers, Sensors, Connecting and Terminating Devices, and other Fiber Optic Components.
• ANSI/ICEA S-83-596-1994. Fiber Optic Premises Distribution Cable.
• ANSI/ICEA S-87-640-1992, Fiber Optic Outside Plant Communications Cable.
• ANSI/ICEA S-89-648-1993, Telecommunications Aerial Service Wire.
• ANSI/IEEE C2-2002, National Electrical Safety Code.
• ANSI/NFPA 70-2002, National Electrical Code.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-492CAAA-1998, Detail Standard for Class IVa Dispersion Un-shifted Single-mode Optical Fibers.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-526-7-1998, Optical Power Loss Measurements of Installed Single-mode Fiber Cable Plant-OFSTP-7.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-526-14-A-1998, Optical Power Loss Measurements of Installed Multimode Fiber Cable Plant OFSTP-14A.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-570-B-Draft 2-May/2003, Residential Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B, Additional Transmission Performance Standard for 4-Pair 100 W Category 6 Cabling.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-569-A-1998, Commercial Building Standard for Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-598-A-A995, Optical Fiber Cable Color Coding.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-604-3-1997, FOCIS 3 Fiber Optic Inter-connector Inter-mate Ability Standard.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-606-1993, Administration Standard for the Telecommunications Infrastructure of Commercial Buildings.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-607-1994, Commercial Building Grounding and Bonding Requirements for Telecommunications.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-758, 1999 Customer-owned Outside Plant Telecommunications Cabling Standards.
• IEC 60603-7, 1996, Detail Standard for Connectors, 8-Way, Including Fixed and Free Connectors with Common Mating Features Bellcore Generic Requirements and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, Inc., document which are not ANSI approved, are specified in this Standard.

• Bellcore GR-1503-CORE, March 1995, Bellcore Generic Requirements for Coaxial Connectors (Series 59, 6, 7 and 11)
• SCTE, IPS-SP-001, June 13, 1996, Flexible R.R. Coaxial Drop Cable.
• SCTE, IPS-SP-100, January 14, 1997, Standard for Trunk, Feeder and Distribution Coax Cable.
• SCTE, IPS-SP-401, October 10, 1997, “F” Port (Male Feed Thru) Physical Dimensions.
• SCTE, IPS-SP-404, October 10, 1997, “F” Connector (Male Indoor) Installation and Performance.