Serving Area Interface
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The serving area interface or service area interface (SAI) is an outdoor
enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
or metal box that allows access to telecommunications wiring.


Alternate names

*Access point (AP) *Cabinet (cab) *B-box (breakout box) *Cross box *Cross-connect box *Jumper wire interface (JWI) *Outside plant interface (OPI) *Pedestal (ped) *Primary cross-connection point (PCP) (UK)"Multimedia Telecommunications" (BT Telecommunications Series), B. Whyte (Ed.), Springer 1997 *Secondary cross-connection point (SCP) (UK) *Telecom cabinet


Function

The SAI provides the
termination Termination may refer to: Science *Termination (geomorphology), the period of time of relatively rapid change from cold, glacial conditions to warm interglacial condition *Termination factor, in genetics, part of the process of transcribing RNA ...
of individual
twisted pair Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring used for communications in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of improving electromagnetic compatibility. Compared to a single conductor or an untwisted ba ...
s of a telephony
local loop In telephony, the local loop (also referred to as the local tail, subscriber line, or in the aggregate as the last mile) is the physical link or circuit that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the common ...
for onward connection back to the nearest
telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...
(US: " central office" (CO)) or remote switch, or first to transmission equipment such as a subscriber loop carrier multiplexer and then to the exchange
main distribution frame In telephony, a main distribution frame (MDF or main frame) is a signal distribution frame for connecting equipment (inside plant) to cables and subscriber carrier equipment (outside plant). Overview The MDF is a termination point within the l ...
(MDF). In the United Kingdom, the components from the PCP onwards to the customer are known as "
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" (distribution side), and from the PCP back to the MDF as the "E-side" (exchange side). In the United States, the connection back to the MDF is known as the F2 (secondary distribution cable) and/or the F1 (main feeder cable) pairs. SAIs are used in suburban and low-density urban areas, serving some of the same purposes that
manhole A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft, utility vault, or large vessel. Manholes are often used as an access point for an underground public utility, allowing inspection, m ...
s do in high-density urban areas. Besides a cross connect point, they sometimes contain a
DSLAM A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM, often pronounced ''DEE-slam'') is a network device, often located in telephone exchanges, that connects multiple customer digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital ...
or more rarely a
remote concentrator In modern telephony a remote concentrator, remote concentrator unit (RCU), or remote line concentrator (RLC) is a concentrator at the lowest level in the telephone switch hierarchy. Subscribers' analogue telephone/PSTN lines are terminated on co ...
or both.


See also

*
Demarcation point In telephony, the demarcation point is the point at which the public switched telephone network ends and connects with the customer's on-premises wiring. It is the dividing line which determines who is responsible for installation and maint ...
*
Enclosure (electrical) An electrical enclosure is a cabinet for electrical or electronic equipment to mount switches, knobs and displays and to prevent electrical shock to equipment users and protect the contents from the environment. The enclosure is the only par ...
*
Fiber to the telecom enclosure Fiber to the telecom enclosure (FTTTE), also sometimes called fiber to the zone (FTTZ), or fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) in the UK, is a standards-compliant structured cabling system architecture that extends the optical fiber backbone network ...
* Sub-loop unbundling


References

Local loop Street furniture {{telecommunications-stub