Cable theft is a major problem worldwide that costs telecommunications companies millions each year. Cable Guardian 50 is a monitoring system that detects cable theft and unexpected access to street cabinets and duct covers. It works by regularly measuring the length of monitored cables and detecting significant changes, which triggers alarm messages to key holders by SMS or email. The system provides identification information to help locate incidents and manage responses.

1. Vonaq Ltd
Network Installation, Maintenance and Monitoring Tools

2. Cable Theft is a major problem worldwide

3. The Cable Theft Problem
In the UK alone, the cost of Copper Cable theft was
€924 Million in 2013
Tightening the scrap metal laws has reduced the
problem but it is only part of the solution
Due to a request from a major European operator, Cable
Guardian has been developed to address this problem

4. Cable, Street Cabinet and Cable Duct
Protection

5. Cable Guardian 50
Cable Guardian 50 is a rack based system for
Cable, Street Cabinet and Duct Cover monitoring
With Cable Guardian you are able to detect and
locate cable theft incidents, unexpected opening
of Street Cabinets and Duct covers.
If a cable theft or door alarm occurs, an SMS Text and / or Email message is
sent to the responsible authority identifying the change in the cable length
(and optionally an address) to help with location of the incident
The incident can then be dealt with efficiently ... and the alarm cleared by
SMS or email reply afterwards

6. Cable Guardian 50 Block Diagram

7. Cable Guardian In Operation
This screenshot shows a number of
cables being monitored.
Each monitor cable is checked every 60
seconds.
Each time a cable is tested, the details
are recorded into a database and
compared with the previous results
If there is a significant change an
ALARM is triggered.
This alarm may be sent by SMS text
message, email or other ALERT types
of the customers choosing.
As can be seen, ALARMS may be cleared
by SMS response messages, email
response messages

8. Cable, Street Cabinet and Cable Duct
Protection – The Process
Two types of monitor Cable are supported:
Cable Bundle Monitor
Switch Contact Monitor
A single twisted pair is used for the monitor cable for
both types

9. Cable Bundle Monitor – Add Cable
Each cable bundle to be monitored must be added to
the Cable Guardian database with the following
information:
Cable ID
Admin Group
Admin Group: consists of: 1 key holder
person, several other informed persons to be
alerted in the event of an alarm
Optional information can be added:
address or post code of cable end point
Add Cable
Admin Group

10. Cable Bundle Monitor – Start Monitoring
Each new cable is checked for it's length
and this value stored in the database
A running average is kept to accommodate for cable
degradation over time
Each Cable is monitored for a sudden change in
length – triggering an ALARM

11. Cable Bundle Monitor – ALARM
An alarm message is sent to the key holder and
all other informed persons within that Admin group
The alarm is sent by SMS text and / or email
Content: Cable ID, Old cable length, new cable
length, optional address of cable end point
Key Holder replies with acknowledgement text or
Email. This keeps informed persons aware the
incident is being dealt with
To Clear the alarm, the key holder must send a
CLEAR text or email. Only the key holder may
ACKNOWLEDGE or CLEAR an alarm

12. Cable Bundle Monitor – Maintenance
Cable Monitor Status -
For maintenance purposes it is possible to check if a
cable monitor is active or not, a STATUS text may be
sent to the system.
The system will send a text reply indicating the
STATUS of that cable
Cable Disable –
This may be done by sending the DISABLE text
message along with the cable ID
Cable Enable –
This may be done by sending the ENABLE text
message along with the cable ID

13. Street Cabinet and Duct Covers
simple open / closed switch contacts may be used to
monitor the opening of Cabinet Doors or the lifting of
duct covers
Up to 255 contacts may be connected in series on a
single monitored cable

14. Adding Switch Contacts to Cable Guardian
Engineer adds the switch contact to the most remote cabinet in the monitored
cable and leaves the contact in the open state
Engineer sends text message to Cable Guardian
system containing:
SWITCH ADD: CABINET ID: CABLE ID : CABINET address and postcode
Engineer receives CONFIRM SWITCH ADD text message. This will also
indicate the measured distance to the cabinet.
Engineer closes the cabinet and visits the next cabinet in the line to be
monitored. The Process is repeated for each Duct Cover or Cabinet in the line

15. Switch Contact ALARM
The monitor cable will be checked for sudden changes in length in the same
way as a cable bundle is monitored
If there is a sudden change in length, the new length is compared to the
stored database of distances to each contact switch for that monitor cable
An alarm message is sent to the key holder and all other informed persons
within that Admin group. Sent by Text Message and / or email
Content: ALARM: CABINET ID: CABLE ID : CABINET address and postcode
All other aspects of managing the ALARM as the same as for the Cable
Bundle process

16. CABLE GUARDIAN 50
A total solution for monitoring
Cables, Street Cabinet Doors and
Duct Covers.