Working with Pipe Specifications

Pipes are a generalized representation of any kind of connectivity in the inventory. A pipe enables the transfer of information between two termination points. Both physical connectivity, such as cables, and logical connectivity, such as traffic flows, can be represented by pipes.

Pipes belong to the following categories:

• Trails: Pipes that are enabled by some other connectivity, such as another trail or a connection.

• Connections: Stand-alone, point-to-point pipes that can enable trails.

You use Pipe specifications to define both trails and connections. You use pipe termination points to define the end points of pipes. Pipe specifications can be used to model layered connectivity, such as a local loop that is enabled in the network by a series of interconnected cable pairs and cross-connects. Pipes can also be used to model hierarchical relationships of pipes. When you create a Pipe Termination Point specification, you can include characteristics for information you want to collect.

When working with Pipe specifications, see the following topics:

• About Pipe Models

• Configuring Pipe Specifications

• Adding Pipe Termination Point Specifications to a Pipe Specification

• Pipe Specification Editor