The biggest cost in running a telecommunications service provider business is labor. A large fraction of the labor in today's wireline telecommunication companies is involved in performing moves, adds, and changes to the last-mile copper plant.

Copper management is labor intensive because it typically involves many manual processes. Turning up a service, for example, requires on-site technicians to manually jumper cables to establish connectivity and to verify service installation with a handheld testset.

Service providers have long been interested in implementing solutions that automate these and other processes associated with copper loop management. Key to this endeavor is the automation of distribution frames. Distribution frames are the foundation upon which a physical copper infrastructure is built. By automating many of the tasks associated with the configuration and management of distribution frames, significant operational benefits can be achieved.

This paper focuses on how copper automation technologies can be used to automate distribution frames. It discusses why there is a desire for such automation, what solutions have been explored to date, and what technologies are emerging that can make automated distribution frames a reality.