Cross-connects, meet-me rooms and LOAs
How customers, carriers and cloud on-ramps are physically joined inside a data center: what a cross-connect is, where it lives (meet-me rooms, entrance rooms, main distribution areas), how an LOA-CFA authorizes it, and how to install, test, hand back and remove one without touching anyone else's circuit.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 55 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 3 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Explain what a cross-connect is, how it differs from an interconnect, and where cross-connects are made in a facility
- Check a cross-connect order against its LOA-CFA (issuer, room, panel, port or strands, connector, media, validity) and stop on any mismatch
- Install and test a cross-connect, localize a dark direction from light readings, and hand back with evidence
- Remove a cross-connect safely by verifying its circuit ID at both ends and updating the records
Course outline
- 1.Cross-connects, meet-me rooms and LOAsVideo · 2 min
- 2.What a cross-connect is and where it livesLesson · 17 min
- 3.The LOA-CFA and the orderLesson · 19 min
- 4.Installing, testing, handing back and removingLesson · 19 min
- 5.Cross-connects, meet-me rooms and LOAs: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 18 questions
- 6.New cross-connect is dark on day oneScenario
- 7.Final exam5 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- AWS Direct Connect user guide: Dedicated connections and the Letter of Authorization and Connecting Facility Assignment (LOA-CFA)
- AWS Direct Connect user guide: Requesting cross connects at Direct Connect locations (LOA-CFA shared with the provider; authority expires after 90 days)
- AWS Direct Connect user guide: What is Direct Connect? Network requirements (single-mode fiber; 1000BASE-LX, 10GBASE-LR, 100GBASE-LR4, 400GBASE-LR4)
- Digital Realty: What is a cross connect? (point-to-point connection between two endpoints in a data center; fiber and copper media)
- Meet-me room (overview: carriers interconnect in a colocation facility; customers order a patch to the MMR)
- ANSI/TIA-942: Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers (overview)
- ANSI/TIA-568 series: Commercial building telecommunications cabling (cross-connects, interconnects, duplex fiber polarity)
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