When you build a network you need to clearly document it, showing the different layers within it. One of the bits we all are probably fairly lax about documenting is the physical cable runs, although in an office this is probably taken care of by the facilities people. For WAN links there is a SEP field past the demarcation point, unless you're a SP.
What does this have to do with travel, I hear at least none of you ask....
Driving between Khiva and Bukhara and the local telco has got a brilliant way of marking where the optical cable is as it passes through the desert - they use reeds. The same reeds as are used elsewhere on help prevent dune erosion, just on a smaller scale.
Such a ridiculously simple idea.
