Driving telecommunications business changes with GIS
Construction
Network realization requires that the design developed during the engineering process can be readily converted into
construction activities. The complex nature of broadband networks requires that different skills and approaches are
applied methodically to different parts of the construction process. In addition, the necessary components must be
purchased and made available in a timely fashion. The role played by the engineering tool kit is the development of
the necessary bill of materials and the development of the complete set of construction detail. Downstream
applications are then capable of filtering and aggregating individual construction actions into meaningful work tasks
for multiple construction teams. In order to achieve this end, the engineering tool kit must be capable of
understanding the characteristics of the objects it uses to develop the design not only from an operational
perspective but also from a construction view. The role of the GIS base once again filfills a critical role in that
instructions for the placement of each network component can be readily included in work instructions.
In a highly object oriented environment, objects can be programmed to behave in accordance with many operational
concepts. The life cycle model is crucial in the context of construction. Construction activity which cannot be
completed must be clearly differentiated from work that has completed successfidly. Subsequent requests for work
completion will then differentiate between existing equipment and those elements which have been added or
temporarily deferred from a particular work order. The efficiency of the engineering process will inevitably be put
192.to the test. If conditions in the field preclude the implementation of the original design, rapid adjustment of that
design and the development of revised work instruction is necessary if the cost of prolonged suspension of work
activity is to be avoided.
Cut-Over and Marketing
Cut-over is the process by which existing narrow band customers are transferred to the new broadband network
once it has been constructed. It entails intensive field operations performed on a customer by customer basis. As
each customer is cut-over the original copper drop is removed and a new compound drop is installed between the
serving equipment and the customer’s premises. Broadband technology cannot be instantly deployed because of the
scale of the work involved. The effort will require the management of dedicated construction teams working in
specified geographical areas in a carefully orchestrated manner. Construction will be completed on a gradual and
progressive basis, concentrating on a set of specific serving areas at any given point in time. It is extremely
important, however, that any installed base be leveraged as quickly as possible once construction is complete in
order to gain the operational advantages and indirectly generate the necessary capital and human resources for the
ongoing construction program. Indeed the cut-over process is likely to become so pervasive that it will be
indiscernible fi-omnormal ongoing operational activity. Its challenges are diverse and include:
- The identification of the conversion area. Once identified, both cut-over planning and marketing
preparations go into top gear.
- The identification of the cut-over candidates within that area. First generation operations support
systems will not be capable of managing the conversion and normal service activity across the full
suite of products to which customers may subscribe. To prevent unnecessary manual operations,
complex products such as DS1 data circuits will be temporarily maintained on copper facilities. In
addition, construction may be deferred where serving arrangements are complex and expensive.
Antiquated underground facilities are perhaps the best example. This means that construction and cut-over
for certain areas may be forced to be an iterative process over time.
- The accurate selection of specific serving arrangements for each customer, such as which one of
several possible remote terminals should be used, which port on that terminal is appropriate, and so on.
Unfortunately, real world entities do not always conform to conversion boundaries. For example, part of a street
may be crossed by a town or a wire center boundary. As a result, the selection of cut-over candidates using basic
addressing mechanisms (e.g. all customers on a specific street) is ineffective, The obvious solution is to leverage
the spatial query capabilities inherent in the GIS. As with engineering, construction will be managed according to
predefine logical nodes or geographical areas. Once construction is complete these logical boundaries act as the
input to spatial queries which will output the conversion candidates within the specified area. The original
boundaries defined during the engineering process become the perfect mechanism for managing cut-over.
Derivation of Operational Data
Service Activation
Serviceactivationlies at the core of telecommunicationsoperations. Considerthe databasedepictedwithinthe
ServiceManagementLayerof Figure 3 as a suitablyreplicatedcopyof the many-to-manyrelationshipsbetween
serving terminals and service address. This database constitutes the prime fuel for the service activation process
from which available network connections are drawn. Address consistency with the engineering tool kit is of
paramount importance. Given the limited capacity of broadband serving terminals, hot spots of customer
subscriptions may lead to capacity exhaustion. When this is encountered, service requests must be temporarily
suspended while engineering undertakes the task of capacity relief. Each held order must trigger engineering
activity because the addition of additional serving may exhaust signal availability in that part of the network. As a
result, engineering forms an integral component of the service activation process and must be capable of rapid
reaction to satis~ the inevitable demand for additional capacity.
Figure 3: Propagation of serving oportunities
While initial broadband deployments are expected to be monolithic (i.e. using a single technology such as Hybrid
Fiber Coax, HFC), the era of multiple overlaying technologies is not far behind. HFC or Switched Digital Video
(SDV) technologies are not optimal for all demographic circumstances. It may be required to overlay regions
supporting different technologies, such as HFC and Digital Loop Carrier (DLC). Using the spatial capabilities of a
GM based engineering system, the regions where overlaps occur are readily identified. Assignment rules can now
be established for such regions in order to optimize network utilization on a region by region basis. A typical
assignment strategy might direct the assignment process to use HFC first with DLC as the second choice, or to
assign video on HFC while telephony is provided on DLC if capacity is available.
Service Assurance and Work Force Administration
Element managers in a Telecommunications Management Networks (TMN) based operations architecture are
required to perform filtering and analysis of raw alarm information they receive from the network. The process of
reducing this alarm information to unambiguous failure indications is known as root cause analysis. Moreover,
TMN guidelines also require that element managers hide the physical details and characteristics of the network
elements or network domains they supervise. These responsibilities require that each element manager possesses a
complete and detailed structural view of network equipment. BEDT provides and maintains this information.
In order to fiu-ther understand the role of the engineering tool kit we must consider the likely circumstances for
field operations in the broadband era. These circumstances are flu-ther predicated on the expected high reliability
and inherent defensive mechanisms being incorporated into broadband technologies, Based upon this assumption
we can deduce that:
- The field workforce will be subjected to significant reductions in numbers.
- Hands on knowledge of the network’s structure and geography will significantly diminish.
- Failures can affect large numbers of customers and consequently rapid diagnosis and repair
capabilities are essential.
- Other competitiveserviceproviderswill offertheir customerscompensationfor networkoutagesand
seek recoursefromthe networkprovidersthey leverage. Longoutageswill have a directand
immediateimpacton the revenuestream.
- Typically, customers will be immediately aware of network failures because of the extensive holding
times associated with entertainment services.
- Network failures which are inconsistent with precise root cause analysis will require operational
teamwork fi-om inside and outside forces.
To meet these challenges a comprehensive Network Management Layer must provide highly integrated GIS based
presentation services for the following:
- Display of root cause alarm information provided by Element Managers.
- Diagnostic services.
- Geographical information in order to direct the work force to the right locatiords.
- Correlation between customers complaints and network failures.
- Service impact assessment for network failures.
- The current geographical disposition of available crews.
BEDT provides the underlying structural, topological, and geographical data required to fidfill all of the above.
Furthermore, next generation presentation services will be required to support both geographical views and
schematic views of the network. This should present no problem for an object oriented GIS based system with
inherent rendering on-the-fly capabilities.
Traffic Data Collection and ITS RELATIONSHIP TO DESIGN
The idea of network trafllc is a significant factor in 2 distinct phases of the design process: (1) the selection of
suitable serving areas during the initial design, and (2) the ongoing assessment of network occupancy. The latter is
performed on a regular periodic basis and is the mechanism by which the need for network relief or network
redesign is identified. Even though, the approach to each task is fundamentally different, both gain significant
operational benefit ffom being performed against a geographical model.
Within BEDT, buildings are established as complex objects capable of acting as a container or parent of Oto many
service addresses. Each address can be further described by the number of traditional copper based services active
at that address. Using this data, it is relatively simple to define geographical areas that are (1) consistent with geo-political
constraints such and town and wire center boundaries and (2) which satisfy specific design criteria such as
the maximum number of buildings and/or the maximum number of services within a network domain (or node).
Once a network is constructed and placed into service, however, real traffic measurements are feasible. These
measurements will be obtained from the network by element managers which relate the statistical information to the
original network topology provided by BEDT. This information will include statistics on the amount of bandwidth
lost due to noise ingress, bandwidth permanently assigned to private circuits, and the amount of offered traffic and
the incidence of blocking related to the dynamically allocated bandwidth resources. While not directly concerned
with the processing of this data, BEDT can and will be used as a presentation server for the results of this
computation, termed the capacity map. The value of this approach is in the quality of the feedback provided to the
engineering community. It should be clear the fundamental role that BEDT plays in this regard. The unique
identity of each network originally assigned by BEDT is used and maintained as data flows from the Engineering
Tool Kit, to 1 or more Element Managers, to the Traflic Data Analysis Engine, and eventually returns to BEDT
itself.
Conclusion
This paper has provided a high level description of some of the major challenges facing telecommunication
providers and the approach SNET has taken to meet them. The operations challenges are diverse and formidable.
Fortunately, state-of-art software engineering tools and GIS technology are providing some of the necessary tools to
meet and overcome these challenges effectively.
