Moving into the next generation GIS

In the space of the last five years the traditional Telecommunications market place has been completely redefined. Virtually all-major markets throughout the world have been deregulated resulting in intense competition and an ever-expanding communications economy. The most significant market driver has been the phenomenal demand for the Internet services for both business and social communications.

Business response
In response to the challenges of the new market landscape many established service providers have developed new organizational, process and systems business models. These new models have broadened the focus of these businesses from POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services) to encompass PANS (Pretty Amazing New Stuff) and the Internet and multimedia markets. The intent of these business-streamlining initiatives has been to capture market leadership based on three key differentiators:

Lower cost of service
Maximization of the infrastructure/network investment
Faster delivery of new services
Excellent service assurance

For many of the incumbent service providers, even the more progressive ones such as Bell Canada, a thorough re-evaluation of their legacy systems architecture became an inevitable aspect of these visionary strategies.

Systems strategy
GRM tools are a fundamental component of the corporate vision to implement an open business systems framework that will support the automation of flow through processes. The new architecture can enable telco companies to continue to move from a forecast driven service to a demand driven paradigm.

Corporate systems framework and flow-through processes.

GRM projects such as G/COMMS-NetworkX will provide a geospatially enabled enterprise-wide network planning and engineering platform aimed at maximizing network utilization and streamlining network expansion. These sophisticated tools combine geobase and network data models that can be stored in an open corporate data vault. Seamless interfaces provide bi-directional views into other key business systems

Corporate systems framework and flow-through processes.
The GRM enabled environment will begin to eliminate activities that do not add value such as file management, data duplication and design conflict resolution. The user community will have the ability operate in desktop, mobile and web enabled environments. All aspects of the network will be represented in a seamless, time sensitive open geospatial model.

Geospatial Resource Management (GRM) Solution
The telephone industry is experiencing a tendency toward a natural grouping of applications. More and more telcos are replacing legacy systems with COTS solutions. These solutions are becoming increasingly popular as mergers and acquisitions create numerous incompatible systems within a single corporation.

Another natural grouping of Telco applications involves geospatial applications, which fall into a unique environment involving graphics, complex relationships, and functionality not found in alphanumeric business systems. Historically, legacy systems have excluded this group of applications, due to incompatibility of various databases proprietary or otherwise.

GRM applications such as G/Comms NetWorkX provide a solution for this complex engineering and operations-oriented group of systems by providing an open relational database and Application Programming Interfaces (API) to legacy systems.

Geospatial Resource Management Applications
A suite of products that communicate together will provide the coverage required for the tasks that the telco will need to perform. The following functions are seen as the critical components that the product suite will need to address:

Network Analysis
Mobile Computing
Network Design and management
Marketing and Sales support
Operations and Maintenance support

Network Analysis
Network analysis is defined as two key business areas. Network planning for network capacity, service expansion, and modernization programs is one of these areas. A second area is the Service Assurance arena; these functions ensure that the network continues to provide expected levels of service to all customers.

Network Planning
The GRM application will need to provide a sophisticated suite of tools to ensure that network capacity is available to meet customer demand. The following is a list of some of the more significant functionality that is provided to perform network analysis.

An interface to the corporate assignment system.
Trace (smart, step upstream, downstream, etc.).
Search (for features either spatially or database query using simple tools).
Report generation (published in WEB compatible format, paper, exportable, etc.).
Enterprise Query.
Loop make up.
Utilization or Fills (equipment or cable).
DB loss calculations support the service capability of the network including Inside Plant and Outside Plant.

Service Assurance
The GRM application must support the test centers by providing enhanced analysis tools that are geospatially enabled to assist in finding the physical location of the trouble. It becomes a major tool in supporting the service restoration process. No doubt that customer expectation is to that service restoration–getting the service back online–as the most significant responsibility of the telephone company.

Enterprise Access View & Update
The access and distribution of data across the enterprise is an integral component of a geospatial resource management system. Decision-support tools require the timely and easy use of the geospatial data that can sustain a large user base. In order to meet the diverse enterprise access, view, and update requirements of the telco, the GRM suite must provide a number of view and report applications. An example of such a packaged products that will be implemented are planned for Bell Canada’s 3,000 users are described below:

Analyst & Designer
Mobile Viewer
Net Viewer

Analyst & Designer

Connected Mode
A connected version of an Analyst and Designer tool will provide full functionality while networked to the enterprise database. These products provide full-function engineering network management as described in more detail below.

Disconnected Mode
A disconnected version provides the same capabilities as the connected mode with the flexibility of portability. The limitation in disconnected mode is the amount of data that can be downloaded. A requirement of this tool is the need to synchronize changes made in the field to the enterprise database.

Mobile Viewer
A Mobile Viewer provides benefits to numerous operations such as the increased efficiency of service assurance technicians. With the analysis tools provided with a mobile Viewer, a technician can analyze and trace single pair troubles in any direction on the network. Furthermore, a mobile viewer allows a user the flexibility to take their work to the field without being confined to their office. Some of the functionality provided to the user is:

Off line redlining.
Field design
Field checks
Plant validation/ verification
Preparing ‘what-if’ scenarios.
Remote site access to corporate data.
Network assignment.
Network data.
No waiting for service desk responses.
No longer dependant on Assignment Centre.
Not as dependant on Test Centre response.
Portability.
Re-synchronizing field data with the enterprise database.
Extended absence from the office no longer an issue.
Less time spent travelling between the office and work site.