Telecommunications Network Modeling
The simple model shown above has the following disadvantages.
-
Connectors (pairs, fibers, ports) are not DB entities - Changing a COUNTS
record creates a new version of the entire feature record, causing unnecessary
design conflicts.
-
Connections are stored between features instead of between connectors – Code
would need to parse COUNTS records and perform matching against connected
features to determine physical connections.
-
It would be very difficult to provide network analysis functionality such as trace
or ripple, due to ambiguity of physical connection data.
A Complex Network MOdel
This model is “complex” because the connections are stored between connectors, which
are associated with a feature. It addresses all the problems with the simple model.
This paper uses an element-to-element connectivity model, but the concepts could be
applied to node-arc-node models by modifying the CONNECTION table to contain
upstream and downstream node connections at the same (connector) level. Both nodes
and links would need associated CONNECTOR records.
Saple Network
The following sample network will be used to see how administrative counts, the
physical connectors carrying them, and the connections between physical connectors are
stored in the data model. The network uses notations similar to typical RBOC (Regional
Bell Operating Company) maps.
