Telecom Infrastructure Maintenance with Dynamic Wireless Communication
Until now, facility management has been done by special technicians mainly using
hardcopy diagrams and charts. By displaying spatial information visually, however, it
becomes possible to perform visual facility management, which is easy for everyone to
understand. This application can be provided to new telecommunications segment
entrants that are facing a shortage of field operations technicians.
Figure.2 The graphic on left illustrates how NTT InfraNet previously stored facility
information, while the graphic at right shows how the same information is now managed.
NTT InfraNet’s wireless Web GIS service makes it possible for dynamic collaboration
to occur between fixed terminals (PCs) and mobile devices. Technicians can, when
necessary, use handheld devices to simultaneously confirm and update in real time
network facility information that is accessed at an operations center on fixed terminals.
In the field, the mobile device acquires its current position from an attached GPS unit
and then retrieves a small data set containing only the vicinity map and facility overlay
data for the area where the unit is located. This data set is delivered to the device by
wireless transmission from the center server. If the technician must move to a different
location, the system automatically monitors his movement and retrieves incremental
data as needed. This is the secret to keeping file sizes small and manageable for wireless
transmission, uploading and viewing.
The network facility information map, with spatial details and supporting database
information, is overlaid freely on the vicinity map onscreen. The technician can query
the map to zoom in on network facility and view detailed data relating to infrastructure
facility, such as individual system components. This wireless service also features the
ability to update information from the mobile device for transmission back to the central
server.
Visual, or graphical, facility information is transmitted from the operations center using
optical fibers at a rate of 2 Mbps and from the field using FOMA, a third-generation
mobile service, at a rate of 384 kbps. Text databases are managed independently under
the wireless Web GIS and linked with mutual associations. Some PCs and PDAs are
equipped with IP cameras to allow live images from the site to be shared and recorded
at the operations center.
Figure.3 These graphics illustrate how NTT InfraNet manages electronic maps and facility
information using Wireless Web GIS with PDA and FOMA phones.
In some areas, of course, there are outdoor radio wave dead zones where the mobile
units cannot directly receive and transmit data. The application has been designed to
allow hard drive downloads of electronic maps and facility information for a specific
area before the technician leaves for the field. Technicians perform their work while
confirming the timeliness of the information being used based on a display of the
elapsed time since the most recent download to the locally-cached database.
It is also possible to integrate the application with hardware technologies for designated
optical cables or optical fiber core wires via PDA serial terminals, linking facility
operations information from the field directly to the database.
Wireless Web GIS at work
When optical cables are installed or updated, the wireless Web GIS application is linked
to a cable location system that specifies where the cable has been placed. By
transmitting a signal unique to certain cables from relay buildings and access holes, the
location system enables underground cables to be located from above ground. It records
and updates the cable location information in three dimensions in real time.
Simultaneously, the visual facility information is imaged using NTT InfraNet’s
exclusive automatic imaging devices and transmitted online via a storage medium, such
as a memory card, for recording and updating.
Figure.4 Wireless Web GIS enables collaboration between the operations center and field
technicians by updating information in real-time from the field when the technicians complete
the installation and/or modification of optical cables.
When optical fiber core wires are connected or replaced, the wireless Web GIS service
can be used in collaboration with a two-dimensional code core wire identification
system. The two-dimensional code core wire identification system uses core wire
replacement designations from the operations center to confirm which wires are to be
replaced according to two-dimensional codes assigned to the wires. The replaced core
wire information can be automatically recorded in the database. Cable core wire
information at the time of connection or replacement can be recorded and updated in
real time. Visual facility information can also be recorded and updated simultaneously
as described above.
