What software tools are you going to deploy for network design and documentation?
How much thought have you given this … now honestly?
I’ve been in touch with FTTH operators and planners globally and there are plenty that swear by AutoCAD and Excel, others use Visio or something similar instead of AutoCAD. And why? Because the software is inexpensive and readily available. And not a thought spent on the cost of manpower to painfully carry out this often mind numbing task. Since it’s almost impossible to verify the networks prior to build the chance of errors happening are well almost guaranteed. The reason again for using this solution approach was … to save money?
Then there are others that have been using a “powerful” GIS software for the design of backbone networks and they’re expecting this to be the bees knees for FTTH networks. More often than not this is like trying to hammer in thousands of nails with a screwdriver (or whatever you call it this side of the Atlantic.). So once again you end up wasting thousands of hours because you’re using the wrong tools.
And while we’re at it let’s not just talk hours (=money), let’s also talk about staff motivation. I feel really sorry for the colleagues that are “forced” to put up with this drudgery day in day out. Sure they’re getting great money for it but I personally would dread the thought of waking up every morning to look forward to another 8 hours of mind-sucking tedium. Happy staff generally produce better results – think about it.
I was recently asked by a major telecommunications company about some of the basic requirements for selecting a design solution. One of the first items I put on the shopping list was that it should have a drag & drop approach. In my opinion this is an intuitive approach which reflects “real life”. You need a fiber amplifier – go to the store room, select and put it in the back of your pick-up. In the design tool you go to your component library, select and then drag & drop.
Basically what I’m saying here is that I’m not convinced by the table-driven method where you enter your network data into tables which then are used to generate the network drawing onto your map. If you don’t like the results you have to return to the tables to make the corrections. Apart from the mental agility demands one of the dangers is that the arrival of new function requirements can result in further tables being necessary. This can of course affect project progress. Furthermore, the more complex the work becomes the better qualified staff you’re going to need, which of course adds to the overall cost.
The bottom line is that for FTTH rollouts the ideal design solution is going to be easy-to-learn and easy-to-use and is highly efficient. Think supervisor and worker bees. If you can save 5, or let’s be bold, 10 minutes per subscriber in the network design phase and you have 100,000 or even as little as 10,000 subscribers go do the maths. Don’t forget as well that after the build completion there are the continuous network modifications to be considered and that for the lifetime of the network
So whether you’re a network planner, vendor or operator, hopefully on this sunny Sunday morning I’ve given you some food for thought.
Diarmuid
|
Author
FTTH design solutions