Broadening the CAD-GIS horizons
INTRODUCTION
Broadband is the marriage of telecommunications and cable technologies. As it is rightly said, “Necessity is the mother of invention”, the last decade saw tremendous advancements in the arena of digital and fiber optic technologies: key elements empowering the broadband technology. Broadband technology has not only given a new meaning for information exchange, but has also been the building blocks for the so-called “Information Superhighway”. Besides fostering a new class of consumer and business related services such as IP based telephone and video conferencing services, Video On Demand (VOD), home networking etc., it has also resulted in increased cable modem penetration and deployment of cable telephony services, making cities digitally intelligent.
Broadband technology besides being looked upon as an innovative technology, as a tool to make the city residents digitally literate, competent and proficient, it is also being looked upon as an “always-open gateway” to a new world of telecommunications and cable technologies and as the buildings blocks for the so called “Information Superhighway”, expected to dictate the economic development of the cities of the third world.
NEED FOR GIS IN BROADBAND INDUSTRY
As with most utilities, cable companies traditionally create and maintain detailed paper maps of their systems (network and equipments). In the last decade these paper maps became increasingly generated and stored using CAD and rarely did these MSO’s employ the software for tasks beyond simple drafting. In other words the CAD technology was merely used to create an image for the purpose of engineering documentation, whilst maintaining key data in disparate spreadsheets and other databases to manage their key assets.
With the tremendous pace at which the broadband infrastructure is being deployed and given the ever-growing consumer needs, the cable and broadband companies are at crossroads. Moreover these systems expand geographically and functionally every day. The realities of this new paradigm have made obsolete, the manual, non-integrated approach to asset management, network monitoring and customer care that characterized the cable industry’s simpler past. In the absence of a comprehensive out-of-box solution in place and faced with the competitive realities, the cable companies are finding it difficult to not only manage the increasing volume of CAD documents associated with such network systems, but their real assets on the field as well. The engineering departments rely on system maps painstakingly drawn by drafters and residing in legacy CAD/Database combination files, paper maps, disparate spread sheets and other such formats, thereby making their enterprise wide usage redundant. By virtue of the manner in which such critical cable plant network data is maintained and managed, quicker and accurate decisions are next to impossible.
It is in this context that GIS finds importance in not only giving asset management a new dimension with the ability to handle geospatial data but also in revolutionizing the way in which such key assets are managed. In the recent years the trend has been to integrate geospatial and asset management systems to provide the most natural and effective links in utility information management and this synergy has been quite evident. Awakened by the shortcomings of the CAD/Database combination approach of the existing legacy systems to maintain key network element information and faced with the competitive realities, it seems quite logical to apply geospatial technology for a solution to this crisis.
GIS BASED BROADBAND AM/FM UTILITY GIS – WHAT IS IT?
PIXEL has been serving the Broadband/ Cable industry for the past 12 years and this rich experience along with its skilled in-house GIS team has gone into developing this GIS based Broadband Information System to address the key issues confronting such systems like: Network monitoring & Optimized Efficiency in Service, Ability to take Quicker and Accurate Decisions, Better Asset Management etc. A web based GIS for cable TV operators and other utility companies is a linkage of databases and maps, thereby creating a searchable interface that includes the simplest functionalities like zooming and panning to the sophisticated ones like printable reports and completely searchable and locatable network elements. Applying GIS for the Broadband industry will not only help the industry migrate their cable plant data from their existing obsolete legacy CAD/ Database systems to a web based GIS system but also derive enterprise wide benefits, effectively manage their assets, avoid intelligence redundancy and have the information about their assets at their finger tips. PIXEL though this article shares its years of rich international and domestic experience in the HFC/ Broadband industry both in the design and GIS creation.
THE CATV HFC WORKFLOW
A typical CATV (Cable TV) network map starts with a field walkout collecting the addresses to be served and verifying them. This is followed by what is called a STRAND MAPPING. Strand Mapping is a graphical representation of Broad Band network routing. Data collected through field walk is drafted on CAD software, which forms the base for Broad Band network design. This is followed by a Node layout based on the HFC architecture deciding the number of homes passed. Then the actual RF Network design and or Fiber design is done. There are several combinations in this Broadband architecture depending on the actual devices and systems used. In places like Manhattan in New York, there are FTH connections or what is called as Fiber to Home.
MIGRATING CAD DATA TO GIS
Intelligent graphics and data binding between the graphical elements on a map and its corresponding information in a database is the essence of any GIS system. Deploying GIS for the Broadband industry is with the intention to enable the Broadband, Coaxial, Fiber and other network element information data of cable companies residing in legacy CAD/Database systems accessible to its users enterprise wide via corporate intranet or the World Wide Web. The first and the most challenging step for PIXEL was to perform spatial & attribute data mining and migration from the traditional CAD/Database format combinations to a user friendly, cost effective and easy to use GIS format.
To avoid GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out), before the process of mining the data from the traditional systems, PIXEL does what is known as data scrubbing and validation. In this process the key information based on the nature of the queries and reports required for a MSO, is filtered out. The inaccuracy and inconsistency of the data is brought to the attention of the MSO and appropriate action taken before taking it up for data migration. The input data for migration to any standard GIS or more complicated systems like GE Smallworldâ is run through several processes checking for the database integrity, signal levels, engineering design consistency, design and drafting errors etc. before the files are sent for migration to GIS. This is necessary and a critical process in the life cycle of the project, due to the inconsistencies that creep in during the drafting and design processes of these files that are carried out not by one contractor but by several of them. In some instances due to technological limitations at the time of data migration many of the system maps are unintelligent. These are made intelligent by a skilled in-house team either by manual or semi-manual drafting and design processes. Another obstacle in the path of CAD-GIS migration was the multiplicity of CAD formats like Bentleyâ’s MicroStation, AutoCADâ etc. and databases like Oracle, dBase etc. in which the spatial and attribute data respectively to be migrated resided. Thanks to FMEâ(Feature Manipulation Engine), powerful spatial data translation and transformation software from Safe Software, Canada. With the aid of custom-made mapping files designed in house, the data mining is done at various levels to migrate the unintelligent or relatively less intelligent data into a more intelligent piece of geospatial data. This is essential to enable the network elements to be completely searchable in a web based GIS environment satisfied by virtue of the carefully designed data model and layer structure.
FMEâ, the spatial ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tool from Safe Software, is a Swiss Army knife in terms of cutting across the CAD-GIS migration barriers and in handling multitude of CAD/GIS file formats in the industry. It is the neutral CAD/GIS environment of FME that adds power and giving it an unique edge in the interoperability industry. Over 170 plus CAD/GIS formats as on date are interoperable through FME. PIXEL’s experience in the CAD/GIS industry suggests that many a time the network and landbase data in popular CAD formats are prone to simple design and drafting errors to more complex ones like database integrity, inconsistent signal levels between network elements/ equipments, engineering design inconsistency etc. There have been always these issues of the landbase over which the Broadband network elements are drafted and designed getting outdated or requiring a datum shift from say NAD27 to NAD83 systems in a typical United States system. Most of the data though available in CAD formats, either are not suitable for a direct GIS migration by virtue of the file formats or prone with drafting errors like overshoots, undershoots, snapping errors. All of these require a thorough data scrubbing. PIXEL’s in-house team does most of these through its custom in-house data scrubbing tools or using FME.
The next task was to make this intelligent piece of network information available for enterprise wide use and to provide the end users at various levels with the appropriate tools and interface for querying, report generation and other such routine tasks relating to the cable industry. Along with the appropriate development tools, based on our experience with some of our most prestigious cable MSO’s and understanding of the key end user requirements, an appropriate web GIS interface has been developed to make the most out of GIS.
Broadband AM/FM Utility GIS
Beyond making intelligent network maps available for enterprise wide use, GIS as evident has other features that can be used for network operations, field engineering, marketing & sales and engineering purposes. To quote a few:
The Network Operations Center (NOC) could use GIS for trouble ticket dispatch at a quicker pace with no more rummaging through cumbersome paper maps or Run a trace to locate the fiber cut for service restoration or Quickly highlight the consumers who will be affected from an outage, so that the alternative measures could be planned.
The Engineering department can plan before they dig up, as the network plant data is made available overlaid with appropriate GIS landbase layers in GIS. The engineers can locate any piece of network element like amplifiers, power supply, cables etc. The customer addresses can be clicked to get information like what type of cables run to it? Where is the feeding amplifier? Which node is it connected to? How many houses are wired to the same network? Where are they? and so on. Quickly generate engineering inventory reports like the total cable footage, house counts, count of specified pole types within a given service area and so on.
The Accounting department for the inventory report on its valuable assets out in the field could simply pick the fields on which they wish to generate the reports or do franchise fee calculations, weekly or monthly field inventory statements etc.
The Marketing and Sales department could locate their “Best Customers” based on specific criteria and this could be for their proposed service area or could be within the existing ones. This could also be to identify the “Best Business” location or to identify areas suitable for reference or direct advertisement.
GIS for Broadband also offers a wide range of scope to integrate GIS system with other existing Work Management Systems (WMS) at various levels.
INTEGRATING WITH WORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Integrating GIS with other systems increases its value proposition and gone are the days of a standalone GIS system. By integrating such GIS based systems with other work management systems, one can get a wider range of benefits. Work management systems could be anything from a market analysis system to an outage management system or a bandwidth management system. By using powerful Geocoding tools the non-geospatial data associated with such systems can be tied to an appropriate spatial entity in the existing geospatial network data in GIS. This not only allows for an opportunity to visualize the non-geospatial data associated with such systems, but to also display the output from such systems on an intelligent GIS map. As an example the output from an outage management system could be used to display the trouble ticket location at the appropriate zoom level with other GIS layers on a GIS map. In most cases the existing outage management systems or any other work management systems for that matter lack such an interface leaving the decision makers with no choice other than a rugged display of the output from such system. There can be no doubt on the ability of GIS to discover existing dormant relationships between various entities. Moreover in the case of existing work management systems, they are discrete and this makes it impossible to bring valuable information in a timely manner. The role of any AM/FM GIS system for that matter would be to tightly integrate these systems and provide the users with the ability to view all the critical components of their operations processes at the click of a button.
Of all creatures, humans are the only ones who can ponder over and understand a situation and the only ones who can think up ways of doing something about a problem in a rational and logical way. GIS may not be the paragon of all virtues, but it could be important as a tool for addressing key problems and rudimentary processes of the Broadband industry. Building the “Information Superhighway” with the Broadband technology to improve economic development, make city residents digitally literate and the cities intelligent is a mammoth task and with GIS, “Broadband bandwidth that is used to access such GIS is not the limit” but "Sky is the true limit!”
Broadband is the marriage of telecommunications and cable technologies. As it is rightly said, “Necessity is the mother of invention”, the last decade saw tremendous advancements in the arena of digital and fiber optic technologies: key elements empowering the broadband technology. Broadband technology has not only given a new meaning for information exchange, but has also been the building blocks for the so-called “Information Superhighway”. Besides fostering a new class of consumer and business related services such as IP based telephone and video conferencing services, Video On Demand (VOD), home networking etc., it has also resulted in increased cable modem penetration and deployment of cable telephony services, making cities digitally intelligent.
Broadband technology besides being looked upon as an innovative technology, as a tool to make the city residents digitally literate, competent and proficient, it is also being looked upon as an “always-open gateway” to a new world of telecommunications and cable technologies and as the buildings blocks for the so called “Information Superhighway”, expected to dictate the economic development of the cities of the third world.
NEED FOR GIS IN BROADBAND INDUSTRY
As with most utilities, cable companies traditionally create and maintain detailed paper maps of their systems (network and equipments). In the last decade these paper maps became increasingly generated and stored using CAD and rarely did these MSO’s employ the software for tasks beyond simple drafting. In other words the CAD technology was merely used to create an image for the purpose of engineering documentation, whilst maintaining key data in disparate spreadsheets and other databases to manage their key assets.
With the tremendous pace at which the broadband infrastructure is being deployed and given the ever-growing consumer needs, the cable and broadband companies are at crossroads. Moreover these systems expand geographically and functionally every day. The realities of this new paradigm have made obsolete, the manual, non-integrated approach to asset management, network monitoring and customer care that characterized the cable industry’s simpler past. In the absence of a comprehensive out-of-box solution in place and faced with the competitive realities, the cable companies are finding it difficult to not only manage the increasing volume of CAD documents associated with such network systems, but their real assets on the field as well. The engineering departments rely on system maps painstakingly drawn by drafters and residing in legacy CAD/Database combination files, paper maps, disparate spread sheets and other such formats, thereby making their enterprise wide usage redundant. By virtue of the manner in which such critical cable plant network data is maintained and managed, quicker and accurate decisions are next to impossible.
It is in this context that GIS finds importance in not only giving asset management a new dimension with the ability to handle geospatial data but also in revolutionizing the way in which such key assets are managed. In the recent years the trend has been to integrate geospatial and asset management systems to provide the most natural and effective links in utility information management and this synergy has been quite evident. Awakened by the shortcomings of the CAD/Database combination approach of the existing legacy systems to maintain key network element information and faced with the competitive realities, it seems quite logical to apply geospatial technology for a solution to this crisis.
GIS BASED BROADBAND AM/FM UTILITY GIS – WHAT IS IT?
PIXEL has been serving the Broadband/ Cable industry for the past 12 years and this rich experience along with its skilled in-house GIS team has gone into developing this GIS based Broadband Information System to address the key issues confronting such systems like: Network monitoring & Optimized Efficiency in Service, Ability to take Quicker and Accurate Decisions, Better Asset Management etc. A web based GIS for cable TV operators and other utility companies is a linkage of databases and maps, thereby creating a searchable interface that includes the simplest functionalities like zooming and panning to the sophisticated ones like printable reports and completely searchable and locatable network elements. Applying GIS for the Broadband industry will not only help the industry migrate their cable plant data from their existing obsolete legacy CAD/ Database systems to a web based GIS system but also derive enterprise wide benefits, effectively manage their assets, avoid intelligence redundancy and have the information about their assets at their finger tips. PIXEL though this article shares its years of rich international and domestic experience in the HFC/ Broadband industry both in the design and GIS creation.
THE CATV HFC WORKFLOW
A typical CATV (Cable TV) network map starts with a field walkout collecting the addresses to be served and verifying them. This is followed by what is called a STRAND MAPPING. Strand Mapping is a graphical representation of Broad Band network routing. Data collected through field walk is drafted on CAD software, which forms the base for Broad Band network design. This is followed by a Node layout based on the HFC architecture deciding the number of homes passed. Then the actual RF Network design and or Fiber design is done. There are several combinations in this Broadband architecture depending on the actual devices and systems used. In places like Manhattan in New York, there are FTH connections or what is called as Fiber to Home.
MIGRATING CAD DATA TO GIS
Intelligent graphics and data binding between the graphical elements on a map and its corresponding information in a database is the essence of any GIS system. Deploying GIS for the Broadband industry is with the intention to enable the Broadband, Coaxial, Fiber and other network element information data of cable companies residing in legacy CAD/Database systems accessible to its users enterprise wide via corporate intranet or the World Wide Web. The first and the most challenging step for PIXEL was to perform spatial & attribute data mining and migration from the traditional CAD/Database format combinations to a user friendly, cost effective and easy to use GIS format.
To avoid GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out), before the process of mining the data from the traditional systems, PIXEL does what is known as data scrubbing and validation. In this process the key information based on the nature of the queries and reports required for a MSO, is filtered out. The inaccuracy and inconsistency of the data is brought to the attention of the MSO and appropriate action taken before taking it up for data migration. The input data for migration to any standard GIS or more complicated systems like GE Smallworldâ is run through several processes checking for the database integrity, signal levels, engineering design consistency, design and drafting errors etc. before the files are sent for migration to GIS. This is necessary and a critical process in the life cycle of the project, due to the inconsistencies that creep in during the drafting and design processes of these files that are carried out not by one contractor but by several of them. In some instances due to technological limitations at the time of data migration many of the system maps are unintelligent. These are made intelligent by a skilled in-house team either by manual or semi-manual drafting and design processes. Another obstacle in the path of CAD-GIS migration was the multiplicity of CAD formats like Bentleyâ’s MicroStation, AutoCADâ etc. and databases like Oracle, dBase etc. in which the spatial and attribute data respectively to be migrated resided. Thanks to FMEâ(Feature Manipulation Engine), powerful spatial data translation and transformation software from Safe Software, Canada. With the aid of custom-made mapping files designed in house, the data mining is done at various levels to migrate the unintelligent or relatively less intelligent data into a more intelligent piece of geospatial data. This is essential to enable the network elements to be completely searchable in a web based GIS environment satisfied by virtue of the carefully designed data model and layer structure.
FMEâ, the spatial ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tool from Safe Software, is a Swiss Army knife in terms of cutting across the CAD-GIS migration barriers and in handling multitude of CAD/GIS file formats in the industry. It is the neutral CAD/GIS environment of FME that adds power and giving it an unique edge in the interoperability industry. Over 170 plus CAD/GIS formats as on date are interoperable through FME. PIXEL’s experience in the CAD/GIS industry suggests that many a time the network and landbase data in popular CAD formats are prone to simple design and drafting errors to more complex ones like database integrity, inconsistent signal levels between network elements/ equipments, engineering design inconsistency etc. There have been always these issues of the landbase over which the Broadband network elements are drafted and designed getting outdated or requiring a datum shift from say NAD27 to NAD83 systems in a typical United States system. Most of the data though available in CAD formats, either are not suitable for a direct GIS migration by virtue of the file formats or prone with drafting errors like overshoots, undershoots, snapping errors. All of these require a thorough data scrubbing. PIXEL’s in-house team does most of these through its custom in-house data scrubbing tools or using FME.
The next task was to make this intelligent piece of network information available for enterprise wide use and to provide the end users at various levels with the appropriate tools and interface for querying, report generation and other such routine tasks relating to the cable industry. Along with the appropriate development tools, based on our experience with some of our most prestigious cable MSO’s and understanding of the key end user requirements, an appropriate web GIS interface has been developed to make the most out of GIS.
Broadband AM/FM Utility GIS
Beyond making intelligent network maps available for enterprise wide use, GIS as evident has other features that can be used for network operations, field engineering, marketing & sales and engineering purposes. To quote a few:
The Network Operations Center (NOC) could use GIS for trouble ticket dispatch at a quicker pace with no more rummaging through cumbersome paper maps or Run a trace to locate the fiber cut for service restoration or Quickly highlight the consumers who will be affected from an outage, so that the alternative measures could be planned.
The Engineering department can plan before they dig up, as the network plant data is made available overlaid with appropriate GIS landbase layers in GIS. The engineers can locate any piece of network element like amplifiers, power supply, cables etc. The customer addresses can be clicked to get information like what type of cables run to it? Where is the feeding amplifier? Which node is it connected to? How many houses are wired to the same network? Where are they? and so on. Quickly generate engineering inventory reports like the total cable footage, house counts, count of specified pole types within a given service area and so on.
The Accounting department for the inventory report on its valuable assets out in the field could simply pick the fields on which they wish to generate the reports or do franchise fee calculations, weekly or monthly field inventory statements etc.
The Marketing and Sales department could locate their “Best Customers” based on specific criteria and this could be for their proposed service area or could be within the existing ones. This could also be to identify the “Best Business” location or to identify areas suitable for reference or direct advertisement.
GIS for Broadband also offers a wide range of scope to integrate GIS system with other existing Work Management Systems (WMS) at various levels.
INTEGRATING WITH WORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Integrating GIS with other systems increases its value proposition and gone are the days of a standalone GIS system. By integrating such GIS based systems with other work management systems, one can get a wider range of benefits. Work management systems could be anything from a market analysis system to an outage management system or a bandwidth management system. By using powerful Geocoding tools the non-geospatial data associated with such systems can be tied to an appropriate spatial entity in the existing geospatial network data in GIS. This not only allows for an opportunity to visualize the non-geospatial data associated with such systems, but to also display the output from such systems on an intelligent GIS map. As an example the output from an outage management system could be used to display the trouble ticket location at the appropriate zoom level with other GIS layers on a GIS map. In most cases the existing outage management systems or any other work management systems for that matter lack such an interface leaving the decision makers with no choice other than a rugged display of the output from such system. There can be no doubt on the ability of GIS to discover existing dormant relationships between various entities. Moreover in the case of existing work management systems, they are discrete and this makes it impossible to bring valuable information in a timely manner. The role of any AM/FM GIS system for that matter would be to tightly integrate these systems and provide the users with the ability to view all the critical components of their operations processes at the click of a button.
Of all creatures, humans are the only ones who can ponder over and understand a situation and the only ones who can think up ways of doing something about a problem in a rational and logical way. GIS may not be the paragon of all virtues, but it could be important as a tool for addressing key problems and rudimentary processes of the Broadband industry. Building the “Information Superhighway” with the Broadband technology to improve economic development, make city residents digitally literate and the cities intelligent is a mammoth task and with GIS, “Broadband bandwidth that is used to access such GIS is not the limit” but "Sky is the true limit!”
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