If you work for a telco and have needed to track your network assets in a centralized way, you may have used Ericsson Network Engineer (ENE) or similar software solution. ENE and many other solutions that rely on Esri technology use geodatabase versioning technology to manage transactions. Versioning facilitates long transactions by allowing editors to work isolated within their own version of the geodatabase and across multiple editing sessions. ENE encapsulated versioning in a work order and enabled users to handle work order flow. Due to the nature of versioning, work order management requires regular and continuous reconciliation, posting, and compression of data. However, these operations are time-consuming and complex, especially when working with large and intricate networks. Many of my friends and colleagues relate to the challenges of versioning and how complex the databases are with state trees, add and delete tables, and other features that all need to be reconciled and have conflicts resolved. Additionally, batch reconciling must be performed outside of peak usage hours because it causes a massive decrease in performance and may prevent user activity entirely. As database sizes grow, versioning becomes more difficult to maintain.
Versioning is not only a technical challenge, but also a business bottleneck that affects the overall efficiency of the organization. For example, versioning can impact the work order throughput, or the rate at which work orders are completed and delivered to customers. Versioning also restricts the enhancement of workflows via web and mobile platforms, preventing the implementation of more agile and flexible processes.
3-GIS's response to versioning
To combat inflexibility, telcos need a solution that streamlines management of network assets without requiring versioning. 3-GIS has created a signal model that allows users to edit and examine connection data collaboratively, quickly, and easily. For multi-user support, 3-GIS leverages the ArcGIS Enterprise Spatial Database Engine (SDE) to provide a rich geospatial relational database. The standard 3-GIS data model contains the required schema and data elements to store, manage, and report on FTTx, backhaul, and point-to-point networks within the SDE—allowing for the centralization of data, a simpler data access model, and a common integration platform.
Similarities to ENE
Both the 3-GIS and ENE data models are based on the Esri geodatabase. This means ENE datasets can be mapped smoothly to 3-GIS with minimal effort. For instance, Span in ENE matches Span in 3-GIS, Structure to Structure, and Equipment to Equipment. Categories and Types are mapped to the subtypes in 3-GIS, Inventory Status is mapped to Inventory Status, etc.
3-GIS has assisted customers in automating the process of transferring legacy data to 3-GIS and streamlining the management of the data. The data model eliminates the challenges of versioning and geometric networks and enables real-time access of network data. 3-GIS | Network Solutions promotes consistent and accurate field data capture, to help ensure infrastructure is built quickly and correctly. Using Enterprise APIs. 3-GIS enables not only the integrations with upstream and downstream systems, but also real-time data query and modify transactions over HTTPS with JSON encoding.
By thinking beyond geodatabase versioning, 3-GIS has made a careful and considered choice that promotes data integrity and collaboration. 3-GIS customers can manage their network more effectively, reduce the challenges of change, achieve data quality goals, and increase the workorder throughput.
