Ask Slashdot: Best Software For Tracking Fiber Optic Networks? 75
An anonymous reader writes "We operate a wide area network that has a large amount of fiber optics, and provides service to our various departments in locations across the state. The network is reasonably complex, with splices, patches, and the general type of ad-hoc build that makes knowing where things go difficult. I'd like to implement some type of software to record where the fiber cables run, what pit number they are jointed in, which fiber is spliced to which, and what internal customer is using which fiber path through the system. Knowing what fibers are free for use is also a requirement, and I'd love to record details of what equipment was put in where, for asset and warranty tracking. Extra points if I can give Engineering access to help them design things better!"
ESRI's ArcGIS (Score:2)
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Agreed - ArcGIS is what your county government uses to track utilities and maintain them.
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KISS principle (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like to implement some type of software to record where the fiber cables run, what pit number they are jointed in, which fiber is spliced to which, and what internal customer is using which fiber path through the system. Knowing what fibers are free for use is also a requirement, and I'd love to record details of what equipment was put in where, for asset and warranty tracking. Extra points if I can give Engineering access to help them design things better!"
At the risk of appearing less geeky than my peers... use a sketch pad. I'm perfectly serious about this. We've been using building blue prints since the Roman times and they've served humanity pretty well. Expensive software solutions and asset management databases solve the problem too, but they're invariably varying degrees of out of date and did I mention they cost a lot?
Engineers understand blue prints. I know paper is a little 90s, but it works, it's universally understood, and it's cheap. If you were dealing with high level IT people for this, maybe I'd suggest the high priced software solution because they'd be happy to waste hours maintaining it and sending out e-mails reminding people to update the information in it... don't ask me why computer geeks love that kind of overhead, I don't know. I'm guilty of it too.
But these are not those people. They're engineers that block print everything and have marginal computer skills on the best of days. Give them a pencil and tell them to write neatly. You'll save on aspirin.
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I'd like to implement some type of software to record where the fiber cables run, what pit number they are jointed in, which fiber is spliced to which, and what internal customer is using which fiber path through the system. Knowing what fibers are free for use is also a requirement, and I'd love to record details of what equipment was put in where, for asset and warranty tracking. Extra points if I can give Engineering access to help them design things better!"
At the risk of appearing less geeky than my peers... use a sketch pad. I'm perfectly serious about this. We've been using building blue prints since the Roman times and they've served humanity pretty well. Expensive software solutions and asset management databases solve the problem too, but they're invariably varying degrees of out of date and did I mention they cost a lot?
Engineers understand blue prints. I know paper is a little 90s, but it works, it's universally understood, and it's cheap. If you were dealing with high level IT people for this, maybe I'd suggest the high priced software solution because they'd be happy to waste hours maintaining it and sending out e-mails reminding people to update the information in it... don't ask me why computer geeks love that kind of overhead, I don't know. I'm guilty of it too.
But these are not those people. They're engineers that block print everything and have marginal computer skills on the best of days. Give them a pencil and tell them to write neatly. You'll save on aspirin.
Gotta agree here. Us network engineers in the biz since the Inet went live use MS Visio and spreadsheets for this. We call them circuit layer records (CLRs) for a low level view. We build higher level circuit maps for the rest.
There is not product that will take care of this issue. This is a documentation skill issue. State govs are like this. Union workers with no brains.
Yes and if you do not give the crew a page to mark up so you can correct it you are missing the most important bit.
Blue print technology lets you keep a ink an pencil master and print copies as needed. The printing equipment and material costs for modest sheet sizes is much less than you might expect.
It is not just union workers with no brains. It is workers and managers that need glasses. It is working in places where things break.
Combine with well considered spread sheets (Excel) and you are
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Graph editor? (Score:3)
How about a graph editor, such as yEd [yworks.com]?
Take a map image of your state and overlay it with a yEd diagram, click on nodes to bring you to a more detailed (but localized) sub-mapof the local graph.
(If you do this, consider using a dedicated huge, transparent display (such as this one [bridgat.com]) just for the awesome factor.)
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I've tried other tools for the job, and I'm just not terribly happy with them.
PRISM (Score:3, Funny)
Muahahaha.
Oh really? (Score:2)
It's a discipline thing (Score:2)
There are packages for this, like UltiCam. But the real problem is numbering and labeling. Telcos have been doing this for a century. Everything has a number. There are pair numbers, cable numbers, rack numbers, tray numbers, terminal numbers... Everything has labels or color coding. So there's an ID string for everything, and an end to end connection is a sequence of ID strings. Each change is tied to a work order. Since many people are constantly modifying a telco's cable plant, this is essential.
Ca
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Combine with audit and check... errors slip in and corrections are critical. Think inventory cycle count.
Ask Slashdot (Score:3)
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If you look in the Ask Slashdot [slashdot.org] section, you will see that *some* of the new Ask Slashdot articles are there. It is clearly being used, just not all of the time. I agree that this is a problem.
Take a page from the MBA handbook (Score:2)
Excel and email.
Those guys know what they're doing. That's why they get the big bucks.
Facilities: learn from the telcos (Score:5, Informative)
I've worked in the IT industry for 20 years, 7 of which were in telecom.
I find it so damn amusing that all the computer geeks still struggle with basic things the telecom world figured out 30 - 50 years ago. There's a lot to be learned from the old school carriers, and this is one of them.
Most of the bigger carriers have their own stuff that'll track everything from pairs/strands to binding posts, etc. You need to know sizes of entrance protectors and all kinds of other things. Sizes of splice cases and the number of trays are nice to know. Everything needs to go into GIS, and that used to mean a second system that references locations. These days there are integrated packages. The exact system we used was purchased by NEC and no longer exists. And actually, I wouldn't recommend it, we used it primarily because the work order system was quite robust and we were willing to sacrifice some of the documentation features for that.
Would something like this work?
http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/Bentley+Fiber [bentley.com]
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I used to work doing IT for the ILEC and the more I worked with their systems the more surprised that I was able to pick up the phone and get a dial-tone. A friend of mine worked on the systems that managed the in-the-ground cables, he's the one that said the previous sentence. I worked mostly on the billing and ordering systems. They were not the most robust systems.
OpsInsight (Score:1)
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So 10 seconds of Googling made you an industry expert, with years of virtual experience discovering the shortcomings and valuable features of each product? You read only the honest reviews that weren't salted by salespeople and SEO trolls? You know all the cool features of the custom implementations? And it only took you 10 seconds?
You must be the awesomest Googler ever.
Did it on a smaller/different scale.. (Score:2)
I got the basic specs of what they were trying to do and within a few weeks had whipped up a db app which was a local network only kinda thing.
Maybe Im too old now and no one actually does this kinda thing for themselves any more or maybe the job is too big for someone to whip up the db.. its always the d
Best tracking software! (Score:3)
Best Software For Tracking Fiber Optic Networks?
I believe NORAD has the best available tracking software. That might be a bit overkill though, considering the typically zero velocity of fiber optic networks.
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Lode Data (Score:2)
Although this product [lodedata.com] is part of a larger selection of CATV design software [lodedata.com], it is well written for the lifecycle installed metro fiber with the ability to pre-allocate either fiber or individual lambdas based upon anticipated needs and stakeholders. In addition, it incorporates storage of OTDR results and allows some extrapolation for expected signal strength should future cuts and splices be needed in the future. Their traditional copper plant design tools are nice to have should this be part of a cam
Network inventory with GIS features (Score:1)
DAD (Score:1)
I work in a whole fibre optic telecommunications company and I have a good answer for you: try DAD http://www.dad.net.au/v10.0/
We use it to document POI network and FDH information, addresses of customers, if they are connected or not and type of equipment installed with serial / MAC address recorded.
We can easily record information and trace any network pretty fast. We can also clone components easily, so we do not have to recreate them constantly.
The system is Windows based with a per seat licensing model
Australian NBN (Score:1)
Last time I checked they had a free Fibre network trial model you could browse online.
3GIS (Score:1)
We're migrating spreadsheets and Visio drawings to 3GIS (www.3-gis.com) for the ability to track fiber paths, etc. We evaluated a number of systems. It's based on ESRI, so it's standards based.
just ask NSA (Score:2)
I hear PRISM [poorrichardsnews.com] works pretty well ...
You were doing so well (Score:2)
use GIS (Score:1)
APEX inventory tool (Score:1)