*Road Ahead for GIS in Telecom.

The need for information sharing within companies and interoperability between systems has been recognized by the telecommunications industry for a long time. Originally founded in 1865 as International Telegraph Union, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) promotes standards in equipment that guarantee generalized interconnection between communication systems. To improve interoperability, ITU has developed the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN), a method of standardizing business organization. This hierarchy of support systems specifies interoperability through the use of industry-standard protocols. Geospatial applications need to support this same level of interoperability if GIS is to work well within this TMN-structured environment.

THE FUTURE FOR GIS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS.

With businesses now reliant on fast and efficient telecommunications infrastructures, the coming years are likely to see continued investment in telecommunications projects around the world. While even the smallest companies are likely to use GIS for automating localised tasks such as network design and planning, the larger telecommunications operators will increasingly be looking to gain strategic advantage by standardising information throughout their organisations. Thus, marketing staff will be able to use the same data to map customer distribution as the engineers use to design fibre networks. All data will be held in a structured database with seamless interfaces to separate systems used by individual departments. The ongoing trend towards privatisation is likely to be the driving force behind this, although the speed at which this happens looks set to vary from country to country. As new technologies such as broad bandwidth and fibre-optics become the way forward for telecommunications operators, countries with little or no existing networks may find themselves at an advantage compared to countries with well established networks. Just as the countries with simple networks will be able to install the new technologies from scratch, so companies that have not yet automated their information management procedures will be able to adopt enterprisewide GIS

without the burden of legacy systems.

The following niche-applications of GIS are particularly relevant to Telecom:

·         AM/FM (Automated Mapping/Facilities Management 1, 2, 3)

·         Location Based Services (Applications of this could be helpful for field techs, or in reverse, if you're doing fleet-tracking.)

·         Marketing (Even if you don't use ESRI, many of these concepts are appropriate, for example the chapter demonstrating a GIS analysis to support a direct-mail campaign.)

·         Cartography (If you're making maps, even dynamic ones, make an effort to burn in some degree of sophistication. And don't forget that even good maps tell white lies.)

And for your GIS-specific, more generic skills, basically, Vector data management is going to be huge, as well as most any familiarity with SQL and RDBMS techniques---as the most appropriate solution will put your geodata in a server/database, then merge/join it with the attribute data your circuit engineers are sure to have on hand.

While accomplishing the entire educational task may be broad in scope, it's definitely not impossible

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* Network Planning for GIS

GIS based telecom application requires large investment, manpower and time in data creation and  deployment. Full benefits of such systems can only be realised when the Telecom GIS system becomes an integral part of the OSS / BSS solution and the organisational work processes are designed with GIS as an essential part of such integrated OSS / BSS solution. 

Based on automatic flow-through business processes, such integration provides maximum value addition in terms of 

• Single point data entry and elimination of redundant databases, 

• Minimal human intervention in data creation, 

• Improved response to network events, 

• Improved response to customers, 

resulting in improved overall efficiency of the enterprise. 

The role of telecommunication has evolved from that of plain information exchange to a multi-service field, with Value Added Services (VAS)integrated with various discrete networks like PSTN, PLMN, Internet Backbone etc. However, with decreasing ARPU and increasing demand for VAS has become a compelling reason for the service providers to think of the convergence of these parallel networks into a single core network with service layers separated from network layer.

The hyper-competition in telecom market, which was effectively caused by the introduction of Universal Access Service (UAS) licence in 2003 became much tougher after 3G and 4G competitive auction

Telecom operators found the Next Generation Network (NGN) model advantageous, but huge investment requirements have prompted them to adopt a multi-phase migration and they have already started the migration process to NGN with the implementation of IP-based core-network

Some of the main requirements expected to be met by the GIS / Telecom application are: 

• Plan, design and engineer Network and expansion 

• Modeling of (OutSide Plant) OSP and (InSide Plant) ISP items up to port level 

• Placement of Trenches, Cables, Structures and facilities in the OSP 

• Facility layouts, equipment placement and port-to-port connectivity 

• Inventory management including equipment assignment 

• Repository of As Built and survey data 

• Provide network data to OSS / BSS systems 

• Answer service activation / provisioning queries 

• Cable fault localisation 

• Several Sales, Marketing and Service fulfillment related functions 

* How to go for GIS Network Implementation

GIS provides a common platform for integrating your information across departments. With GIS, you can examine work processes while incorporating external data such as demographics and market trends. Tools for quantitative analysis and visualization help you systematically model, measure, and visualize issues in your network planning and engineering, marketing and sales, and customer care departments.

GIS in Telecommunication management -
—  The use of GIS in the telecommunication network management is informed by -

• Rapid expansion of telecommunication infrastructure in the urban environment
• Increasing dependant of social and business transactions on information communication technologies
• —Need for effective management of the infrastructure
• —Increased market competition
• —Need for efficient and effective service provision

Fibre Optic in Network Implementation 

• The fixed wired technology is particularly useful for provisioning of high-speed data services.
• This is because it is implemented using the fibre optic technology which is not affected by weather conditions.
• The high-speed data network is composed of fibre optic cables which forms the backbone of the network.
• It connects major cities and allows the network to function as a unit.
• Fibre optic cable are also used within the city in linking MDF's.

* Challenges

Efficient network management acts as a necessary tool in attaining GIS networking goal. This, however, is not possible without a powerful network inventory system.

Until recently, one had to collect network structure information from various functions to check whether it was possible to provide a given service at a specific location. This required both time and people. Therefore, it became clear that, without a seamless inventory system, one could not think seriously about any process automation, which is key to long-term profitability of any operator.

Telecommunications ("telecom") is a general term for a vast array of technologies that transmit and receive voice, data, and video information over varying distances through electronic means. This includes lines, circuits, and data "pipes" used to access both terrestrial and wireless networks. 

The utilization of these networks and technologies varies greatly from organization to organization and may include-

·         Local, long distance, and toll free voice traffic

·         Internet access

·         Video conferencing

·         LAN's and WAN's

·         Call centers

·         Converged networks (voice, data, wireless)

WIRELESS NETWORK

Client Challenges:

Success in a business environment depends on the ability to adapt to the changing profile and higher user expectations and a rapidly changing technology environment .

Telecom service providers are facing tremendous challenges on improving profit margins, falling ARPU’s, high customer churn, fierce competition, customer experience, maintaining QoS, demand for new services and bundles, and heavy investments for network transformation.

At the same time, fast-paced innovation, advent of next generation wireless technology  (LTE/Wimax), converged networks, competition from new entrants and demand for end-to-end managed services from service providers is putting immense pressure on telecom equipment vendors.

Selection of GIS Platform & Telecom Application:

• Technical evaluation of all existing out-of-box packages must be done with one week hands-on experience wherein ease of learning and operation, efficiency of CAD functionalities etc. must be tested by operators. 
• Detailed technical discussions involving client functional capabilities, RDBMS, version management of the GIS platform must be carried out. 
• Ease of data conversion, telecom feature modeling and other functions must be evaluated. Efforts in customisation, after sales support etc. should also considered. 
• Detailed analysis of productivity expected work volume, licensing cost must be made and optimum solution arrived at.