SmartPlanner: Helping telcos optimally plan fiber network

In today’s time, there are a number of challenges all ISPs face during the fiber network planning phase. They all have one thing in common: their goal of maximizing revenue and optimizing costs leading to higher profits. Lepton Software has come up with an effective solution to address the challenges faced by telcos in the fiber network planning stage.

SmartPlanner is a web-based, telecom network planning tool which enables telcos to automate fiber network planning. Lepton’s SmartPlanner tool is extremely useful for the entire lifecycle of fiber network planning; starting from strategic planning to initial design, field survey, fine-tune design and finally to detailed design. SmartPlanner makes the network planning process smarter, faster, easier and more accurate. It is based on a unique and an intelligent algorithm which is devoted to optimizing the planning process.

Making mistakes in the early stages of network planning can prove very costly and disastrous. With SmartPlanner, one can reap the benefits of efficiency, accuracy, reliability, and cost-cutting in network planning.  

Strategic Planning Module

During the strategic planning phase, one needs to have a revenue and profitability forecast, a rough network plan, a detailed cost breakdown and revenue calculations available. Some of the key inputs that we feed into our application to generate these outputs are population data, home passes information, the price of material, cost of work, existing network (if any), lifestyle data, etc.

The strategic planning module of the SmartPlanner tool provides answers to questions like:

• Where to build the fiber network
• Cost for network planning
• Consequences to costs if fiber network is made available to only a certain percentage of houses

Initial Design Module

The initial design module has the capability to:

• Define route to maximize home passes as per business plan
• Create initial site, POP, route, ducting, manhole, pole, and splitter location plan
• Define different types of concentration rules
• Mark road lines, building polygons, building names, pole IDs, etc
• Apply various design rules as per the customer’s needs

Field Survey Module

Field survey capability is provided through the mobile application that:

• Displays planned routes from the planning team which is created during the initial design and has a system-generated unique ID 
• Lets project engineer validate the path drawn by the planning team on field and approve it
• Lets project engineer change the path on the field, which further goes to the planning team for approval. The planning team approves the path if it is valid or reject it, cancel the route and draw a new one
• Provides suggestions such as node to node routing, shortest route and route optimization
• Views beat plan and scheduled visits
• Views start/end points and assigned route
• Give directions and time from particular points
• Represents network elements in list view and map view with visits information and current locations of network entities over the map
• Captures the network information with photos
• Lets admin track the field force people and see the current position of field force person on real-time basis

 Fine Tune Design Module

This module has the following capabilities:

• Adjust design based on local information and restrictions
• Approve design post input from the survey team
• Reuse existing infrastructure post survey and re-design
• Find out where exactly to install network entities
• Make different OSP design choices and quantify impact on costs in an iterative process

Detail Design Module

• Defines Feeder Service Area (FSA) boundary and  planning (taking into consideration customer business rules) in such a way that it covers maximum homes/customers to meet KPIs and design from OLT to first stage splitter
• Defines Distribution Service Area (DSA) boundary and then plans optimum route between primary splitter and secondary splitter
• Defines Customer Service Area (CSA) boundary and then plans your network taking into consideration POI data, building data, road, street, etc
• Provides fiber link budget calculation based on guideline

To know more about how SmartPlanner helps in the network planning process, get in touch with us at marketing@leptonsoftware.com.