Fiber Drop Coils

[Anonymous User]

We're using ArcGIS 10.2.1 to roughly map a Fiber Optic system. We're not using a full blown geometric network yet nor a 3rd party software - but we'll get there, possibly later this year. I have fiber to the home shown with aerial or u/g drop lines and risers if it goes u/g. However, I have some customers that are not complete yet - the fiber drop has not yet been buried and it is coiled on the pole waiting for customer approval. I would like to show this coil in my map. I have several options that I could come up with: 1) draw an aerial drop line going nowhere with a type = coil, 2) create a Coil point feature class symbol and put it next to the pole point, 3) put an assembly unit in the related table to the pole for "coil". I don't prefer #3 because it's not really graphical and my client can't see it easily. 

I can't find any examples of this sort of thing. Does anyone have any opinions on the best way to show this?

Thanks in Advance,

A

[Anonymous User · Accepted solution]

Hi Andrea,

I think you have listed some viable options in your post, all of which would work. Sounds like having something present on the map so that it is easy for the client to visualize makes sense. That said, option 1 or 2 would be the way to go. Now since both option 1 and 2 would work, I would ask myself the question of what would work best to solve the immediate need and what would minimize the amount of work required moving forward to complete the drop once permission is granted?

In saying that, I think option 1 would be the way to go. Simply draw the fiber drop from the pole to the home as if it were actually constructed and track a status attribute on this drop such as "proposed" or "coiled". Then symbolize the map based on this status attribute so that it is easy to see what is physically built to the house versus what is coiled on the pole waiting for drop approval. The advantage here is that once you get approval, all you need to do is change an attribute to complete the construction. That is minimal work as opposed to having to draw a cable from the pole to the house and delete a coil from your point feature class. This option illustrates the "coil" in the immediate need and saves you some time and effort in the future when the drop is officially built to the customer site.

You might have some other environmental constraints that might not make this the ideal option, but at face value, this is how I would tackle the problem.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions related to fiber design and management leveraging ESRI tools, post away! I spend a lot of my time in this domain. I would be happy to assist where I can.

Regards,

Sergio

[Anonymous User]

Hi Sergio,

I ended up doing #1. But I like your take on it better than what I ended up doing. So next time I'll try your idea. Thanks!