Wireless Communications Connectivity

[AprilChipman]

I'm starting to think about managing wireless communications connectivity via GIS and am researching what products or capabilities exist in the ESRI platform.

The first request I've gotten is to map the locations of "Power Cans" - could be a wireless repeater from a tower to the final product, could be a node to collect data from sensors or cameras, or a communications device. That task is pretty straightforward, but the secondary task of showing what is connected to each can (both downline and upline) is more difficult.

Other than a field listing the downline devices (or several fields listing one downline device each), is there a way to connect the points? For example, if something happens to the Node, I want an easy and quick way to determine all of the devices that are attached to it downline.

[SpatialNinja]

April Chipman‌,

Managing a connectivity network, whether its fiber, wireless, hybrid, etc. will require you to use either the Geometric Network or the Utility Network Management Extension. These are the two Esri options out of the box to be able to model the logical connectivity of a network and perform upstream and downstream traces.  Many of our partners have built specific data models and solutions on top of these solutions for different types of telecom networks.  If you would like a listing of partners, please let me know.