Latest Contributions by PatrickHuls_SpatialNinja

  Communications Data Management for ArcGIS Enterprise provides a  flexible deployment option for managing communications networks in Esri’s ArcGIS. .  This technology is intended to help telecommunications providers with more advanced network needs model their assets, build a network, perform traces, and implement business rules.  You may have downloaded and tested early preview versions of Communications Network Foundation in the past; this new solution is the fully released with a re-naming to Communications Data Management. ... View more

Demonstrations, Solutions, User Stories, and More ... View more

The Communications Data Management for ArcGIS Online solution offers a fully hosted cloud solution for GIS bas ed PNI management. The solution includes a configurable web app for managing network facilities and editing assets. This 'Communications Editor' app leverages ArcGIS Web AppBuilder which offers an easy to use framework for configuring web apps, and includes a variety of drag and drop tools and widgets to add additional functionality to your apps. One of these available out of box widgets in the Cost Analysis widget.  The Cost Analysis widget allows you to assign a cost factor for each feature you create. These costs are automatically tallied and provide an overall project or job cost. Additional cost factors can be applied, or the entire cost can be scaled based on factors not captured in the data. Costs can be assigned for the edit templates of each layer, and they can be different depending on the area in which the features are created. The Cost Analysis widget requires a project or job polygon layer to store the location of the cost analysis boundary and costing information.  Since the the Communications Data Management solution does not include a project or job boundary layer apart of the hosted feature layers that are deployed with the solution, the attached GDB below includes a 'Job Area' polygon layer that can be published as a hosted feature layer and used with the Cost Analysis widget. The GDB also includes the additional cost tables required by the Cost Analysis widget. Once the Cost Analysis layers have been published to your organization, the layers can be added to the 'Communications Editor' web map. Then, edit and configure the 'Communications Editor' app in ArcGIS Web AppBuilder. Add the Cost Analysis widget to the app, and select the appropriate map layers in the Project Settings tab of the widget configuration. Under Layer Settings tab, select all the Communications Data Management asset groups that should be included in the costing of a project.  If you would like the status of the project or job to update the Lifecycle Status of the assets associated with the project, select the settings gear for a layer and update the Layer Attribute Settings to have the status in the 'Project Phase' field for the project layer to be passed to the 'Lifecycle Status' field of your asset group layers. Then, under the Costing Info tab you can set up the costs for each of your assets.  For example, setting up a cost of $3 per foot of fiber.  The costs of your assets can also vary based on Geography or Scenario.  For more information on using cost multipliers, refer to the resources doc for the Cost Analysis widget. https://doc.arcgis.com/en/web-appbuilder/create-apps/widget-cost-analysis.htm Finally, configure Additional Settings if you would like to see additional project summaries in the widget, like the total overhead or underground mileage. Under this tab you can also add additional project cost to be added to the total cost of the assets, such as permitting or construction costs.  Once the Cost Analysis widget has been configured, users can start creating cost analysis projects, digitizing in assets associated with a design or job, and automatically have the total cost calculated by the widget. Cost information is stored with the project or job, and projects can be loaded back into the widget at any time. Assets can also be drawn in manually or copied from another feature layer. And lastly, the widget also allows for a high-level bill or materials to be exported to CSV. Feel free to reply to this blog with any questions or enhancement requests to the Cost Analysis widget.   Patrick Huls Solution Engineer - Telecommunications‌ LinkedIn: Patrick Huls   | Twitter: @SpatialNinja  | GeoNet:Phuls-esristaff ... View more

By now, its pretty well known that the 5G technology and the spectrum frequencies being used to deliver on the promises of better wireless speeds and latency will require lots of small cells.  The amount of infrastructure being deployed to deliver 5G far exceeds previous wireless technologies, and therefore the amount of CAPEX being invested is far greater than ever before. So wireless carriers need to be more strategic in where they deploy 5G in order to get the highest ROI.  And this is where GIS can help. So in this blog I'll outline a few GIS based spatial analysis tools that can be used to optimize the locations and placement of cell sites in order to get the highest return with the least amount of CAPEX spent. Suitability Modeler A suitability model is used to determine the best location to site things or areas to preserve, like locating the best locations to place cell sites.  The new Suitability Modeler in ArcGIS enables you to create a suitability model in an intuitive, integrated framework.  The following image illustrates the sample suitability model workflow for cell site suitability: Since determining the ideal locations for a cell site can be based on multiple factors and different criteria, suitability analysis allows you to look at existing network statistics or call records as well as demographics, and weight them accordingly to come up with the best areas that address all of these variables.  The Suitability Modeler through ArcGIS Pro offers an easy to use transformation pane to reclassify and transform your input datasets, along with charts to see the distribution of your data. The results of the suitability analysis provide you with areas that are highly suitable.  This suitability map can be used to locate structures within highly suitable areas for small cell deployment, and can also be used to optimize the location allocation of cell sites, which we'll discuss later in this blog. Closest Facility A second big driver of cell site placement is proximity to existing OSP facilities.  Traditional calculations of nearest fiber cable or network access point relied of straight line crow flies distance.  This straight line distance doesn't accurately reflect the potential path of a fiber backhaul.  The Closest Facility tool in ArcGIS allows you to calculate the street distance which more accurately represents the route a fiber cable will take. With the Closest Facility tool, quickly locate the nearest network access points to all the potential cell site locations to calculate distance and potential cost to serve that site.  Location Allocation From all the candidate structure locations for a cell site that are near network access points, and that fall within our highly suitable areas, how do we then optimize which sites to build in order to cover the most area with the fewest number of cell sites? The Location Allocation tool within ArcGIS  chooses the best location or locations from a set of input candidates, by assigning demand points to input candidates in a way that allocates the most demand to  candidates  and minimizes overall distance. This tool can be used to ensure new retail stores cover a certain market share or to evenly space out fire departments to ensure 4 min response times.  This tool can also be used to optimize the selection of cell site candidates to ensure maximum coverage with the fewest number of sites. In the example graphic below, we've converted our high suitability areas to points which will become the demand points in the Location Allocation tool. This means we want to reach the demand points with the highest suitability score using the fewest number of cell sites within a specific radius of our sites. Since the the Location Allocation tool leverages a Network Dataset to calculate distance to demand points and distance between facility candidates or cell sites, we create a generic mesh network for use in the tool, shown in the graphic below. Finally, we run the Location Allocation tool using the potential cell site locations at input facilities, the suitability points as the demand points, and our mesh network as the Network Dataset.  We can also use the distance each potential cell site location is from the nearest network access point as a weight to influence the final chosen cell sites.  The suitability score of our demand points is also being used as a weight to influence the final selection. And lastly, we set a distance threshold of 100 meters for a potential cell site to reach a given demand point, which is used in lieu of a RF predicted coverage area.  The graphic below shows the final selection of cell sites and the top scored sites in the table. Using the the 3 ArcGIS spatial analysis tools just discussed we are able to locate areas of high suitability for cell sites. Then, from a list of potential cell site structures within those suitable areas we optimized the selection of sites based on proximity to nearest network access point and greatest coverage of the suitability demand points with fewest number of sites.  Please feel free to comment or reach out to us with any questions, feedback, or ideas for improving this workflow.   Thanks, - Esri Telecom Team telecominfo@esri.com telug ... View more