Bentley > Case Studies > Panamanian Telecom Company Streamlines Network Design and Documentation with IoT

Panamanian Telecom Company Streamlines Network Design and Documentation with IoT

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Equipment & Machinery
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Maintenance
Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Time Sensitive Networking

Services

Testing & Certification

About The Customer

Cable Onda is a telecommunications company that has been serving Panama for 35 years. It has evolved from a small cable television company into a telecommunications, technology, and entertainment business. Cable Onda offers triple play services of television, telephone, and internet via a modern fiber optic network throughout Panama. It provides service to homes and businesses through a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network while some businesses are fed directly through fiber. The company is now the fastest-growing telecom company in Panama.

The Challenge

Cable Onda, the fastest-growing telecom company in Panama, was facing challenges in managing its hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network and fiber optic network. The company's data management system was clunky and unsystematic, with network designs and documentation managed with MicroStation and information regarding splices and nodes stored in Excel spreadsheets. With over 3,000 total splice enclosures in the Cable Onda network in Panama, it took the company's network operations center numerous hours to find the right splicing sheets in Excel and the appropriate plans in MicroStation when there was damage to equipment within the networks. The company had to correlate the maps and splice diagrams and estimate where the outage fault was located. This decentralization of information made the management of the large-scale fiber optic and HFC networks inefficient and unorganized.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Cable Onda initiated a USD 228,000 project to move its networks to a new management and data platform with Bentley software. The goal was to have all network information managed in an accessible, centralized location. Bentley Expert Designer Communications was used to create the work orders for the project team and the application helped the team audit the designs and verify the data, checking for duplicate information. Bentley Coax was used to assist the engineers in detecting levels that were out of specification, optimizing signal levels easily, and designing more efficiently. Cable Onda also used Bentley Fiber to properly document the fiber circuits in their network. The network operations center uses Bentley Geo Web Publisher for Communications (GWPC), a web application that creates and manages geospatial data and helps in locating the probable cause of network trouble.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Bentley software has significantly improved Cable Onda's network design and documentation process. The solution eliminated errors due to inaccurate fiber circuit documentation, and the organization no longer has to sift through multiple Excel spreadsheets and designs in MicroStation. The engineers are also able to design more effectively in the platform as it is interactive, and they are more disciplined when designing in this platform because they must follow a nomenclature and specific design standards. As a result, the company is now able to locate outside plant damage faster and restore service quickly. Having all the network design information correlated in a single platform allows the company to easily see what areas or zones of the country are not receiving service. Customers are provided service sooner because the time spent on solving the problems is diminished, resulting in more efficient network maintenance.

Quantitative Benefit

Calculations conducted in Bentley Fiber and Bentley Coax were more accurate since human error was removed, reducing design time.
A centralized location of data in a single platform eliminated duplicate information and lessened time spent locating outages.
Stringent audits improved deliverable quality as engineers can verify their information against the data documented in the platform.