Year by year grows the number of users of our Smallworld PNI extensions: Physical Route Manager (PRM), Optical Network Atlas (ONA), CableTV Design (CATV-Design) and Radio Network Inventory (RNI). In 2019 all 4 modules were upgraded with a number of performance, functional and compatibility improvements. Some of them were requested by users (maybe even by you?), some by new customers due to their individual needs, and finally some of them to follow the quarterly updates of Smallworld PNI. Today we’d like to put some light on the latest upgrade of Physical Route Manager and present you all changes in the rest of our modules.
Before we move further, let’s take a quick look at the main tasks of PRM module:
Physical Route Manager (PRM): PRM allows grouping physical resources into an easily accessible and manageable ”routes”. The route consists of mutually related elements such as fibers, ports, and splices that compromises a connection between two locations. This module increases productivity and lowers error rates, especially when working on complex projects. It also minimizes the cost and effort of keeping PNI network up to date.
Significant change in route reconfiguration
Many of our clients appreciate PRM for its huge capabilities when it comes to network planning and resource utilization management. Recently we’ve been hearing that large network reconfigurations consume way too much time as they require each individual PRM route to be handled separately. PRM 5.2.1 removes this inconvenience and introduces a “PRM Reconfiguration Tool” which makes bulk changes on heavily occupied network much easier.
With the support of PRM Reconfiguration Tool, PNI Users can select any number of routes and then perform the following modifications for all of them:
- shorten PRM Issues to terminate on the indicated splice
- extend PRM Issues based on existing connectivity
- merge few PRM Routes that are using the same resources into a single PRM Route
- delete PRM Routes
- change the status of PRM Issues and, once reconfiguration is done, set the
- previous statuses back
- remove indicated elements from the PRM Issues
- use existing connectivity to fill any gaps in the PRM Issue path
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This enhanced approach has a significant impact on the users’ productivity and as a result speeds up any operations on the network, in particular:
- Network reconfiguration
- Bulk service reconfiguration
- Network expansion with new passive and active elements
- Outage handling/Fault management
Check the other changes in our software
Colorblind route markings
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Physical Route Manager interface
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Signal calculations on multiple frequencies
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Physical Route Manager
- Colourblind friendliness
- Significant performance improvements when working with very long routes or cables having large number of fibres
- Improved conflict resolution process for PRM Measurements
- Installation process now uses Core Upgrade Framework
- New option for PRM Report – generate a report with/without straight-through splices
- Integration with new PNI Relocate functionality
- Improved support for internal building cables
- Display Sheath with LOC bundle and fiber colors in PRM Data tab and
- Candidate Details view
- User documentation available from application level
- Route Group Editor improvements: bulk delete PRM routes
Optical Network Atlas
- Scheme creation Wizard has been improved with capability of choosing start object from PNI Object Editor
- Installation process now uses Core Upgrade Framework
- Performance improvements for schemes generation
- User documentation available from application level
CableTV Design
- Signal calculations on multiple frequencies
- Better support for Amplifiers with 4 (and more) signal ports
- Better access to calculated signal levels for some of CATV objects
- Installation process now uses Core Upgrade Framework
Radio Network Inventory
- Installation process now uses Core Upgrade Framework
Upon request, we can backport new features to older versions.
If you are interested in our latest updates feel free to contact us for more details. Our team will help you to increase the efficiency of reconfiguration processes on your network.
