What is the problem?
Broadband access networks need to evolve to keep pace with ever increasing subscriber demand. Network planners are faced with the challenging task of planning network upgrades in an optimum manner in a fast-changing, complex environment driven by new technology options and changing competitive and regulatory pressures.
Key takeaways
- Access networks are being upgraded frequently now due to exponential demand growth
- Access network changes have significant cost and operational impacts
- Current planning tools and processes are unable to keep up with this pace of change
- Planners are often making short-term decisions that are sub-optimal in the long run
- 10 one-year plans ≠ one 10-year plan!
The industry needs new access planning tools (such as AP-Jibe) to enable planners to effectively evaluate various optimal long-term decisions.
Executive Summary
Broadband Access networks are constantly evolving to keep pace with ever growing subscriber demand. This comes at a significant cost for network operators. At the same time, network planners are faced with an increasingly complex set of factors that drive these changes from changing subscriber needs, emerging new technologies, challenging competitive landscape, and shifting regulatory requirements to name a few. In addition, long-term planning comes with additional challenges including numerous unknowns and assumptions which need to be evaluated. Many operators also maintain different networks as independent lines-of-business that are planned separately. Traditional planning tools and methods can no longer keep up with the complexity and pace of this change. Consequently, operators are often forced to take quick short-term tactical decisions that are not optimal in the long-term.
In this whitepaper we discuss these challenges and introduce a new tool called AP-Jibe which is specifically designed to enable network planners to model the evolution of their access network over an extended period, and quickly analyze the resource requirement and other impacts of these changes. It is designed to facilitate integrated planning of multiple networks. This will enable operators to quickly evaluate long-term impacts of network changes in a timely manner to make effective long-term strategic decisions.