iTRACS >> Products & Solutions >> Airport/Campus Environments
iTRACS PLM in Airports
As networks become more complex and integral in day-to-day operations, many airports and municipalities find it necessary to improve their existing cable management processes.
Improving Cable/Network Management
Many large multi-building environments (such as airports) struggle to accurately maintain tens to hundreds of thousands of physical infrastructure cable records in traditional spreadsheets. As data, voice, and fiber networks expand, these organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain these records and ensure their accuracy. Some organizations use a spreadsheet for each fiber bundle, or a sheet for each fiber enclosure. Performing even a simple patching change might require a user to update numerous spreadsheets (sometimes up to seven) just to document one fiber run.
iTRACS Physical Layer Manager (iTRACS PLM) can help campus users break free from this tangled web of spreadsheets, thanks to the ability to fully document an asset's connectivity string.
iTRACS PLM provides users one simple window which displays the individual hops a circuit takes, the cabling used at each hop, each hop's physical location within the infrastructure as well as its relationship to other assets.
iTRACS PLM allows users to document as much or as little detail about each asset as desired. Users can document cable lengths, test results, contractor names, warranty information, and any other pertinent data points against the cables.
Manual, multi-spreadsheet processes can easily result in inaccurate cable records, and can have serious consequences in determining work and assessing the potential impact of network outages.
Improving Work Process
iTRACS PLM can be integrated with external applications, such as ticketing systems, via its API or an ODBC. By integrating with existing ticketing systems, disruption to users not utilizing a CMS application can be kept to a minimum. Tickets can be created and reviewed using existing applications or front ends.
iTRACS PLM's work order system can also simplify the process of determining the changes needed to take place in order to provide service between buildings. Scheduling patching changes can be done through either a manual process or administrators can utilize iTRACS PLM's service-provisioning tool to automatically determine the necessary patching changes.
This work action can then be assigned to technicians for completion. By requiring technicians to sign-off on each patching change, organizations can place better rules around the changes to their physical plant and the cable management software. Work actions that have not been closed or are past due can be flagged and/or reported upon.
By enforcing work order rules and simplifying the physical infrastructure documentation process, iTRACS PLM can help reduce the amount of time wasted on physical audits prior to work order completion. When documentation is unreliable or complex, manual audit processes may be required before each action. iTRACS PLM can help improve this process, thereby reducing deployment time.
Finding Trouble-Spots Before They Become Trouble
iTRACS PLM allows users in a campus environment to generate reports on any aspect of their infrastructure, including capacity utilization and/or discrepancy reports. Users can report on fiber enclosure or fiber bundle utilization (e.g. how many free pairs), and also integrate with trusted sources to find discrepancies between different systems.
Finally, iTRACS PLM allows users to report on an asset's connectivity. As an example, a user may report on the fiber strands that pass through a particular splice point in order to assess the potential impact of bringing that point down for maintenance work. With iTRACS PLM, reports can be quickly created and generated, helping administrators make better informed decisions. Airports and large campuses may also benefit from the following Optional add-on components:
- iTRACS iDiscover - For departments that manage airport/airline assets, iTRACS iDiscover can help simplify the process of tracking network-enabled equipment. iTRACS iDiscover tracks and correlates logical information with physical information, simplifying the process of tracking and monitoring equipment such as PCs, VOIP handsets, and wireless access points.
- iTRACS Enabled Hardware - For organizations with a large infrastructure, or numerous users (contractors, airport personnel, airline personnel, city, etc.) accessing their closets, intelligent network infrastructure can help improve the documentation process. iTRACS enabled hardware is not required for use with iTRACS PLM, but can provide automatic updates when patching changes take place in both a copper and fiber environment, helping to ensure a more accurate database.
