| Contents Page | Al-Khabar Home Page | CGIS Home Page |
It is said that when an oriental rug is created, the Muslim artisan purposely weaves an imperfection into the design so that the rug will not be perceived as flawless. This act is a symbolic representation of mankind's imperfection. While there is some similarity between the complexity in the design of traditional oriental rugs and contemporary telecommunications systems, Middle Eastern telecom companies endeavor to make their systems as close to perfect as possible. It is critically important that the customer receives the best service possible, particularly in these highly competitive times as the industry prepares for major change and opportunity. For the past few years a number of telecommunications-based applications have been developed to help change people's lives. Today, GIS is one of such technologies increasingly being used by telecommunications companies everywhere to assist them in their preparation for the new age of communications. With its ability to manage huge relational databases and instantly produce custom maps based on the results of modeling, analysis, or "what if" scenarios, it is clear that GIS is the cornerstone of information management. Middle Eastern telecommunication companies are eagerly embracing GIS technology as they discover that it has the capability to be used as an enterprisewide, cross-disciplinary tool for tasks as diverse as demand forecasting and system design. Qatar's Nationwide GIS Promotes Intergovernmental Cooperation After several years of work, the State of Qatar has realized its vision of a nationwide GIS with the completion of a national digital basemap that is available to all government ministries across GISnet, its dedicated fiber-optic network that is the foundation of its public-access GIS. Installed in 1994, with ongoing enhancements and upgrades, GISnet uses dual ring star topology and fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) protocol. It has a bandwidth of 100 megabits per second (Mbps). A GigaSwitch installed at Qatar's Centre for GIS (CGIS), which is the hub of the star topology, has a combined bandwidth greater than 3 gigabytes, which provides more than 67,000 connections per second. The duplexing, bi-directional capability of the GigaSwitch effectively provides GISnet with a 200 Mpbs bandwidth. The speed of Qatar's network allows a direct connection between any of the country's 16 plus user agencies wanting to access each others GIS data. Plugged into the GigaSwitch are servers with more than 90 gigabytes of the country's base map and digital ortho image data, which are updated regularly. Qassim Al-Ghanim, Head of Qatar's Centre for GIS (CGIS) comments, "GIS was the first activity that brought every director of the government together under one roof. Everyone shared in the decision-making process to implement a GIS and provided input for our system design. We were fortunate to form a GIS steering committee that included people who were not only decision makers, but also had some technical knowledge. Much of our success can be attributed to sound planning and a sense of camaraderie between the 16 involved agencies." CGIS has put much effort in developing its countrywide, highly detailed, digital vector database. In addition, it recently completed a very high-resolution orthoimagery project, mapping the urban areas at 10 centimeters per pixel and rural areas at one meter per pixel. A digital terrain model has also been created, mapping urban areas with a 10 centimeter elevation model and a one meter model in the rural areas. "The thoroughness and precision of Qatar's digital landbase is perfect for outside plant (OSP) broadband telecommunications projects, such as networks planning, engineering, construction, and records management," observes Loncaric. Abdulla M. Rafeia, Head of Access Networks at the Qatar Public Telecommunications Corporation (Q-TEL) is a man in a hurry. He knows the power of GIS and is keen to bring his department fully on-line. "We've completed our pilot study at Al Khor," (the city selected by CGIS for the testing of all GIS applications and data automation) comments Rafeia. "Our methodology for data automation is sound and we've already released the beta version of our Telecommunication Access Networks Management System (TEAMS) software that we developed for our planners and engineers. We are doing a thorough test before our final release, scheduled for later this year. "Full data automation on a national scale of Q-TEL's large collection of access network location maps, drawings, and tabular records is under way and scheduled to be completed by the end of 1998. We must continue to update these maps and records, of course, as we simultaneously digitize them for the GIS." Plans are being made to implement GIS into Q-TEL's mainstream activities, such as the outfitting of its service vehicles with global positioning system (GPS) transmitters and radios so that they can be tracked in real-time with GIS and dispatched quickly and effectively for repairs when emergencies arise. Rafeia would also like to integrate GIS with Q-TEL's Corporate Financial System (CFS), which is used in planning its annual budgets and with the organization's Customer Services System (CSS). With GIS, the utility will be able to provide more accurate cost estimates by determining required lengths of cables and conduits and their subsequent value, as well as substantially reduce the waiting time for new telephone services for its subscribers. Summarizes Rafeia, "With the completion of our data automation and TEAM software, the on-line availability of the basemap from CGIS, as well as data from other subscribing government agencies over GISnet, Q-TEL is well prepared to efficiently plan for the future needs of our customers." Oman's GTO Uses GIS for Strategic Planning The General Telecommunications Organization (GTO) in Oman has been using its GIS as a planning tool and as a means of producing ad hoc reports. Particular use was made of GIS technology in site planning during the introduction of a GSM mobile phone system into the country. GIS data has been acquired via manual digitizing, scanning, GPS capture and from OSP contractors. The major benefits available to GTO from GIS technology have been recognized and GTO has completed a consultancy contract that itemised the value to GTO of a full AM/FM/GIS system and which made recommendations as to how GTO should proceed towards such a system. GTO is in the process of implementing most of the recommendations made in the consultant's report. Input has been requested from the major providers of AM/FM systems and subsequent to an evaluation of these inputs, GTO will select a vendor and proceed with a pilot project. Bahrain Telecommunications Company Monitors PABX with GIS The Bahrain Telecommunications Company (BATELCO) provides telephone services to its larger clients such as corporations, banks, hospitals, and government ministries with sophisticated Private Automatic Branch Exchanges (PABXs) that are capable of directly handling thousands of lines at each customer location. To help BATELCO monitor its large number of PABX systems, Micro Center, a local GIS developer and distributor, created a special application called the Private Branch Exchange - Remote Monitoring and Maintenance System (PBX-RMMS). PBX-RMMS is built around the client-server model and consists of a number of client modules, one for each client PABX that needs to be monitored and a Center system located at BATELCO's headquarters at Hamala. PBX-RMMS is essential to BATELCO's operations because any failures in their customers' PABXs will disrupt the telephone service for that entire organization. This can prove costly in terms of lost productivity for businesses and dangerous in the case of a hospital or police station. Though, a PABX is continually carrying out extensive self tests and reporting on the status of the system through messages and warnings, these messages normally go unnoticed since providing an experienced engineer at each customer site to monitor the system is costly. The PBX-RMMS is directly connected to the PABX and captures in real time the messages, warnings, and errors generated by the PABX. Each module can be customized to filter out the significant, serious, and major errors and report these to the Center system through a dial up telephone connection. The Center system is extensive and handles numerous interrelated tasks. Its main function is to receive the errors reported by the client site, alert the appropriate technician responsible for that site, and present a highly user-friendly interface for the visualization, interpretation and clearing of reported errors. Errors received at the Center are displayed in real time with ESRI's ArcView GIS software. The errors are color coded according to their severity. ArcView allows users to focus on specific categories of errors, restrict attention to certain types of errors, or select strategic locations, while providing an easy-to-use interface for technicians to connect to any PABX to clear or rectify faults. Besides allowing the user to turn on/off certain error categories at will, the GIS helps focus attention on possible external factors that may have caused the errors. For example, multiple errors occurring at the same time at sites geographically close to one another suggests an external fault. Several other capabilities of the GIS software are very useful in the PBX-RMMS system. The graphical editing tools are used to digitally create and store the physical layouts of cards in each of the PABX cabinets for each site. This relieves the technicians from having to physically open several cabinets to install an expansion card. The software's hot-linking feature is used to implement an intuitive interface allowing the technicians to perform various tasks, such as dialing up and connecting to a remote PABX by simply clicking on the site symbol. Another software feature that proved extremely handy is its charting capabilities. The charts are used to create visual representations and statistical summaries from the error history data that are accumulated from the various sites. Finally, should the need arise for a technician to be physically present at certain sites to clear or rectify faults, the GIS allows the manager of the PABX maintenance section to assign maintenance crews to sites in an efficient manner that minimizes the travel time. Several enhancements to the GIS component of the PBX-RMMS system are planned for the next version. One such enhancement involved further customization of the interface. Currently a query like, "Show me an empty slot to place an extra card" is made through the ArcView query builder. Avenue, ArcView's object-oriented programming language, will be used in future versions to make these and other options readily available through customized menus and control bars. Another enhancement is the addition of an enable/disable button for each of the cards in the expansion slots' layout diagram of the PABX. These buttons will be hot linked to scripts that will establish communication with the PABX and issue the appropriate commands to enable or disable the card in question. This feature will allow faults to be cleared quickly from the Center by disabling a faulty card. The Future of GIS in Telecommunications GIS technology is sure to play a major role in the growth of the telecommunications industry as the use of telecom-related applications expands and competition among the more traditional telecom companies, such as the PTT and the newly emerging cable television companies, increases. Loncaric concludes, "GIS has the potential to be the integrating technology for all aspects of the telecommunications industry. Today, it is commonly used in typical AM/FM applications, such as planning, fault tracing, and engineering design. I believe that soon we will see far greater use of GIS for applications such as demand forecasting and strategic marketing. GIS will help provide a much better comprehension of market segmentation and recognition of population distribution patterns. This will allow the telecommunications industry a greater understanding of their customer base and allow it to better provide the optimal products and services." |