Network Modelling Software:

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Network Modelling Software Managing the Physical
Layer and below
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Infrastructure management systems
a.k.a. Cabling management software (CMS), a.k.a.
Network modeling software (NMS), a.k.a. Physical
Layer Management (PLM) are meant to store
enterprise-wide information on network equipment
along with details of cabling usage and
availability.

• History, common practices, experience
• System features and requirements
• Comparative analysis of commercially available
  network modeling systems
• Implementation, practical results and challenges
  in infrastructure management

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What this presentation is NOT

• A comprehensive analysis of the PLM software
  market
• An effort in promoting or advocating of any
  product mentioned

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• Garbage In

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The good
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the not so good
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the ugly
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• Digging It Out

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List of system requirements

• A network modeling software (NMS) is supposed to
  integrate equipment management and cable
  management functions. Accordingly to these tasks,
  NMS should have features as follows (in order of
  importance)
• Basic

• ability to manage both equipment and cable
  inventory in compliance with ANSI/TIA/EIA 606
  (Administration Standard for the
  Telecommunications Infrastructure of Commercial
  Buildings) http//www.cablemgmt.com/tia.htm
• graphic capabilities to represent campus maps and
  building floor plans along with equipment layout
  and cable tunnels, conduits, pathways etc.
• use an internationally supported, multi-user ODBC
  SQL Server relational database as a repository to
  all information pertinent to the network
  infrastructure
• scalability (should not impose any limits to
  inventory database expansion or shrinkage)
• well-developed standard GUI with options to be
  customized by user
• multiple users with concurrent access

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CAD graphics capabilities
List of system requirements

• the system should be capable of being used with
  or without CAD files or a mixture of both
• the system should import and export CAD files
  supporting both the latest AutoCAD file formats
  (.DWG and .DXF)
• avoid the necessity to have a CAD application
  present or any CAD experience to use the system
  (CAD systems are typically very complex)

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Customizability
List of system requirements

• the application should have a full and open
  Application Programming Interface (API)
• the GUI is totally customizable by the user
• the system is capable of defining any number of
  item types (i.e., patch panel, faceplate,
  workstation or port)
• the system should be capable of creating a custom
  property window for each type of item with any
  number of user-defined fields for recording data
  about an item

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List of system requirements

• Desirable extras

• SNMP-based network auto-discovery and
  auto-mapping
• Means of documenting wireless infrastructure
• Integration with other operational support
  systems (OSS) such as help desk (e.g., Remedy
  ARS) and logical network managers (e.g.
  Cabletrons Spectrum, HP Open View)
• Web interface
• Ability to look up and retrieve data from any
  third-party database or file over a TCP/IP
  network

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Comparative analysis of network modeling
software narrowing the search

• A. The legacy system
• Cambio Networks Inc. COMMAND 5.1 a legacy
  system U of T used, along with netRunner - a new
  product run on Windows rather then UNIX platform
• Command 5.0 version adopted by Pinacl, an UK
  company

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B. A whole class of products that are meant
mainly for equipment inventory management. Some
of them may be of interest per se but would
require a serious work on customization to
integrate cable management facilities, e.g.

• N/A - ClickNet 4.0 from ClickNet Software Corp.
• http//www.netsuite.com/ NetSuite from NetSuite
  Development Corp.

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C. A number of products specifically designed and
profiled for telecommunications service providers
(with special emphasis on WAN facilities
management). They are not cost-effective in our
case because of those specific features

• Cable-Master from Angeles Group, Inc.
• http//www.architel.com/ Objectel from Architel
  Systems Corp.
• http//www.xiox.com/ FMS for Windows by XIOX
  Corp.

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D. GIS-focused or fully functional AM/FM/GIS
products, for which the cost of customization may
be high. Still a few of these should be
considered viable choice for the campus NMS

• http//www.enghouse.com/ CableCAD and GeoNet
  from Enghouse Systems Ltd. Also they recently
  announced a number of industry applications
  (NetWORKS, etc.) worth attention. Markham, Ont.
  based.
• CX-P21-CM from Cadix International, Inc.
• http//www.adc.com/ FiberBase 4.0 - fibre
  network management software from ADC
  Telecommunications.
• http//www.cadtel.com/ SpatialBASE - network
  documentation and engineering tool

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E. The last class of NMS products, which can be
conventionally called Office-focused. These
products feature maximal integration with common
office tools like MS Office, Visio and AutoCAD

• http//www.uwo.ca/its/projects/archive/docit.html/
  - docIT product distributed in Canada by CMS
  International. Was implemented by University of
  Windsor (CANHEIT 2003 presentation)
• http//www.itracs.com/ - (former Cablesoft
  product called Crimp) by now developed into
  iTRACS v7.0
• http//www.systimax.com/ - iPatch System Manager
  Software like the above product is a part of a
  complex cable management system
• http//www.rittech.com/ - RiT PatchView is a
  physical layer management solution. Allows to
  monitor mission critical connections and all
  networked devices

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Products in this intermediate list were assessed
and compared regarding the following system
requirementsBasic

• cost effectiveness (complex issue to be defined
  and discussed separately),
• functionality comprehensive infrastructure
  support including horizontal systems,
  backbone/riser systems and campus systems,
• "open concept" design (a simple scripting engine
  for customization and additional functionality),
• quality 24x7x365 technical support

Desirable add-ons

• cable test result storage and management,
• cable lengths calculation,
• circuit information,
• cable Path information,
• moves, Adds and Changes Management,
• multi-floor designs.

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The shortlist of CMS was comprised of A, D and E
groups from the above and be read as follows

• PatchView (RiT Technologies)
• docIT (CMS Intl.)
• iTRACS (Cablesoft)
• NetWORKS (Enghouse)
• iPatch (Systimax)

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The shortlist of CMS was comprised of A, D and E
groups from the above and be read as follows

• PatchView (RiT Technologies)
• iTRACS (Cablesoft)
• iPatch (Systimax)

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Implementation notes

• Defining infrastructure model time consuming but
  pays in the end
• Porting data from legacy systems CSV files vs.
  SQL programming/scripting
• Customizing infrastructure model a big effort
  (schema, datastores, graphic, equipment templates
  etc)
• Training users a good investment

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Conclusions

• A robust long term infrastructure management plan
  is a serious investment, 30-100k
• For large infrastructure inventories,
  cost-effective management system are end-to-end
  architectures termination hardware, connectivity
  monitoring tools, cabling management software.
  This appears to be a global industry trend.
• Buying from partner companies VAR benefits vs.
  product becoming too vendor specific
• Best available PLM products tend to runtime (as
  opposed to authoring) or integrate common
  applications under one umbrella, thus minimizing
  proprietary code and TCO.
• A centralized service model seems to be a good
  solution for large institution. UTCNS is ready to
  offer infrastructure management services to other
  departments.

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Thank You

• Vladimir Kouptchinski
• Ph. 416 978-5448
• v.kupchinsky_at_utoronto.ca