Network planning software is mapping software that a telecom operator uses to decide where to put its next tower and which route its next fibre cable should take. It combines maps of the land with information about the network and the people who use it. Planning for towers is called radio planning, or RF planning, after radio frequency. Planning for cables is called fibre planning or route planning.
The software is built on a geographic information system (GIS), software that stores and analyses anything with a location. Its map layers show roads, buildings and their heights, hills, existing towers and existing fibre. Many of these layers come from the wider world of geospatial data.
For towers, the software predicts coverage. It uses a propagation model, which is a formula for how a radio signal weakens with distance and as it passes through walls, trees or hills. It colours the map by the predicted signal strength. It then compares the prediction with real measurements from the network, such as weak-signal reports and dropped calls. These measurements come from telecom service assurance.
Take, for example, a new township on the edge of Hubballi with 6,000 flats, where residents complain that calls drop indoors. The planner marks three rooftops that are available on rent. For each rooftop, the software predicts the indoor signal with a radio unit and antennas mounted at 30 metres. The second rooftop covers 92% of the flats well, compared with 71% and 78% for the other two. It is also 900 metres from the operator's nearest fibre. The software draws the cheapest route for the new optical fibre cable along the road. It counts the road crossings, which need permission from the city corporation, and estimates the cost of the cable and the digging.
The chosen site then goes to multi-site rollout management, which tracks the permits, the crews and the progress at each site.
Planning matters because towers and fibre are expensive and hard to move once built. A tower in the wrong place leaves gaps in coverage, and a badly routed cable costs much more to dig and to repair. The same software plans fibre to homes too. For broadband, it works out where to place the street splitters of a passive optical network (PON), and how many homes each one can serve.
Network planning is part of the operations half of telecom OSS and BSS.