With the continuous introduction of new technologies such as cloud computing, digital twins, artificial intelligence, 5G, Internet of Things, AI, VR, etc., the further development of infrastructure digitization has become a key and priority item in the 14th Five-Year Development Plan of various provinces across the country. Due to the increasing push for state-owned enterprise reforms and new infrastructure policies, infrastructure digitization has gradually become an important means of supporting efficient governance and operational development within enterprises.
With the rapid growth of data volume, the pipeline resources related to fiber optic cables in infrastructure are the “blood vessels” that support new businesses, capable of efficiently and safely transporting data. The pipeline resources include fiber optic cables, pipelines, manholes, poles, optical distribution frames, ODFs, and other supporting facilities, all of which are considered passive resources, usually referred to as dumb resources, which are important communication infrastructure for enterprises. Currently, management relies mainly on manual efforts, leading to issues such as unclear usage of network resources, low accuracy, and delayed updates.
Firefly, leveraging decades of experience in fiber optic technology and addressing current pain points in pipeline resource management, utilizes technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data analysis, and digital twins to achieve planning, operation, monitoring, and maintenance of pipeline resources, effectively providing customers with a “pipeline expert”. The following diagram illustrates the overall composition of this solution:
To facilitate integration with various enterprises’ digital platforms, the pipeline expert system is built on a microservices architecture management system, which microservices each functional component and is deployed in a containerized manner, allowing the management system to shield the operating system requirements, thus supporting cloud deployment and cluster deployment.
Rapid Resource Inventory and Entry
Optical network resources experience various stages including demand, planning, design, construction, acceptance, usage, maintenance, and decommissioning, but the data connectivity between these stages is weak, and relying on manual management makes it difficult to manage resources from creation to decommissioning throughout their entire lifecycle. This management model results in opacity and lack of sharing of information regarding resource formation, operation, and decommissioning, creating barriers and information silos among resource participants, leading to a situation where no one can clearly grasp the overall status of resources, making resource inventory and entry a labor-intensive task.
The pipeline expert system is the first to utilize the dual functionality of fiber optic cables for both transmission and sensing, in conjunction with line inspection analyzers, to quickly complete the inventory of fiber optic resources, clarifying the correspondence between fiber optic cables and each manhole, GIS map locations, the exact locations of splice boxes and distribution points, as well as the relationships of patch panel tail fibers, with data automatically imported into the system without manual entry.
Intelligentization and Twin of Dumb Resources
Intelligent upgrades of passive dumb resources without interrupting services, real-time monitoring of the status of passive ports such as fiber optic cable manholes, ODF racks, and optical distribution frames, digitizing all pipeline-related resources into the system, enabling electronic and visual management of resource information on the system interface. Based on resource visualization, online work orders, online construction guidance, and online feedback are realized, closing the construction loop. This avoids data discrepancies caused by unmonitored fiber jumpers during construction and untimely feedback, reducing operational maintenance costs. On-site audio-visual guidance assists operational personnel and checks the accuracy of operations to ensure construction quality.
Real-Time Monitoring of Resource Quality
The pipeline expert system includes a quality analyzer that monitors the quality of each optical path in real time, accurately locating fault points geographically, immediately reporting any fiber core interruptions along with location information to the network management system, which dispatches maintenance personnel for emergency repairs, thus improving the response speed for fault handling. It also conducts periodic testing and identification testing on fiber cores, generating fiber quality trend charts, optical path degradation trend charts, dynamic range detection charts, and full-channel attenuation spectra, making the status of all fiber cores intuitively accessible. Statistics and analysis of fiber core resource utilization improve utilization efficiency, optimizing network configuration and enhancing network stability.
Big Data Analysis and Forecasting
The unclear status of existing pipeline resources leads to low utilization of basic resources and low return on investment. The pipeline expert system has completed the inventory entry, intelligentization, and twin of resources. By leveraging big data analysis of resource bottlenecks, it forecasts resource growth across multiple dimensions, providing data support for annual planning and design, thereby enhancing the operational efficiency of the entire network.
The Firefly Pipeline Expert System aims to address the pain points of clients regarding chaotic pipeline resources, unclear quality, and low efficiency in fault troubleshooting, supporting the digital development of infrastructure. Through a unique solution combining software and hardware, it enhances resource utilization and fault repair efficiency for clients, reduces operational maintenance costs, and increases resource revenue, revitalizing existing assets. The system is applicable to both internal and external networks, meeting the network needs of various industry clients; moreover, the system software provides standardized interfaces to meet different access requirements of clients.
Source: Company Contribution
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