CADDSTAR V7.0 FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY CADDStar is a powerful GIS-based facilities management and network documentation software. By combining the drawing / mapping features of AutoCAD Map with a relational database, CADDStar creates intelligent links between the graphics and the database. A full network connectivity model is established in the database to allow network tracing between facilities and addresses. CADDStar features fully open, accessible database and drawings thereby allowing access with other software tools from outside of CADDStar. There are 5 main sections in CADDStar, all integrated into one comprehensive software package: o Landbase/ Facilities/ Drafting o Detail Drawings o Coax Design o Fiber Design and Management o Report Writer Complementary software includes CADDStar Fiber Lite to take fiber maps and associated data to the field on laptops; and a CADDStar Read-Only application that gives full access to CADDStar maps and data, and all of the search, query and report routines, without the ability to make any changes. The following is a description of the main features of each section and how they work together and relate to each other to build a complete graphical and database record of your networks. CADDStar utilizes graphical symbols for creating the database link and the user may customize these symbols by following certain standards and procedures. Each section in CADDStar utilizes a Catalog for the creation of elements and the modeling of their respective operational specifications. Each unique network element is created once, and then made available in design sessions for placement and insertion in the network. Specific items from the catalogs are then selected into Profiles, which are unique combinations of elements out the catalogs that are specifically to be made available and used in certain geographical areas. This allows for unique network configurations and architectures in different areas made up of specific subsets of the catalogs. Each profile could contain elements with different technical specifications than the other, thus allowing the user to look at various different design scenarios. These Catalogs and Profiles can be password protected to ensure that there is one common set of standards used by Engineers in the network design. HAL-TEC, 405 N. Reo Street, Suite 240, Tampa, FL 33609 Phone (813)-289-4119 Fax: (813)-287-364 response@hal-tec.com
Page 2 Landbase/Facilities/Drafting The GIS positioned maps that have been placed in CADDStar are referred to as the Landbase. These maps contain all of the graphical information for the roads, streets, railroads, hydrography, lot number, addresses, etc., as well as all of the facilities that have been placed in the system. Landbase can simple single-line streets, or can be detailed double-lined streets with individual lot lines and street addresses, depending on the level of detail required by the customer. Some customers even have building footprints on the landbase. CADDStar uses city and a street name lists in the database to ensure that all subsequent address entries are spelled correctly and are tagged and placed in the correct city. Items are placed on shared layers or separate layers depending on their use. Facilities Each pole, pedestal, manhole, street address, street name, every conduit run, duct and duct bank, strand placement, ground and anchor, etc. is placed and saved in CADDStar s Landbase section. As these items are placed, a link to the database is created and specific information about the element is entered and recorded in the database. Typical information recorded for each element is: owner, type, use, distances, manufacture, construction, I.D. number, and the x-y spatial coordinates of the element when placed. These elements are then available for both the coaxial and fiber optic software sections for placement and linkage with their respective network elements. CADDStar has the ability to allow the user to place Intelligent Roads. These roads contain length and other quantitative data that assists in System management. These roads can also be traced graphically to show route information. Within the infrastructure module the user is able to display conduit and manhole diagrams to see the exact disposition of cables within the conduit system. The user can also trace the conduit system graphically to show route information. Drafting CADDStar uses a Drafting Catalog where the symbols and the information to be recorded in the database are created. The user has the ability to specify individual graphics for each network element, either stock or custom, including scale of symbol, color and line types. The user also has the ability to specify what information will be collected and recorded when symbols are placed. Items are drafted using standard AutoCAD routines. Detail Drawings CADDStar provides a method for linking a Detail drawing to a street address. These detail drawings are separate from the main map, but have hot links to the main maps. Other drawings, photos, specs sheets etc. can be inserted into the detail drawing, allowing the user to have this information available or to show a great amount of detail that due to limited space could not be shown on the main map. Detail drawings are stored in a separate directory that can be accessed outside of CADDStar. Some typical uses of a Detail drawing are: building floor plans and riser diagrams, civil surveys, POP details, head end/hub layouts, textual information that may be needed at a later date, Multiple dwelling layouts, manhole racking details, etc. Outside plant coax and fiber can be linked into a Detail, and all network connectivity and signal levels are maintained and tracked into the Detail. All of the standard CADDStar functions, including active design, are also available in the Detail drawings functions.
Page 3 Coaxial Design The coaxial design module utilizes a Design Catalog where elements are created. Design elements are created in the Catalog incorporating a graphic symbol and the particular engineering specifications needed for CADDStar to perform its engineering and design calculations. Various elements that have been created in the design catalog can be combined into different Profiles. Coax Profiles are typically based on design frequencies and the combinations of equipment that will be used to obtain that bandwidth. Therefore, by using a different Profile, the user can evaluate the impact of increasing bandwidth in an area without having to re-input every element. In the catalog the user can set the display color and line type for various cable types and their position in the network hierarchy such as trunk, feeder, or express. CADDStar will display, through the use of data blocks, critical design data for all actives and for endsof-line. More detailed database information about any network element can be obtained by using the edit function on a graphical system. The system is set up to display error graphics when the design does not meet the operational RF level windows that the user has set up in the catalog. CADDStar designs the coax network while the network designer is drafting the cable routing. Tap selection and amplifier locations are automatic (with user over-ride) based on the parameters set in the Profile. Both forward and return RF calculations are performed at 8 forward and two return userspecified frequencies. Once the coax network in a fiber node area has been designed, CADDStar will perform system power calculations and display the results. Telephony powering calculations can also be done. The designed network elements, and the calculations that the system did while placing the design elements, can be saved and be available for future use. Design elements that have been saved may be edited or changed at any time in the future, on an individual basis. Design elements in an area are saved in a design file / node file, and therefore are available for separate geographical areas. The geographical area of each node file is the area that is contained inside of a node boundary that the user drafts. Up to nine separate design files may be opened at one time in a CADDStar session. Bills-of-Material can be done on a node-by-node basis, thereby providing the user with a BOM per project area. Within the powering schema, it is possible for one Power Supply to have multiple feeds or extension cords associated with it. Power can be inserted either into Power inserters or directly into the Amplifier itself.
Page 4 Fiber Optic Design and Management The fiber optic engineering module is extremely powerful, and has the ability to design and place fiber cables, fiber equipment, complete the splicing of the cable, and place and track fiber circuits on each individual fiber strand. Utilizing the latest in fiber technology including, but not limited to, ribbon cable, loose tube buffer cable, cables with fibers of different glass properties, odd count fiber cables, single mode, multi mode, common frequencies such as 1310 nm and 1550nm, WDM, DWDM, the user can assign owners to fibers and circuits, track circuit payloads, perform a number of graphical on screen traces and splice reports, and produce text based reports such as splice reports, circuit traces, and fiber traces. CADDStar has the ability to design and track conventional fiber optic networks, plus CADDStar can now design and track passive optical networks for the delivery of optical signals to the curb or to the home. CADDStar fiber reports, splice diagrams and traces are calculated and created on the fly from the database, thus ensuring that the system information reported by CADDStar is the most current that is available. As in the Design module, the Fiber module utilizes Catalogs and Profiles to model equipment parameters and set technical specifications for all the fiber elements. Elements created and customized here can include splitters, optical amplifiers, optical repeaters, optical transmitters, splice enclosures, patch panels, splice trays, fiber cables, connectors, By placing fiber elements on the maps and by utilizing the Detail drawing feature, it is possible to show, track and report on fiber from end to end, right into a building, up a riser to a termination in a customer premise. Additional fiber features include: o User defined connector types for all fiber equipment and reels o Equipment types including: o EDFA optical amplifiers and ADM repeaters o WDM/DWDM lasers, splitters and combiners o Optical attenuators o Patch-panels o Optical switches o Capability to create composite fiber optic cables with mixed glass typoes in the same buffer tube o Fiber client database with fast wildcard client lookup o Optical Bandwidth and Payload Management for both analog and digital optical circuits with graphical display o Payload assignment by client o Support for standard and WDM/DWDM circuits, including specific wavelength assignments, traffic loading, and clients o Optical loss calculations on all circuits o Ability to place and track all slack (storage) loops on a fiber path o User selectable option to allow placement of fiber with or without associated support structures o Optical wavelengths can be displayed as nanometers or terahertz o Detail drawings can be attached to any point on the network to show in-premise wiring, street crossings, OTDR traces, or any other type of Detail that would normally clutter an outside plant map o Full fiber connectivity from the network into a Detail drawing (i.e. an office building) o On-screen graphical end-to-end tracing, by circuit, by fiber or by cable
Page 5 o Fiber ownership tracked down to a single fiber within a cable segment o Fiber reels can be created in catalogs with user-defined features including: o Construction type (loose-tube, central-tube, buffers or ribbons) o Supports fiber counts up to 2592 fibers/reel o Up to 36 buffers per reel o Up to 72 fibers per buffer or bundle o Fiber reel covering type o Connector types for each end of fiber reel o Odd fiber/buffer counts for tapered fiber segment support o Splicing features: o Connector type matching o Express splices (all fibers spliced through) and/or individual splices o Mechanical splices (connectorized) o Inline attenuator plug-ins o Fusion splice loss or connector loss tracking by individual splice or connector o As-built override capability of actual splice losses vs. default values o Automatic express splicing when cutting an enclosure into an existing cable o Enhanced database information for fiber cables including: o Fiber optic Network-level tracking (primary ring, secondary ring, and/or lateral) o Cable status (proposed, under construction, operational, outage, abandoned) o Cable construction (aerial, underground or both) o Each combination of the above cable information items is tracked on separate AutoCAD Layers with catalog control over color, line-type and line width CADDStar Report Writer CADDStar now comes with a report writer that is accessed outside of CADDStar. This report writer can be installed on any computer that can be mapped to the CADDStar project directories. A number of preconfigured reports are available. o Many selectable output formats including: o Crystal Reports 8.0 o Excel 97 o Access 97 o Comma-delimited text o DBase III o Word 97 o PDF Format o HTML Format o Many configurable reports including: o Fiber splicing details o Addresses by receiver node o Fiber usage o Optical circuits and payload allocation o Catalog and Profile reports o Facility inventory by location o Landbase, strand, RF-design and fiber Catalog Reports o Customizable report headers o Report configurations are saved between report sessions o Reports can be run from any Windows 95/98/NT workstation, outside of CADDStar o Simple easy to use point-and-click report generator
Page 6 CADDStar Fiber Lite CADDStar Fiber Lite is a complementary product to CADDStar Fiber Optic Design. Once a fiber optic network has been designed, a set of street files and the overlaying fiber optic network are exported to an Internet server. Remote laptops can download the most current set of street maps and fiber optic network drawings and associated data. In the field, Fiber Technicians doing maintenance or network changes can search for and trace optical circuits. They can also search for an enclosure by ID number, and view fiber splices within an enclosure. The Fiber Technician can also update the fiber splice data on the laptop, and also make redline drawings and field notes. All of these changes are saved and can be uploaded back to the CADDStar Internet server the next time he logs onto the Internet. A Fiber Optic Engineer at the office can then review the splicing changes that the technician made in the field, and can accept the splicing changes directly into CADDStar without re-entering the data, or he can send the changes back to the Fiber Technician with a message requesting additional information. The Fiber Optic Engineer at the office can also review the redline notes and drawings and take appropriate action. CADDStar Read-Only The CADDStar Read-Only application gives full access to CADDStar maps and data, and contains all of the powerful search, query and report routines available in the full version of CADDStar, without the ability to make any changes. HAL-TEC Corporation is full-service Fiber Application Service Provider specializing in coax, HFC, and optical network design, field data collection, mapping, construction, and professional resource services for the broadband, telecommunications and cable industries. HAL-TEC Corporation (www.hal-tec.com) can be contacted at 405 N. Reo Street, Suite 250, Tampa, FL 33609, Phone: (813)-289-4119, Fax: (813)- 287-3674. ### CADDStar is a registered trademark of HAL-TEC CORPORATION. All rights reserved. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.