Solutions for telecommunication and CATV operators include GE Energy base applications (Physical Network Inventory and Logical Network Inventory) and additional modules developed by Globema.

Smallworld Network Inventory products from GE Energy support an impressive list of world-class communications customers in the areas of network planning and engineering. Smallworld Network Inventory is a highly scaleable portfolio of products that provide an end-to-end view of multi-vendor, multi-technology networks. By managing end-to-end telecommunications networks at both the logical level (Logical Network Inventory) and the physical level (Physical Network Inventory), Smallworld Network Inventory becomes an integral part of your Operations Support Systems (OSS). In addition, you can use Network Inventory Gateway to provide access across the enterprise to this data via the Internet.

The Smallworld Network Inventory solution supports a number of the business processes identified in the TeleManagement Forum (TMF) Enhanced Telecoms Operations Map (eTOM). Smallworld Network Inventory primarily supports processes at the Resource Development, Management & Operations level, including: 

• Infrastructure Lifecycle Management - activities related to the design, planning, construction and maintenance of the access and core networks
• Operations Support and Readiness . support for plan, design and build of the network to ensure that the network infrastructure (both physical and logical) is .service ready. to support provisioning of specific customer services
• Fulfilment and Assurance - utilization of network inventory data for operational control and response to network failures

This enables telecom and cable operators to vastly improve the day-to-day operations and long-term future of their network infrastructure. In short, Smallworld Network Inventory provides the critical link between the customer, products and services, physical network inventory, network capacity and planning and design processes.

Physical Network Inventory can form the basis of an integrated operations support system (OSS) environment for the telecommunications provider by providing the complete network inventory, resulting from the network engineering and documentation process. Physical Network Inventory provides the ability to engineer and document a physical end-to-end model of a telecommunications network. Building upon a fully connected, end-to-end network model, Physical Network Inventory represents a full integration between inside plant (ISP) data and outside plant (OSP) data within one system. Along with network inventory and capacity data, this integrated model forms the driver for key business processes such as planning, network design and engineering, as well as providing vital inputs to business processes supporting network monitoring, trouble management and work force dispatch.

The products in the Smallworld Network Inventory suite are based on GE Energy. proven core platform - Smallworld Core Spatial Technology. This provides a solid platform capable of supporting hundreds of users, running across heterogeneous computing platforms in mixed WAN/LAN configurations. Smallworld Core Spatial Technology provides a wide range of standard features common to all applications, both for the telecommunications market and also the utilities and public services sectors. Examples include application configuration, security, data-driven pick lists, plotting support, drafting and CAD-type functionality, configurable style system to control appearance of on-screen and hardcopy output, etc.

Physical Network Inventory includes an underlying base model, providing support for equipment catalogues and .civils. (e.g. ducting, trenches, street furniture, poles, etc.), with five advanced telecommunications modules built upon the base module covering the following areas:

• Inside plant management
• Fibre network management
• Copper network management
• Broadband RF network management
• Microwave-based wireless network management

Logical Network Inventory enables circuit assignment, bandwidth allocation and capacity planning. Logical Network Inventory is essential in:

• Developing and managing an accurate model of the assignable elements in the network, including facilities, the physical path of a communication signal
• The bandwidth across a facility
• The data rate and the protocol riding on the facility

In addition, Logical Network Inventory provides manual and assisted circuit routing, covering preference, avoidance, path protection and diversity, and configuration of routing rules. It is the integrated solution for network capacity and service planning and management, offering a complete and accurate representation of the logical network configuration, from the switch to the customer.

By integrating all network topologies and services data into a single, seamless relational database, Logical Network Inventory provides an integrated services network model that can be manipulated and visualized at any level. It presents a unified view of circuit infrastructure, showing the complete utilization picture: viewing facilities, connections and circuits throughout the network; all in a single, data-driven system.

Logical Network Inventory also allows for the management of high-level logical entities such as rings and subnetworks, and allows for the characteristics and behaviour of these entities to be established and utilized in the circuit routing process. Further, Logical Network Inventory includes user-driven interfaces for defining the configuration and routing rules that represent the real-life technology and business constraints of a communications network. A generic methodology has been adhered to with the Logical Network Inventory application architecture so that whatever the service type, transmission hierarchy or network capability, Logical Network Inventory can be configured accordingly.