In the first blog post of our “Automate, Collaborate, Empower — Maximizing the RAN's Value Through Coverage Maps” series, I introduced the importance of map generation. Generating these maps is time-consuming and takes knowledgeable specialists from the RF engineering team, thus taking away from actual planning and optimization efforts. The process is also prone to errors due to the manual nature as well as the time lag between each step, which makes the end product less and less accurate in terms of the present state of network coverage. There is also an impact on IT resources required to organize the massive data files, including maps and statistics, and enabling access to this data to all of the stakeholders. There are some semi-automated methods employed by wireless operators today, but these methods are prone to error and lack the necessary synchronization between data elements.
For these reasons, one of the first requirements to improve the coverage map generation process is automation. Automation drastically reduces time-to-produce, frees up resources, embeds expertise into the process and reduces manual errors. This is exactly Mentum Fusion's approach to coverage map production, as it provides a fully automated approach to the three steps of coverage map generation.
The automation employed by Mentum Fusion increases the overall agility of the engineering team as well as the whole wireless operator's organization by providing rapid response to new events (e.g. technology introductions, population changes and usage behaviors, as well as new business). Furthermore, the information provided is constantly in synch with all available data since it is continually integrated for simultaneous map and statistics generations. Now, engineers can focus on network planning and optimization while ensuring that their wireless network intelligence is up-to-date and easily accessible by the various decision makers in the organization.
With budgets often under pressure, it's critical to optimize the productivity of engineering personnel. Mentum Fusion ensures that these valuable staff are freed to use their expertise where it's needed most instead of interfacing between planning tools and decision makers. Thus, as every wireless operator, from large to small, is affected by an increasingly dynamic and demanding environment, they can all take advantage of this type of automation to capitalize on the opportunities available without sacrificing profitability.
Automation is the start but there is much more to achieve with Mentum Fusion. Stay tuned for part three of our four-part series, wherein we explore more of the Mentum Fusion platform and its ability to support cross-functional collaboration based on the wireless network intelligence.
