Why are we building MarlinDT

Data Quality is the most important issue why “operational excellence” is so difficult. When network documentation is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, you are entering a vicious circle that is difficult to escape.

Because of poor documentation, you could accidentally create network downtime. For example, the “call before you dig” regulations require the operator to share underground network documentation to prevent damage. If you share the plans of an inventory with a backlog of 6 months, chances are have deployed a new cable in that section, resulting in a cable cut.

This cable cut could be in your backbone, resulting in alarms ringing in the Network Operation Center – the NOC. When investigating the issue, they check the inventory and they are struggled: there is no cable? So who should they send, and what equipment needs to be in the truck? This results in a much longer time-to-repair.

Ofcourse this creates frustration for your customers, but it creates even more frustration for your teams: because this could have been prevented by a better process and better documentation. 

MarlinDT offers you not only the best possible documentation, it also provides the process to use it and the automation/validation to keep data quality as high as possible. 

For the physical network management, many operators rely on GIS/CAD with a combination of spreadsheets to manage, for example, the splicing. Two datasources that are not always updated when changes to the network are being made. Sometimes, the backbone and access network are in different solutions. Sometimes the fiber is in one system, the coax is in another system. Marlin connects all datasources to have 1 single-source-of-truth of the physical network. With Marlin, we can migrate the customers of Ericsson Network Engineer, GE Smallworld, 3GIS, … into 1 solution.

For the logical network, many hardware vendors provide Network Management Solutions (NMS) for their specific equipment. Islands of perfect documentation, but … the active network is typically a multi-vendor environment. Networkmining will bring all NMS information together, link it to the physical inventory, ERP, Alarms, … 

We believe the value of a network is also related to its documentation. How can you value your infrastructure, if you don’t have a complete, accurate and up-to-date documentation? Many network operators are splitting of the network from their services, some network operators create start-ups to faster deploy fiber, … If the documentation of that network is poor, it limits the valuation of the network.

When alarms start ringing in the NOC, the Operations team is consulted to resolve the issue. However, if the root-cause would be a cable cut, your Operations team needs to contact the Engineering team and try to understand where the cut would be.

With MarlinDT, all data is in 1 solution, accessible for all teams. On top, the active network is linked to the physical network. Meaning, alarms in the active layer can be connected to the problems in the physical layer.