I am regularly frustrated by adding information into LINKPlanner and then having to add it to cnMaestro… and vise-versa. Is there any meaningful way to get information directly from one into the other? Is there any way to synchronize the two?
When you add a potential customer with a questionable service location, presumably you would add them in LINKPlanner. Then, if you add them as a customer their data needs to be re-entered into cnMaestro for the corresponding radio. If, however, you setup a customer that is straight-forward and goes straight into cnMaestro, what is the best way to get their data into LINKPlanner for sector analysis and future planning?
I feel like these two very useful tools should, at least, have some basic way to move data between them. Does that already exist?
Well, everyone has different views on these tools. One has little in common with the other, and I would even say that their use is completely different ?
What data do you want to move between applications? GPS positions? After all, manually it takes 5 seconds?
Integrating LinkPlanner with cnMaestro is like adding a V8 engine to a very small car - I do not see the point.
I’ve voiced concerns about this too and they’re making strides to have better location coordination between radios, planning tools, and service platforms. Some of these improvements are forced due to the need to have accurate CBSD data for SAS operations. I think that there will eventually be a day when cnMaestro, cnHeat, and LinkPlanner will all be rolled into one.
I would agree, the use is quite different - but they do compliment each other. The use of one often leads to the use of the other. Further, in my experience information from one is often very useful in the other as projects progress change and develop.
You’re right, copying and pasting some GPS components relatively quick. Copying a single customer takes a bit longer. Copying a whole sector of customers takes longer still. Checking a sector to see if data is still valid is quite consuming.
Regarding moving data from LINKPlanner to cnMaestro:
I see less of a use case for moving data from LINKPlanner to cnMaestro. There is a good reason to get CBRS data out of LINKPlanner to cnMaestro and I understand that is functional and quite useful. I could see exporting cnWave information directly to an E2E controller being quite useful. If a customer location was modeled in LINKPlanner, I could see readily selecting that LINKPlanner entry when onboarding in cnMaestro.
Regarding moving data from cnMaestro to LINKPlanner:
This could be quite useful for syncing CBRS data so LINKPlanner has the latest and the next CBRS export is complete. This could be useful for getting information from an E2E controller into LINKPlanner for capacity planning and expansion. This could be useful for new PTP modeling using existing tower sites. I see many use cases - I imagine there are many more than I can think of at this time.
Consider this scenario moving data from cnMaestro to LINKPlanner:
There is an existing PMP450i 5 GHz radio with 20 customers attached. They are all in cnMaestro. There is a discussion about how to improve capacity, and what changes will give the best results. How valuable will frame size be? How will your actual capacity change with a channel width change? Would we improve capacity by adjusting downtilt? How significantly would a PMP450m change the capacity? All of these questions could be readily answered in LINKPlanner if existing AP and SM locations and settings are in the system. While reviewing that site, perhaps it is also worth considering the other APs at that tower… which further increases the workload. If existing sectors could just be synced with LINKPlanner, or at least exported from cnMaestro and imported into LINKPlanner, that would save measurable amounts of time.
[The LINKPlanner tool is very useful, but interface is also a bit slow. This contributes to my interest in being able to get data from one into the other.]
I don’t thing the analogy really applies and I not think these two tools should be integrated into one tool… but I would argue adding V8 engines to small cars is how some of the most amazing cars have been created :-).
I was hoping something existed already that I didn’t recognize. It is encouraging to know something is in progress.
I’m not sure I see a need for these to all be rolled into one, but I definitely see integration being very useful. I do see combining cnHeat and LINKPlanner as a logical step, but I’m not quite sure how it would be accomplished as LINKPlanner seems to make sense as a desktop application or interface.
It is going to be an exciting year for LINKPlanner and cnHeat. In Q2 LINKPlanner will be starting an online version covering the main PMP products and this will be expanded throughout the year adding more products and functionality from the desktop version. Once we have that in place then we will be integrating LINKPlanner and cnHeat and in addition supporting a direct interface with cnMaestro, starting with the ability to push cnMaestro networks into LINKPlanner.
while not integrated you can export from cnmaestro inventory with all columns and import what you need into link planner. I have done this more than a few times for a sector or a whole tower. the only thing you really have to do manually is select the equipment types individually. It would be nice if there was a way to export / import a json or csv for these things in either the online or offline versions of link planner
