National Broadband Ireland has realised significant time savings by using Esri’s ArcGIS system to help it deliver broadband infrastructure to 1.1 million people in rural Ireland. Central to the organisation’s success is a digital twin of existing, new and planned network infrastructure that has streamlined communication across multiple project partners, removing silos and bottlenecks.
Working with Esri Ireland’s Professional Services team, NBI built a complete, end-to-end process using a suite of products from Esri’s ArcGIS system. The solution includes functionality for collecting, verifying and sharing data and has, at its heart, a digital twin of the ever-expanding national broadband network.
Known as the NBI Build Map, the digital twin is hosted in ArcGIS Online and shows detailed information for each of the 227 deployment areas, which typically cover around 3,000 premises. The digital twin collates and visualises all information pertaining to existing, planned and newly installed infrastructure including its precise location, condition and operational status.
NBI’s design contractors use ArcGIS Field Maps on their mobile devices to survey existing infrastructure in the field and verify the design of proposed new infrastructure, including new poles and ducts. They then produce an initial design, using ArcGIS Pro, which is uploaded to the digital twin and made visible to everyone involved in the project, across NBI and partner organisations.
As NBI’s build contractors install new poles or other new infrastructure, they mark it ‘done’ on the digital twin from the field, and upload pictures and other data using ArcGIS Field Maps or ArcGIS Survey123. NBI can see the status of the rollout of the new infrastructure, at a glance, in almost real-time. Any issues identified by contractors or field workers while on site, such as land access constraints, can be immediately flagged in the digital twin, and the NBI team can redesign the network accordingly. Reports for stakeholders are generated automatically and displayed in ArcGIS Dashboards.
The use of digital twin functionality is far more extensive than originally anticipated. For example, now, when contractors submit invoices for work completed, the commercial team at NBI uses the digital twin to check that poles are shown as installed and view photographic evidence. The health & safety team also uses the digital twin to review images of installations and check that assets have been installed correctly and safely.
To support ongoing maintenance of the expanding broadband network, NBI has recently created an end-to-end fault management solution by integrating ArcGIS with its Jira ticketing system. When faults are reported, tickets are automatically passed from Jira to ArcGIS. Mobile engineers receive the fault information in the field, upload repair details and close the ticket, all from within ArcGIS Field Maps.
