Product Overview:

SwitchPlanner can be used by both network service providers and equipment vendors to determine where and when to add Switch Modules (SMs) to Mobile Switching Offices (MSOs) in order to meet growing demand requirements. SwitchPlanner formulates a comprehensive purchasing schedule, specifying how many and what types of SMs to buy such to minimize the total cumulative cost of covering demand over a planning horizon. SwitchPlanner integrates proprietary dynamic hierarchical packing optimization techniques into innovative economic decision-making tools to allow users to rapidly plan for the deployment of SMs at MSOs. SwitchPlanner even provides a friendly graphical user interface with live screen displays for user control of critical inputs and viewing of data and graphical outputs. With this proprietary software tool, users can save 15% or more over current "trigger rules" provided by SM vendors.

SwitchPlanner Allows You to Save Additional Money over Switch Module "Trigger Rules" Recommended by Vendors:

Although addition of switch modules (SMs), the working core of the MSO, has traditionally been guided by "trigger rules" recommended by SM vendors, these general guidelines can profitably be sharpened and optimized using demand forecasts and formal optimization techniques as provided by Vissant's SwitchPlanner. Though deployment of SwitchPlanner with past customers, it has became clear that the rules being used might be suboptimal. As we have found the current trigger rules are based on calculating for each month which switch resource(s) (erlangs or packet pipe terminations) were expected to exhaust next in the absence of any capacity increases, and then ordering new switch modules of the type best suited to forestall the predicted exhaustions. However, this myopic policy of ordering next whatever is currently most urgently needed may not be globally optimal. Vissant's SwitchPlanner is a dynamic program that explicitly considers the impact of current purchases on the configuration available when future purchasing decisions must be made could lead to quite different current purchase decisions. .

Advantages of SwitchPlanner:

• Utilize proprietary dynamic demand forecasting and optimization techniques
• Both engineers and executives can rapidly plan for least cost deployment of SMs
• Specify precise purchasing scenarios, by recommending when, what type and how many SMs to buy
• Work with different equipment vendor pricing and SM scenarios
• Plan for deployment of SMs over planning horizons
• Graphically visualize the output results as well as rapidly adjust input data

Making Complex Decision-Making Easier for Service Providers and Vendors:

• Study economic impact of SwitchPlanner's dynamic hierarchical packing optimization algorithms for SM planning
• Evaluate the cost benefits of optimization versus existing vendor trigger rules
• Understand the economics of wireless switch capacity planning
• Study how to best utilize existing switch resources
• Perform sensitivity checks by multiplying and adjusting input demands
• Receive an interactive, self-guided tour of software model

SwitchPlanner's Comprehensive Reporting of Output Results:

• View both detailed and high-level architecture of decision variables
• Printout or plot cumulative cost of adding SMs over time
• Clearly identify when to add SMs and MSOs to meet expected demand
• Display the optimal amount and type of SM components to be added
• Graphically display the number of subscribers over a planning horizon
• Create customized time series plots of output results
• Utilize a click down arrow to display model details

Description of Graphical User Interface:

SwitchPlanner's GUI allows the user to view the input demand, demand parameters, vendor provided triggers, current installations and unit cost parameters-all at the same time. In addition, SwitchPlanner provides the user with downloadable and user friendly output results, including spreadsheet tables of outputs, time plots of generated outputs and detailed plots of switch components to be added.