Challenges

fiberstrategy is a Germany-based fiber network design and planning firm with clients from across the entire German telecom sector. 

“Our customers are German municipalities, telecom operators, utility companies, and engineering firms,” said Marcus Müller founder of fiberstrategy, “We mainly do the fiber network design and planning, which is then sent to customers together with the bill of materials.” 

“Previously, we drew designs in Microsoft Visio. We had to measure every line and add every number manually in the tool. If our clients asked for changes, we’d often needed to redesign everything.” Said Muller “With this technique we were only able to handle smaller projects.”  

The fiberstrategy team wanted to broaden their horizons, and their business opportunities, to be able to tackle large-scale projects. But they knew they needed an automated fiber optic network design software to help them out. That’s when Comsof Fiber came into play. 

Solution

“I got to know Comsof during the 2012 Buglas conference in Bonn. The timing was perfect, as a customer asked me to create designs for a large project,” said Muller “This reached the limits of our established planning procedure. However, at that time, I had some reservations: how was an algorithm able to understand fiber network design, its restrictions, different materials?” 

The Comsof team quickly went to work to demonstrate how Comsof Fiber is a sophisticated fiber optic network design software capable of taking into account all the nuances of a fiber network design. 

“I discussed with the Comsof engineers, and soon I realized this company knows what they’re doing,” said Muller “After the conference I tested the software and started working with Comsof Fiber soon after.” 

“75 percent of my projects would not have been possible without Comsof Fiber.” 

Marcus Müller, Founder, fiberstrategy  

Results

The fiberstrategy team are over the moon with the results Comsof Fiber has delivered to them and they have been taking on larger, more complex projects 

 “The software opened up many new business opportunities. We can handle larger and more complex projects,” said Muller “For instance, when a new set of rules needs to be implemented, it is just a matter of doing a new calculation, no matter the size of the project. Starting over is a thing of the past.” 

The team are also happy with the features of Comsof Fiber, especially that it works with the QGIS software. 

“It is also designed as a plugin for QGIS. This is another important asset as many of my customers prefer to use GIS-platforms,” said Muller “In addition, working with shapefiles simplifies the import and export of information due to its character of being a well-known format for exchanging GIS-data.” 

“One of my favourite capabilities is a feature which creates an extra layer on top of the drop points. This layer provides attributes such as the duct-bundle numbers and the number of the micro duct branched to the building. This visualization makes it easy for the customer to see which micro duct of which duct-bundle every individual point needs to be connected to.” 

Comsof Fiber also allows the team to include existing ducts into the designs which is particularly important for fiber network designs in Germany right now. It has become mandatory in Germany to include spare ducts when trenching is being done. Nowadays around 50 percent of the country has spare duct capacity and existing micro ducts in the ground, which are used to reduce deployment costs. 

The Comsof support team has also exceeded their expectations, “The Comsof team does great work. It takes maximum 1,5 days for a ticket to be answered. The support team digs into the issue to find a working solution,” said Muller. 

“All things considered, 75 percent of my projects would not have been possible without Comsof Fiber,” concludes Mr. Müller. 

Looking to the future

It’s safe to say the fiberstrategy team are happy with Comsof Fiber and will continue using it for more fiber network designs as their business expands and they take on larger more complex projects. 

“There are other alternatives to Comsof Fiber out there. I looked at some of them, but they are too complex. With Comsof Fiber I understand what the software does ‘behind the scenes’, why it made a certain decision,” said Muller “For us Comsof Fiber is essential, we won’t work with another software.”