Using computer programming, mere zeroes and ones, Bentley Systems has helped to build some really big things in the infrastructure space. Take, for example, the Sea-Tac Airport International arrivals facility in Washington State, Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in Australia, and the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit, MI and Canada. You can add to that thousands of cell towers.
Johnson Broderick Engineering Case Study Overview Organization: Johnson Broderick Engineering, LLC Location: Eugene, Oregon, USA Project Objectives: Accurate graphical representations of towers Ability to optimize analysis by evaluating multi-variable simulations Integrated solution, including tower, mount, and foundation analysis Products Used: OpenTower Designer The Visual, Virtual Difference Structural tower analysis has long been a tedious and somewhat complicated process requiring multiple iterations and considerable research and analysis to achieve optimal results. While specialized programs have helped deliver quality results, they have not evolved nor improved the methods. Aaron Broderick, Principal of Johnson Broderick Engineering, LLC, believes it’s time for engineers to adopt a visual approach to modernize tower analysis. He explained, “Older programs are kind of a black box that are fed information and spit out results. There’s no visual reference to where antennas or feed lines are located or what the equipment looked like and limited foundation analysis capabilities.” For Eugene, Oregon-based Johnson Broderick Engineering, LLC, advancements in visualization as well as expanded analytics are forever changing the tower analysis approach. Download the Full Case Study
Genesys Case Study Overview Organization: Genesys International Corporation, Ltd. Location: Mumbai, India Project Objectives: Perform inventory management through inspection automation Facilitate planning for a next generation 5G network Enable downstream workflow for engineering and BIM Products Used: OpenTower iQ Facilitating a Previously Labor Intensive Process Due to the ever-increasing demand for data along with reliable connections, telecom owners are increasingly trying to digitalize their workflows to accurately understand available spaces, estimate tower ratings for proposed loading, understand defects and, more importantly, update their inventory with as-built information. The current process is manual, labor intensive, and expensive. As telecom infrastructure is now shared by multiple mobile network operators, and as tower owners are adopting 5G evolution, a major telecom company in India looked to its geospatial partner, Genesys International Corporation Ltd for help with digitalizing their workflow through tower inspection automation. Nikhil Jani, vice president, telecom and utilities at Genesys International responsible for the company’s telecom and utilities business, said, “Tower inspections are typically manually intensive processes. Few telecom operators have current (as-built) data about all the equipment on their towers.” Download the Full Case Study
Bentley Systems recently launched a new design product that automates the creation of digital twins for telecom towers. OpenTower iQ gives designers and contractors 3D visualization and predictive design for utility towers. It enables data captured by drones to be brought into 3D models and lets users incorporate artificial intelligence to inform design decisions using Bentley’s iTwin cloud service.
Due to the ever-increasing demand for data along with reliable connections, telecom owners are increasingly trying to digitize their workflow to accurately understand available spaces, estimate tower ratings for proposed loading, understand defects and more importantly updating their inventory with as-built information. The current process is manual, labor intensive, and expensive. As telecom infrastructure is now shared by multiple mobile network operators and as tower owners are adopting to 5G evolution, one major telecom company in India looked to its geospatial partner,
Bentley Acceleration Initiatives today announced the availability of OpenTower® iQ, a digital twin solution “powered by iTwin” for telecom towers that provides 3D visualization, real-time decision support, and predictive design from the ground up. OpenTower iQ is the result of a digital co-venture between Bentley and Visual Intelligence, a Houston, Texas-based sensor technology company, and Aeroprotechnik, an aerial inspection engineering company based in Viseu, Portugal.
Telecom industry’s transition to fifth-generation technology (5G) along with digitization of its infrastructure for 3D representation, document management, and colocation analysis will lead to the creation of smart cities that will revolutionize everyday lives.
With the advancement of 4G and build-out of the 5G network occurring at about the same point in time for multiple carriers—and a significant percentage of carrier capital expenditure going toward micro cell sites to help densify urban population centers at the forefront of the industry— the macro telecommunications engineering industry has been shifting to cost sharing and thereby optimizing contracts between major carriers and tower owners.
With the ever-increasing demand for data and 5G technology accommodation, tower owners and engineers must constantly design, modify, update, adjust and maintain communications towers for maximum efficiency and provide complete visibility for stakeholders and decision making. To keep up with the demand, tower engineers and operators need to rely on applications that can fully integrate the lifecycle of a communication tower to ensure seamless, cost-effective operation.