Coy Potts - GIS Professional - Chicago Market

Background Information:

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Site:  ExteNet Systems, Inc.

Surpervisors:  Sunday Aiyash & Kevin Stone

Position:  Fiber Engineering Intern

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AGS Assignments:

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<< Cover Letter >>

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As part of an assignment, I was tasked with creating a sample cover letter for a fictitious job opening.

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<< Resume >>

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As part of an assignment, I was tasked with providing an up-to-date resume. 

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<< Revised Resume >>

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This revised resume includes an updated section to show my internship experience. 

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<< Interview Questions >>

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As part of an assignment, I was tasked with generating five interview questions and to conduct an interview with another GIS professional.  This document outlines those five questions, as well as a summary of the position.

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Thank You Letters:

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As part of an assignment, I was tasked with writing two Thank You letters, which I wrote to both my direct supervisor and internship supervisor. 

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<< Direct Supervisor >>
<< Internship Supervisor >>

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Devlopment:

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<< Fiber Optic Basic Training Reading Materials >>

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I was tasked with reviewing the materials linked above to gain a better understanding of the principles and concepts of Fiber Engineering.  I needed to know what Fiber Optic cable is, the various types of cable, as well as the technology behind the light that travels through the cable itself.  In order to adequately engineer a network, a Fiber Engineer must understand the nuances of fiber optic cable, and know how the environment and other pieces of equipment can both help and harm the use of fiber optic cable. 

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<< CrescentLink Fiber Optic Asset Management Manual >>

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I was tasked with reviewing and understanding how to use GeoGraph Technologies telecommunications asset monitoring solution, CrescentLink.  The <<CrescentLink Network Manager>> tool allows Fiber Engineers to actively track fiber optic cable and other network equipment component assets and how they are all interconnected via strand terminations.  CrescentLink allows Fiber Engineers to activate and trace strand level information within a single cable feature.  Fiber optic cable used in the telecommunications space typically has anywhere from 2-864 strands within a single cable, but it can also have upwards of 3,456 strands in some limited use scenarios.  Given the complexity of needing to know where all of those strands begin and end within a network requires a specialized software solution such as CrescentLink. 

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Pre-Sales and Asset Management Solutions:

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I have worked closely with the Director of Fiber Engineering to help evaluate and select geospatial solutions for both pre-sales and asset management needs. 

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Pre-Sales:

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From a pre-sales perspective, we are currently evaluating multiple geospatial solutions that will allow the Solutions Engineering (Sales) group to automatically generate a high level network design.  Since this is prior to a sale, the amount of resources and effort committed to the initiative need to be minimal so as to not waste time.  As part of this process, I have learned a great deal pertaining to the type of solutions that are out there for this type of work.  One notable solution is the Esri Serviceability Solution, which allows sales to review a high level route with the customer, and upon acceptance by the customer, this route can be fed back to the Fiber Engineering group whom will then optimize this network to help provide more business opportunities in the future. 

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<< Sales tool demo >>

<< Fiber Engineering tool demo >>

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Asset Management:

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From an asset management perspective, one of the largest hurdles to get over in the telecommunications industry is directly related to the fiber itself given the number of strands that can be contained within a single fiber segment.  The development required to account for this information is pretty extensive, so many companies opt for one of the many out-of-the-box solutions that are out there.  As part of this we have reviewed solutions from the following providors:

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<< CrescentLink Network Manager - GeoGraph Technologies, LLC >>

<< OSPInsight - Advanced Fiber Optics >>

<< Fiber Manager - Schneider Electric >>

<< 3-GIS - 3-GIS >>

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Assessments:

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<< Student Mid-Term Assessment >>

 

This document is my personal reflection on the internship as a whole at the end of week 4 of 8. 

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<< Supervisor Mid-Term Assessment >>

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This document is an assessment of my participation within this internship at the end of week 4 of 8, and was conducted by my direct supervisor. 

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<< Supervisor Final Assessment >>

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This document is an assessment of my participation within this internship at the end of week 8 of 8, and was conducted by my direct supervisor.

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Showcase:

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Projects:

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Given the fact that I am working within a private organization, I am unable to share much of the work that I completed during my internship.  I can however, elaborate at a high level.  As mentioned above in the Development section, I spent a good amount of time reviewing fiber specific terminology and technology resources, as well as telecommunications asset management software package documentation to review their capabilities.  I sat in on a handful of vendor presentations for various solutions, and I worked with our Director of Fiber Engineering in discussing the pros and cons of each to aid in our decision for which software package ExteNet will ultimately choose.  To get an idea of the day-to-day operations within a Fiber Engineer role, I was tasked with putting together a couple design proposals that included fiber routing, strand reservations, future business impact analysis, and cost estimating procedures.  All of these procedures have a set of outputs that are then compiled into a proposal package that is then sent to the customer for review. 

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 Final Reflections: 

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<< Student Reflection Paper >>

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This document is my personal reflection on the internship as a whole at the end week 8 of 8.

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