On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 4:26 PM, Colton Conor <colton.conor@gmail.com> wrote:
We are building a new fiber network, and need help creating a circuit ID format to for new fiber circuits. I am sure anything will work as long as you keep track of it, but any advice would be great!
Hi Colton, The key thing a circuit ID should inherently identify is whether or not the circuit is one of yours. Typically this is a two or three letter code in a particular position whose absence allows a tech to immediately realize that the ID the customer read out refers to something else. You might also consider putting a simple checksum in the circuit ID like the credit card companies do so that you can detect when an ID has been mis-entered. Finally, structure it with breaks (slashes, commas, spaces) so it can be read out over the phone without a high probability of error. It's easy to lose your place in a 20 digit number one digit after another after another. And when you write the database software, make sure the UI provides and accepts those breaks! Beyond that, there's no great value in not simply counting up by one. Your network's architecture will change over time so any architecture-based scheme will end up with confusing exceptions. Locality-based schemes aren't a whole lot better. Finally, there's a database principle called normalization: it means don't put the same information two places because inevitably one will end up disagreeing with the other. Put the customer's configuration (such as speed) in your database and leave it out of the circuit id. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>