From Blueprint to Build: Streamlining the Low-Level Design Process
- Tom Witten
- December 04, 2024
As your fiber network project progresses, the transition from an Initial Detailed Design (IDD) or HLD to a Low-Level Design (LLD) is a crucial refinement stage. At this point, all collected field survey data—such as address validation, construction ride-out (CRO) findings, pole surveys, and make-ready engineering (MRE)—is integrated to enhance the design's accuracy and feasibility.
The LLD serves as a blueprint that incorporates real-world insights gathered during field surveys, ensuring the design aligns with actual site conditions. While some adjustments may be minor, such as refining asset locations or updating service points, others may require significant redesigns to address unforeseen challenges or newly discovered data.
This stage can be daunting, but with Biarri Networks’ streamlined approach, even substantial redesigns are handled efficiently, reducing their impact on project timelines. By leveraging automated processes and compatible data schemas, we minimize manual rework and validate updates quickly, enabling your network design to evolve seamlessly from concept to construction.
Let’s dive into the key elements of the LLD process and explore how Biarri Networks’ methods simplify and accelerate this critical phase.
Depending on the quality and availability of data used to create the IDD, the variations at this stage can range from minor to complete re-designs. Minor changes generally result in "uplifts" of the IDD - where the design itself stays more-or-less the same but is adjusted to be more accurate or to have minor variations to accommodate new information. Minor changes could be:
- Existing asset locations updated to accurately reflect their position in the field
- New pit/vault locations updated to be on the other side of a driveway or footpath where there is more space
- Address / Service location updated to more accurate location
Significant field discoveries can lead to sections of the IDD needing to be "re-designed" - where portions (or the entirety!) of the IDD are completely overhauled during the LLD process to account for significant new information that undermines the efficiency of the original design. More significant changes:
- New sub-divisions of addresses discovered that were not in the data
- Entire street deemed unsuitable for distribution cables (EG poles determined to be un-attachable)
One of the benefits of the Biarri Networks approach is that significant re-designs, whilst still undesirable, have less of an impact on timelines, as the design process is much faster. If field data is collected in a format that is congruent with our schemas, we can generally automate a lot of the above changes during the LLD stages. We can also validate it more easily.
Transitioning from an IDD to an LLD is critical for turning high-level plans into actionable, accurate designs. By integrating field data and addressing challenges, the LLD ensures constructability and alignment with real-world conditions.
Biarri Networks streamlines this process with automation and data-compatible schemas, minimizing manual work and accelerating timelines. With our approach, even complex updates are handled efficiently, keeping your project on track and ready for deployment.