Network Path

A Network Path (NetPath) is the concatenation of several attributes:

• Node Name

• Node Leg

• Cascade Position Number

• Amplifier Number

• Power Supply Name

It is used as the default for Amplifier Naming, and it is also sent to the GIS as a property on address points.

For example, using a node that is named NFDD and a power supply named PW1, the resulting NetPaths are created as shown in the following image:

Looking at one NetPath individually, here are the concatenated components:

Concatenation and Character Limits

As described, the NetPath is a concatenation of several fields. When establishing character limits, keep the following in mind:

• Ensure the sum of the character limits you establish on the individual fields do not surpass the character limit on the NetPath field. For example, if the sum of the 5 fields above equaled 14 characters, but the NetPath is constrained to 12 characters, this would produce an overflow and the NetPath would not be accepted by the GIS.

  • On the other hand, because the Amplifier Name defaults to the NetPath, ensure the Amplifier Name is at least the length of the NetPath. The application allows you to rename amplifiers, so it can be a longer character count than the NetPath to allow for a more descriptive name, if necessary. Renaming an amplifier has no effect on the NetPath.

• Increasing the NetPath limit arbitrarily is not recommended. The longer the NetPath becomes, the more difficult it is to discern by your end users and the more unwieldy it becomes for other integrated applications. Uncapping the NetPath limit to allow for any number of characters would lead to downstream issues with performance and data inconsistencies among your users.

• Thus, the proper approach is striking a balance between usability and succinctness.

By design, the application constrains the following fields to these character limits:

This means, that Node Name and Power Supply Name are the two fields you can control that have an effect on the final length of the NetPath. For example, if your company ultimately decides that the NetPath should be 12 characters long, and that 12 characters satisfies usability and succinctness, you could allocate your characters in the following manner:

In short, for usability purposes, the NetPath should be as succinct as possible but still understandable by your users. And, keep the character counts for Node Name and Power Supply Name within reasonable bounds as they are later concatenated into the NetPath field.