Introduction to Network Path Planner

Network Path Planner can be used to plan fronthaul routes to wireless equipment such as 5G sites, backhaul routes from wireless towers, and plan routes to residential neighborhoods or business locations.

In a connected world, access to reliable broadband communications service is essential. To close existing coverage gaps and increase overall broadband speeds, public and private funding is pouring into the communications market and driving expansion of existing communications networks. Every day, communication organizations are building out broadband infrastructure to reach new customers and businesses. Before construction begins, communication organizations must design effective networks that balance capital costs with customer service. Simple tools that provide an efficient route to a proposed site reduce costs and increase revenue opportunities. Network Path Planner is typically implemented by telecommunications organizations that want to quickly develop cost effective, high-level network designs from their existing network to proposed sites.

The Network Path Planner solution delivers a set of capabilities that help you optimize fiber routes and estimate investment costs.

Deploy the solution

This ArcGIS solution can be deployed in your ArcGIS organization.

Deploy the solution

See Deploying a solution for more information.

Requirements

Network Path Planner requires the following:

• ArcGIS Pro 3.2 or later (Advanced)
  • ArcGIS Network Analyst extension
  • ArcGIS StreetMap Premium extension or network dataset

Information products

Network Path Planner includes the following information products:

Item	Description	Minimum user type
Network Path Planner	An ArcGIS Pro project used by network planners to create a network route to help develop proposed network routes and quickly estimate the cost.	GIS Professional Advanced

When you deploy this solution in your ArcGIS organization, you also get an ArcGIS solution item that organizes the key information products and summarizes all the ArcGIS items (applications, forms, projects, maps, feature layers, feature layer views, and so on) included with the solution. The ArcGIS solution item also illustrates any dependencies items have on each other.

Release notes

The following are the release notes:

Version	Description
2.2 (March 2024)	Network locations now include a parameter that creates individual routes from each network location to the associated target location. Revisions to the Path Planner tool improve performance for large datasets.
2.1 (Jun 2023)	Added the Cutoff parameter to Path Planner tool to improve performance when routing large datasets. Updated Path Planner toolbox and fixed minor issues.
2.0 (Jul 2022)	Updated and added ArcGIS Pro tasks to walk through new functionality. Added new charts and cost estimating functionality to route results. Updated Path Planner toolbox and fixed minor issues.
1.0 (Feb 2021)	First release of Network Path Planner