Ranplan is an U.K Company with good history in RF Technologies.
Interesting new product they recently introduced to the Market is called iBuildNet.
What is iBuildNet ?
Ranplan iBuildNet is used for in-building wireless network planning and optimisation based on 3D building modelling. It can be used to plan a new as well as to evaluate and optimise an existing indoor wireless network. Its features are as follows: It supports fast 3D building modelling based on CAD files.It has a built-in Material/System/Network Element databases.It can be used to plan and optimise in-building solutions based on BBU+RRU, picocells, Distributed Antenna System (DAS), repeaters, radiating cables and femtocells;Compares the cost and performance of different indoor solutions. It outputs network design, cost breakdown, network element summary automatically in the form of Excel or PDF files.It integrates with RRPS (Ranplan Radio Propagation Simulator) and third party radio propagation simulators to provide an accurate signal propagation prediction in the building and from the building to the outside.In iBuildNet, radio propagation prediction are calculated based on full 3D building model with consideration of building materials, which could dramatically affects the radio propagation behaviours.
The benefits to the wireless service providers include:
– The users within buildings experience increased quality of indoor data and voice services resulting in a greatly improved user experience and an elimination of dead zones within the building.
– The service provider sees an increase in the uptake of the new mobile data services and their associated revenue streams.
– The external pre-existing network has a greatly reduced demand in high-density areas, which gives it an increased level of service to the remaining users.
– The requirement to increase the number of outdoor macro cells to maintain services is reduced, which also minimizes the overall interference level on the outdoor mobile network. This naturally improves the overall network quality, shortens the amount of time needed to become profitable and increases profitability.
iBuildNet can be widely used in indoor wired and wireless network design, planning, optimization, and deployment projects. For example, iBuildNet can be used to:
– Design multiple wireless networks incorporating microcells, repeaters, distributed antenna system, femtocells, Wi-Fi etc. This could be within a single building or across a complex campus.
– Design and optimize wireless network used in shopping centers, hotels, offices, stadiums and tunnels.
– Design wired and wireless networks in multiple buildings.
– Design various 2G, 3G and 4G systems.
iBuildNet can be also used in academic research and commercial research institutions to investigate indoor and indoor to outdoor interference (such as between small-cells or between small-cells and macro cells), wireless sensor networks, Ethernet and indoor wireless localization.
It appears that Ibwave design got heavy competition.
Update from Ascom
Ascom
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2 comments:
– To say that Ranplan is a UK company is a bit exagerated: their sales office is in the UK but most of the company is in China
– Features: all the features listed here are the same as iBwave, and even the GUI is strangely similar to iBwave’s. Where is the innovation?
Hi Mohamed, you are wrong, Ranplan is a UK registered company, we are situated just outside of Cambridge in the UK and all of our development work is carried out here. Our founder Professor Jie Zhang was originally from China and he is now the Head of Wireless at Sheffield University here in the UK and is now a UK passport holder. Another company who I wont mention have tried to make out that because our founder is from China we are a Chinese company.
I would be more than happy to give you a demonstration on our iBuildNet product and also have the chance to disprove the misinformation you have put onto this site. Regarding WiFi, we made an announcement some time before iBWave, yes we did make another after they made a WiFi announcement but this was on our unique capability to support LTE to WiFi and WiFi to LTE handover predictions.
We believe strongly that our strengths lie in our technical capability and intuitive, automatic planning modules. In every case where we have had customers carry out a side by side comparison the feedback we have received has been extremely positive.
To repeat my offer, please do get in touch and we can demonstrate why we believe Ranplan is the superior product
Kevin, thank You on your comment. You can also register yourself on my Blog and publish more detailed article or Ranplan products.
I gave my view based on all facts known to me about your product and products of your competitors. This is the main reason why people trust me in my reviews as i have never and will never recommend some product that i did not tested myself.
Milan
Hi Mohamed
If nothing, it is much more cheaper than Ibwave, more flexible licensing, Support for outdoor and also supports Data probes.
What do you mean by data probe?
What is more flexible licensing?
Ibwave also supports outdoor, not sure why this should be ranplan-specific?
Thanks!
From what i have learned, Ascom is now distributing iBuildNet
I believe it would be best to contact Ascom directly for more detailed information
http://www.ascom.com/nt/en/index-nt/tems-contact-us.htm
Thanks for the suggestion. I did contact Ascom, but they don’t seem to be up-to-speed yet. I asked about data probe but they did not know what this means. Can you confirm what you mean by that?
Thank you!
Hi Mohamed, I can only speculate but i guess by “Data Probe” they ment various devices used to collect data that can be then enttered into Software to be worked with.
Thanks for the feedback. Here again it’s something that iBwave also features, all leading collection tools are compatible with iBwave, and this was done actually before RanPlan followed the trend. So here also, not a differentiator.
I find it odd that each time iBwave comes up with something, RanPlan almost immediately make the same announcement. The latest example is when iBwave launched a WiFi product last month: the next day, RanPlan were announcing the same. Even though they had already announced an iBuildNet WiFi product some 2 years back, and then removed it from their website.
Maybe I’m making things up, but it seems to me that RanPlan is merely mimicking what iBwave is doing.
And you’re right, trying to sell it at a lower price, that’s their strategy.
Most Welcome , As of Ibwave they are pioneers in this field but also their licensing system is ridiculous. I have asked them for trial license few years ago and their answer was that they do not provide trial licenses.
So much about advertising, I cannot and will not write on products that i cannot test myself as it would be highly unfair to my customers and clients who ask advice from me what would be best buy in various fields of Networks Testing.
Thanks again for the speedy response. Well, it seems that we all have different experiences ;-).
I have myself trialed iBwave products without any problem, whereas a friend of mine requested one from RanPlan and the response he got was that he had to sign an NDA first (and it took several weeks to get that response…). I suppose the response you get depends on your size I’m afraid…
As a side note, I am also puzzled that tons of data is available on the web about iBwave, whereas nothing is to be found about RanPlan, almost as if they did not exist ! Quite surprising that in the internet era, no info exists on a company like that. I would really love to see if only a demo video!
iBwave pricing is flat-out ridiculous. The full package is something like $40,000, and then you have to pay thousands more regularly to keep it up to date. RanPlan sounds awesome; if it’s even just as good, and has a reasonable cost (which I believe is literally 1/10 the price of iBwave), then it is a far superior choice.
Hi Joe, thanks for the valuable feedback. I am not aware of prices in the range that you mentioned for iBwave, they have way cheaper solutions than that I believe. On the other hand, I have seen several instances where Ranplan was priced higher than iBwave, that’s for sure. And the cases I’ve seen where it was cheaper were more like dumping than anything else (e.g. stop using your iBwave license and I’ll give you 50% off).
The real question is : what do you get for your money? I am yet to hear a happy Ranplan user elaborate on how good the product is, and support too, this would really help me make a decision on what to buy.
Support ! This is The Keyword. Without quality support customer can very fast get frustrated with such product as one is almost always under the pressure to complete task at hand in shortest possible time.
What i can recommend is to buy such products when possible from dealer who can directly support You and answer all Your questions and more.
If You buy it from Vendor You will always have to go thru different level of tech support personnel and usually it goes bouncing forth and back and leading up to minimum a week or at worst months to resolve some issue.
I totally agree support is paramount and when it is needed not a week later. The large support organisation is one of the many positive things that Ascom bring to the iBuidNet product range. the initial 20 support engineers have been trained and others have already started the on-line certification
Ascom is one of few companies that actually DO care about their customers, some of other Big companies will not even answer E-mail inquiry unless they deem it valuable.
However, they also have problem with efficient support.
In my opinion it would utmost efficient if they would use outside professionals who are already very familiar
with their software and hardware and who can give straight and quick answer on problem at hand.
Only if problem appears to be hardware malfunction or out of possibility to fix on site it should be forwarded to Higher instance withing organization.
This would not only speed up process but would also improve overall picture of company and cut down expenses.
Ascom is one of few companies that actually DO care about their customers, some of other Big companies will not even answer E-mail inquiry unless they deem it valuable.
However, they also have problem with efficient support.
In my opinion it would be utmost efficient if they would use outside professionals who are already very familiar
with their software and hardware and who can give straight and quick answer on problem at hand.
Only if problem appears to be hardware malfunction or out of possibility to fix on site it should be forwarded to Higher instance withing organization.
This would not only speed up process but would also improve overall picture of company and cut down expenses.