Marconi PlaNet Reader/Writer

Licensing options for this format begin with FME Professional Edition.

Overview

The Planet reader and writer modules provide FME with access to and creation of data files for the Planet Database Management System (DMS). Planet DMS is a network-planning software program which is used for building and managing wireless networks.

Reader Overview

Among the various Planet DMS data files, six categories of data are handled by the Planet Reader:

height
clutter
CDMA
coverage array
vector data
validation

The first four categories are stored as raster files.

The CDMA and coverage array rasters are organized into two logical parts: a header and a raster. The header contains information that defines the raster’s general characteristics, including the easting and northing dimensions. There is only one header per file. The raster section of the file contains the points of data. The height and clutter raster files contain only points of data. The general characteristics of these rasters are stored in a separate index file. The validation data relates to the coverage array. Each data sample in a raster file is translated to a part of a single three-dimensional (3D) FME raster feature.

For each of the first five data categories, there exists a designated folder and accompanying data files. The sixth type, validation, is stored within the coverage array folder. It is also possible for a data category to contain subfolders of data files. Height, clutter and vector categories can have /user subfolders. Clutter can also have /separation, /orientation, /street_widths and /bldng_heights subfolders. The CDMA folder contains a subfolder for each set of CDMA data files. All of these data categories and their folders are located in one main folder.

Planet DMS data comes with a project definition file in the main folder. The records in this file contain <key, value> pairs: the key follows a standard naming convention for each Planet data category; the value is a folder address. Therefore, for each data category existing in the main folder, a standard key in the project definition file must exist in order to obtain a folder address to read.

FME considers the project definition file to be the dataset. When the Planet reader is called to read data, this dataset and any of the six Planet data categories (height, clutter, CDMA, array, vector, and validation) must be defined in the workspace before reading can be performed. The data categories are listed in the mapping file as Planet feature types. These feature types are referenced to project definition file keys which are used to search the project definition file. When a matching key is found in definition file, the appropriate value (i.e., data folder address) is retrieved and the data can be read.

The following table gives an overview of the Planet data categories that have been defined as feature types.

Feature Type Overview

Feature Type	File Information	File Extensions
Height	Binary raster; 2 bytes per word; no file header; index file used.	No standard convention. Files to be read are listed in the index.
Clutter	Binary raster; 1 or 2 bytes per word; no file header; index file used.	No standard convention. Files to be read are listed in the index.
CDMA	Binary or ASCII raster; 1, 2 or 4 bytes per word; file header; no index file.	Files to be read are in the CDMA/myAnalysis folder and contain “raster” in their extension.
Array	Binary raster; 2 or 4 bytes per word; file header; no index file.	Files to be read are in the Array folder with the following extensions: Best_Server_CellId, Best_Server_Signal, Handover_Total_CA_InterfererSignal, Handover_Total_CA_ServerCellId, Handover_Total_CA_ServerSignal, Handover_Total_CI_InterfererSignal, Handover_Total_CI_ServerCellId, Handover_Total_CI_ServerSignal, Handover_Worst_CA_InterfererCellId, Handover_Worst_CA_InterfererSignal, Handover_Worst_CA_ServerCellId, Handover_Worst_CA_ServerSignal, Handover_Worst_CI_InterfererCellId, Handover_Worst_CI_InterfererSignal, Handover_Worst_CI_ServerCellId, Handover_Worst_CI_ServerSignal, Number_of_Servers_Sum, Second_Best_CellId, Second_Best_Signal, Total_CA_Signal, Total_CI_Signal, Worst_CA_CellId, Worst_CA_Signal, Worst_CI_CellId, Worst_CI_Signal
Vector	Binary or ASCII; 4 bytes per word (for binary); no file header; index file used.	Binary files have a .bin extension. Files to be read are listed in the index.
Validation	ASCII; file header, no index file.	.ValidationFile

Writer Overview

FME will write a set of features to one or more Planet files. Among the various Planet DMS data files, three categories of data are handled by the Planet Writer: height, clutter, and vector data. The first two categories are stored as raster files.

Each of the three data categories is written to a designated folder with accompanying data files. It is also possible for a data category to have subfolders of data files. Height, clutter, and vector categories can have /user subfolders. Clutter can also have /separation, /orientation, /street_widths and /bldng_heights subfolders. All of these data categories and their folders are created in the one main folder defined by the Writer Dataset.

Writing Vector Data as Text

FME Raster Features

FME raster features represent raster data and use several concepts that are unlike those used in the handling of vector data. See About FME Rasters.

The Height feature type supports rasters with a single numeric band.

The Clutter feature type supports rasters with a single band that has a String palette.