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  • Juan Marin talks Broadband Map Development Posted on: Monday, March 14th, 2011

    National Broadband Map developer Juan Marin recently spoke with Directions Magazine about the launch of the popular site. The interview, along with its English translation, is transcribed below.

    Entrevista Juan Marín : Aspectos técnicos del National Broadband Map
    Por Alberto Santos
    6 de marzo de 2011

    Directions Magazine: ¿ Qué arquitectura habéis empleado? ¿qué alternativas se estudiaron y qué criterios han primado para el empleo de Javascript?

    Juan Marín: La arquitectura es relativamente compleja, puesto que el Mapa utiliza varios componentes para desplegar su funcionalidad. El equipo de desarrollo ha construido varias API basadas en interfaces REST que se conectan directamente a PostgreSQL / Postgis y exponen funcionalidad espacial y datos en formatos XML y JSON, fácilmente consumibles por cualquier lenguaje de programación. La parte de visualización, que incluye todos los mapas, esta basada íntegramente en soluciones basadas en Javascript. La Dirección del proyecto y el equipo de desarrollo considera que en un producto de consumo masivo es importante ajustarse lo mas posible a tecnologías estándar de navegador, basando todo el website en HTML, Javascript y CSS

    DME: Hemos leído que el software empleado es completamente OpenSource ¿porqué el empleo de herramientas OpenSource? ¿Crees que si hubieseis empleado software’s comerciales habríais mejorado el rendimiento final del trabajo?

    JM: La elección de software open source ha sido fundamental en mi opinión. Todo el proyecto esta construido con herramientas open source, desde el sistema operativo hasta la ultima librería de Javascript utilizada en la capa de presentación. Los principales motivos son la flexibilidad y facilidad de desarrollo que proporcionan estas herramientas. Cuando evaluamos las necesidades de este proyecto, algunas herramientas open source salían con clara ventaja en cuanto a funcionalidad y facilidad de implementación, por encima de la mayoría de herramientas comerciales. Desarrollar sobre open source no solo no nos ha limitado en absoluto sino que nos ha dotado de la flexibilidad necesaria en un proyecto de estas características, sin tener que preocuparnos de si teníamos suficientes licencias por “core” o no, y eligiendo los componentes adecuados para cada requisito en lugar de tener que adoptar suites monolíticas con mucha funcionalidad pero mal rendimiento y pocas posibilidades de adaptación. Una de las ventajas que puede parecer nimia pero que en este entorno laboral es muy importante es que tengo todo el proyecto en mi portátil, y puedo hacer modificaciones desde un Starbucks si es necesario (y pongo este ejemplo porque me ha pasado una vez en el proyecto). El rendimiento que hemos obtenido es muy bueno aunque tengo que decir que podemos exprimirlo mucho mas; hay optimizaciones que por falta de tiempo no hemos implementado todavía.

    DME: En cuanto a cada uno de los componentes ¿qué Gestor de base de datos habéis empleado? ¿qué herramientas para el diseño del interfaz de mapas?
    J.M: La base de datos principal es PostgreSQL con la extensión espacial Postgis para datos geográficos. La capa de presentación es fundamentalmente OpenLayers, y usamos Geoserver como servidor GIS y GeoWebCache para el cache de mapas. Todo el website esta construido sobre WordPress.

    DME: Ya comentaste que durante las primeras horas y debido al enorme éxito la aplicación cayó por “exceso de tráfico”. ¿cómo rehicisteis la arquitectura de los cloud services para recuperar el servicio?

    J.M: Sabíamos que este era un proyecto importante y que generaría interés, pero nadie estaba preparado para tener que atender picos de hasta 9000 peticiones por segundo. Cuando sirves tus propios caches de mapas se genera mucho estrés en los servidores, especialmente si se usan como los hemos  usado nosotros, para describir el contenido en cuestión y no solo como un mapa base. La solución a este problema vino a trabes de una estrategia de escalado horizontal, básicamente poniendo mas servidores para atender el servicio. Tuvimos varias oleadas de peticiones a medida que se iba publicando en los medios (CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, etc.) lo que hizo la intervención complicada y mas larga de lo que hubiésemos deseado.

    DME: A lo largo de tantos meses de trabajo ¿Cuáles han sido los retos más importantes a los que ha hecho frente un proyecto de estas características?
    J.M: El reto mas importante siempre fue cumplir con la fecha del 17 de Febrero, que era un mandato del Congreso y por lo tanto inamovible. Pero este no fue el reto mas difícil, el mas complicado fue la integración de datos. Como suele pasar en muchos proyectos GIS, integrar datos de proveedores dispares como era el caso ocasiona muchos problemas incluso cuando se ha definido un modelo de datos común. Tenemos muchas ideas, algunas novedosas, sobre como mejorar este proceso en la siguiente ronda. Hay que tener en cuenta que el Mapa esta sirviendo información de todo Estados Unidos, tenemos algunas capas geográficas con 25 millones de polígonos que describen el acceso a banda ancha con un grado de detalle bastante elevado y en un país muy grande. Esta información se va a duplicar cada 6 meses, axial que nuestra atención esta ahora enfocada a como mejorar este proceso de integración.

    DME: La aplicación usa como fondo cartográfico la cartografía de OpenStreet Map.¿Cómo ha sido la experiencia de integración?¿Está preparado OpenStreet Map para dar respuesta a una aplicación de uso masivo?

    J.M: Este proyecto utiliza Cloudmade, un servicio basado en OpenStreetMap con algunas características muy atractivas. Una de ellas, que proporcionan soporte comercial. Ellos también sufrieron el aluvión de peticiones los dos primeros días, pero he de decir que su respuesta ha sido excepcional, y en unas pocas horas tenían una solución que escalaba sin problemas. En mi opinión esta opción es muy atractiva debido a la posibilidad de adaptar el mapa base a un cierto estilo, pero sin tener que preocuparse de trabajar con los datos de OpenStreetMap.

    La url del proyecto http://www.broadbandmap.gov/

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    Interview Juan Marin: Technical aspects of the National Broadband Map
    By Alberto Santos
    March 6, 2011

    Directions Magazine: What architecture have employed? What alternatives were considered and what criteria have primacy for the use of Javascript?

    John Marin: The architecture is relatively complex, because the map uses several components to deploy its functionality. The development team has built several REST API based on interfaces that connect directly to PostgreSQL / PostGIS and spatial functionality and data sets in XML and JSON formats, easily consumable by any programming language. The display part, which includes all maps, is based entirely on Javascript based solutions. The project management and development team considers that a consumer product is important to keep as much as possible to standard browser technologies, basing the entire website in HTML, Javascript and CSS

    DME: We read that the employee is fully OpenSource software why the use of Open Source tools? Do you think if you had used commercial software’s end you would have improved the performance of work?

    JM: The choice of open source software has been essential in my opinion. The entire project is built with open source tools, from the operating system to the latest Javascript library used in the presentation layer. The main reasons are flexibility and ease of development provided by these tools. When we assess the needs of this project, some open source tools out with a clear advantage in terms of functionality and ease of implementation, above most commercial tools. Developed on open source has not only not limited at all but has given us the flexibility needed in a project like this without having to worry about whether we had enough licenses for “core” or not, and choosing the right components for each requirement, rather than having to adopt monolithic suites with great functionality but poor performance and little chance to adapt. One of the advantages that may seem trivial but in this work environment is very important is that I have the whole project on my laptop, and I can make changes from a Starbucks if necessary (and I put this example because it happened to me once in the project). The performance we obtained is very good although I have to say that we can squeeze out a lot more, there are optimizations that lack of time we have not yet implemented.

    DME: For each of the components which database manager you employed? What design tools to map interface?

    JM: The primary database is PostgreSQL with the spatial extent Postgis for geographic data. The presentation layer is mainly OpenLayers, Geoserver as a server and use GIS and GeoWebCache to cache map. The entire website is built on WordPress.

    DME: We discussed that during the first hours and due to the huge success of the application fell for “excessive traffic”. How to redo the architecture of cloud services to retrieve the service?

    JM: We knew this was an important project and to generate interest, but no one was prepared to have to meet peaks of up to 9000 requests per second. When you serve your own maps caches a lot of stress on the servers, especially if used as we have used to describe the content in question and not just as a map base. The solution to this problem came to beams of a horizontal scaling strategy, basically putting more servers to service. We had several waves of demands as it was published in the media (CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, etc.) That the intervention was complicated and longer than we would have desired.

    DME: Over many months of work What have been the biggest challenges that has faced a project like this?

    JM: The biggest challenge was always meet the deadline of February 17, which was mandated by Congress and therefore unchangeable. But this was not the most difficult challenge, the more complicated was the integration of data. As often happens in many GIS projects, integrate disparate data providers as was the case causes many problems even when we have defined a common data model. We have many ideas, some new, on how to improve this process in the next round. Keep in mind that the map is serving information from around the United States, we have some geographic layers with 25 million polygons that describe the broadband access with a fairly high degree of detail and a very large country. This information will double every 6 months, axial our attention is now focused on how to improve this integration process.

    DME: The application uses the background map Map OpenStreet mapping. How was the experience of integration? OpenStreet Map Are you prepared to respond to a mass market application?

    JM: This project uses CloudMade, a service based on OpenStreetMap with some very attractive features. One of them, which provide commercial support. They also suffered a barrage of requests the first two days, but I will say that their response has been exceptional, and in a few hours had a solution that will scale without problems. In my opinion this option is very attractive because of the possibility of adjusting the map based on a certain style, but without having to worry about working with data from OpenStreetMap.

    The project url http://www.broadbandmap.gov/

  • Computech and FCC Unveil National Broadband Map Site Posted on: Thursday, February 17th, 2011

    Today – thanks to the exceptional work of Computech employees – the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have completed the public launch of the National Broadband Map. As few key facts about the site:

    • It fully supports one of the White House’s objectives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 of increasing broadband coverage
    • The publicly accessible, searchable, and interactive map will connect consumers and businesses with useful information about broadband where they live and work
    • The site will serve as a tool for policy analysts to identify additional underserved areas in order to make informed broadband funding decisions
    • It provides quantitative information interactively to end-users, allowing for search functionality and the integration of multiple visual experiences
    • By developing the National Broadband Map on a layer of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), developers and engineers are able to consume the broadband data for their own mash-ups and applications
    • The application represents one of the first uses of crowdsourcing by the FCC; consumers are able to add carriers and coverage data to the database, or question the accuracy of data for their area

    Computech is proud to have played a key role in the development of the first completely open and transparent map of internet broadband ever developed.

    More details are available in Computech’s press release and case study.

    News articles on the launch:

    BREAKING: National Broadband Map To Be Unveiled Feb. 17

    FCC’s Blog: Hello World

    Broadband Availability and Speed Available in New Government Map

    NTIA Broadband Map Press Release

  • Computech and the FCC at the ESRI Federal Users Conference Posted on: Friday, January 28th, 2011


    Last week, FCC Geographic Information Officer Michael Byrne and I presented new products built from the FCC’s Consumer Broadband Speed Test API at the ESRI Federal Users Conference in Washington, DC.

    Computech has been behind the scenes in many of the FCC’s recent successes. Among our contributions:

    - Computech created the tools necessary to transform the data into geographically aware information that can be exploited by a GIS. These routines update a GIS layer on a daily basis and make it available for the APIs
    - Our team developed and deployed the Speed Test API mentioned in the presentation, available in fcc.gov/developer, which listens for latitude & longitude as parameters, and gives broadband speed information at the county level
    - Our team built the speed test system for the FCC as part of broadband.gov

    For last week’s demo, Computech worked with ESRI staff on how to better present some results from the speed test; the big story for both the FCC and ESRI was the crowd-sourcing aspect of this information. They prepared the environment using their software and created the different scenarios and both Michael Byrne and I provided input.

    Watch the video of our presentation below.

  • Bi-Weekly News Roundup Posted on: Friday, January 21st, 2011

    Here at Computech, we’ve got some great things coming down the pike but in the meantime, check out these links for the latest, greatest news articles in the IT universe.

    FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has said that unleashing spectrum to support mobile innovation is at the top of the FCC’s 2011 agenda.

    MorningStar News takes a closer look at the IT sector’s affordability.

    The East African makes some predictions for the telecommunications world in 2011.

    The Society for Information Management, Capitol Area Chapter, will be holding a Lunch Program on February 8. The title of the program is: Governance – Why You Need to Manage Your IT Investment.
    Larry Fitzpatrick, Computech’s president, is one of the Program Chairs and will be in attendance at the event at The Tower Club in Tysons Corner. Click here for more details.

    That does it for this week’s news roundup, be sure to check back every other Friday for a fresh set of news stories.

  • Computech Delivers Auction Solution to Mexico’s Telecommunications Regulator Posted on: Friday, September 10th, 2010

    COFETEL Leverages Automated Licensing Technologies to Successfully Allocate Spectrum Licenses, Raise Revenue & Increase Competition

    BETHESDA, MD–(Marketwire – September 10, 2010) – Mexico’s telecommunication regulator, Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones (COFETEL), and information technology consulting firm, Computech, announced the results of this summer’s 1.7 and 1.9 GHz spectrum auctions, which raised a combined $640 million. By comparing and contrasting US/Mexico spectrum policies, Computech adapted its auction platform (CAP) to all of COFETEL’s requirements, enabling the Mexican government to automate the auction process, which allowed for greater efficiency, optimal pricing and increased bidder participation.

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    To read the full release “Computech Delivers Auction Solution to Mexico’s Telecommunications Regulator” please see: http://bit.ly/9c9dfF.  We will be posting have included the Spanish + Portuguese versions of this release on our site.

  • Computech wins the trust of Sweden’s telecoms regulator Posted on: Friday, September 3rd, 2010

    The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) has awarded Computech a place on its framework agreement to provide consulting services to support their spectrum auctions.  The competition to provide either simultaneous multi-round (SMR) or Clock auctions drew global interest; we’re pleased to announce Computech is the sole North American firm qualified by PTS to support either style of spectrum auction.

  • Behind the Scenes with CAP & COFETEL, take 2 Posted on: Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

    In my last entry, I touched on the initial phase in our auction development lifecycle with COFETEL – requirements.  Today, I’m sharing our auction team’s training experiences with the Mexican regulator.

    Three months after we visited COFETEL to present the initial wireframes, COFETEL stakeholders & subject matter experts (SME’s) traveled to our headquarters in Bethesda, MD to participate in “Integrated System Testing” sessions with our auctions team.  Over the course of a week, we ran several simulated auction scenarios from start to close.  This testing trip served multiple purposes:

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    1. We established a common understanding of all system requirements.

    2. Hands-on, screen-by-screen walk-throughs of the Administration and Bidding Systems.

    3. SME’s from both teams tested all system functionality on a rotating schedule to ensure complete coverage and understanding of requirements.

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    A little more than a month later, our team flew back to Mexico City to install and conduct Acceptance Testing for phase 1 of the project.  During our  first week there, we installed software on COFETEL’s servers, tested CAP internally, and trained COFETEL staff on how to administer an auctions.  This last part was pretty interesting, as it included creating an auction instance, defining auction-specific settings, and managing mid-auction parameters to control auction pace — all using the Administration System we built into CAP.

    During week two, we borrowed nearly 20 COFETEL’ers to bid as 8 different bidders over the course of two Mock Auctions.  Each mock auction involved two concurrent Auctions composed of unique license sets, bidding and processing parameters, spectrum caps by region, and alternating round schedules.  This setup was in practice for COFETEL’s plan to run their two recent Auctions, 20 and 21, in parallel.

    For our last trip prior to the live auctions, COFETEL scheduled a busy and publicity-rich week.  The Computech team supported Cofetel by creating the presentation and system demonstration for COFETEL to present at three key events that week:

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    1. COFETEL’s press conference regarding auction design and rules;

    2. The bidding seminar for the spectrum industry and auction participants, which covered the upcoming auction design, specific rules, and nuances of the system interfaces; and

    3. Their internal presentation to the Commissioners and Chairman of COFETEL.

    .

    Following the Bidder Seminar, we led mock auctions for the participants to familiarize themselves with CAP’s Spanish release. We administered these auctions using real license (“concurso”) data, but participants took on personas identified by colors such as “Rosa” and “Azul”.  Cofetel and Computech jointly tackled bidder’s questions on such things as activity calculations and results reporting.

    And so began our final 2 weeks in Mexico City leading up to COFETEL’s Licitaciones 20 & 21.  In preparation for the big day, we ran internal mock auctions to verify the final software release and the production environment.  While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. administers auctions using remote bidding, Mexico operates using on-site bidding which occurred on COFETEL premises.  In this manner, on the morning of May 25, 2010, Auctions 20 & 21 kicked off with representatives from Mexico’s major telecommunication companies on-site.  The feeling was somewhat bittersweet, yet full of excitement and anticipation for what Round 1 would have in store!

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    Sarah Miller is a member of  Computech’s Auction Practice.  She specializes in auction system design and implementation and is the lead Business Analyst for the Computech Auction Platform (CAP).

  • Behind the Scenes with CAP & COFETEL, take 1 Posted on: Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

    With Mexico’s Auctions 20+21 closed and the winners revealed, I thought it would be interesting to share some behind the scenes details of delivering Mexico’s auction solution.  Between the summer of 2009 and spring of 2010, the Computech and COFETEL international partnership relied on taking turns traveling between Washington D.C. and la ciudad de Mexico.  Over the next series of entries, I’ll be walking you through various aspects of supporting the auction lifecycle.  On tap today – spectrum caps.

    In June (’09), COFETEL’s auctions stakeholders & subject matter experts spent a week in our Bethesda offices discussing the intricacies that Auctions 20+21 had in store.  Together, we compared and contrasted U.S. & Mexico spectrum policies to hash out system requirements.  Soon thereafter, our team crossed the border with an initial set of system requirements and wireframes to present to our COFETEL partners.  Much of this trip revolved around spectrum caps – logic, levels, and logistics.

    One key element of incorporating spectrum caps into CAP (our auction platform), related to the concurrent nature of Auctions 20 + 21 (i.e. the auctions were run in a parallel fashion by alternating rounds).  Therefore, in order to handle spectrum caps that comprised both auctions, we implemented spectrum caps at an auction-level as well as a region-level. In this way, the system tracked a company’s MHz holdings within a distinct auction (i.e. bidding in 20 or 21), as well as across both auctions (i.e. bidding in 20 and 21).

    Based on spectrum cap levels set by Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission (COFECO), CAP effectively restricted bidding by notifying bidders in real-time in the case of ineligible bids due to these caps.  Additionally, CAP provided a Spectrum Cap Report, which disclosed bidder-specific spectrum information by geographic region (1-9 for Mexico).  End result?  The Nextel-Televisa consortium entered the nationwide market with a winning bid on a 30 MHz block of spectrum, and spectrum caps effectively introduced (or limited, depending on your perspective) competition into the nationwide market for Mexico.  I know cases can be made for the +’s & -‘s of each side, but I’ll save that debate for another day.

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    Sarah Miller is a member of  Computech’s Auction Practice.  She specializes in auction system design and implementation and is the lead Business Analyst for the Computech Auction Platform (CAP).

  • COFETEL’s Auctions 20 & 21 Posted on: Friday, August 20th, 2010

    Browsing BroadbandBreakfast.com this morning, I came across a posting about Mexico’s recent Spectrum Auctions (Auctions 20 & 21) hosted by the Comisión Federal De Telecomunicaciones (COFETEL). This post prompted me to reminisce about my time spent at COFETEL in Mexico City supporting the auction process with my Computech teammates. It is hard to believe it has been exactly 1 month since Auction 20 & Auction 21 both officially closed, and closed with great success. COFETEL has yet to release the final auction results to announce winning bidders, but the preliminary revenue numbers are booming.

    Auction 20 closed in Round 77 (28 days worth of bidding) with all 24 licenses selling, generating nearly $3 Billion pesos ($2,977,265,000 pesos ≈ $230 Million USD). COFETEL subsequently closed Auction 21 after 86 rounds and 30 days of bidding, with 28 of 29 licenses selling. One of two nationwide licenses sold, and the winning bid was one that lived from Round 1 for $180,300,000 pesos. Auction 21 alone generated over $5 Billion pesos ($5,248,049,000 pesos ≈ $413 Million USD). Together, Auctions 20 & 21 revenues tallied $8.2 Billion pesos for the Mexican government, nearly $6.5 Million USD.

    I am proud to look back on the last year as a series of successes for both COFETEL & Computech. The past year represents several weeks of journeying between D.C. & Mexico City, trips on which the Computech team lead system demonstrations & training sessions for both internal system users as well as auction participants. Our team also created the presentation that COFETEL delivered in a press conference regarding auction design and rules, at the bidding seminar for the spectrum industry and auction participants, as well as in their internal presentation to the Commissioners and Chairman of COFETEL. We could not be more pleased that our Computech Auction Platform (CAP) supported COFETEL through this process and in the end facilitated two profitable and efficient auctions.

  • Come one, Come all (take 2) Posted on: Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

    Last October, we welcomed the world to Concomitantly. Designed to reflect our corporate culture, we’ve noticed the flavor of our writing trends towards the technical.  Over the past eleven months, we’ve used our blog as a virtual bulletin board to broach new ideas (e.g. on spectrum management) and share our approach to business challenges (e.g. modernizing legacy systems).

    Along the way, we’ve shared stories, laughs and pictures of the great staff that makes Computech the IT firm so many know + respect.

    So in the spirit of sharing a little more about the types of people that work here, a Wednesday morning link to three blogs penned by our staff.

    Our marketing manager Lauren Modeen writes the ever-entertaining Exhilauren’s Marketing Musings. Check out her latest entry on How to Survive the Idea Project Plateau (inspired by the99percent).

    Vice President Al Dominick authors DCSpring21; his most recent post, A Dizzying Pace of Change, touches on Big Data, mobile broadband, the promise of distributed collaboration and the opportunity to “test + learn.”

    But we’re not all business all the time.  If you’re into knitting, food + fun in D.C., one of our project coordinators, Jennifer Kirschbaum, writes a blog that is a must read.

    While just a few examples, we’re happy to share.  Let us know what you think of each — and what you’d like to see more of on Concomitantly in the upcoming weeks and months.

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