Version 16.2 is one of the most feature-rich NetStork releases in recent memory. It introduces a complete module for managing land rights holders, a module for automatic FTTx/PON network design, and a brand-new application configuration interface built with multi-user workflows in mind. These are concrete answers to the day-to-day challenges faced by telecom operators and network designers. Read on and find out why NetStork 16.2 is worth the upgrade.
- Property Module – Complete Land Rights Holder Management
- New Application Configuration Interface – No More Manual XML Editing
- Element Visibility Control in Optical Diagrams – Streamlined Network Design and Build Management
- Enhanced Optical Budget – More Accurate Optical Network Quality Analysis
- Fiber Tracing Direction Selection – Precise Network Topology Analysis
- Fiber Design Engine (FDE) – Automatic FTTx/PON Network Design
- Improved Edit History Management – Performance at Any Data Volume
- Other Improvements in NetStork 16.2
Property Module – Complete Land Rights Holder Management
Planning cable routes often means routing through privately owned land. Knowing who owns or co-owns a given property is critical for investment planning and any subsequent negotiations.
That’s why NetStork 16.2 extends the application data model with a dedicated Property Module, which enables storing complete information about land rights holders (a holder may be either a private individual or a legal entity such as a company or partnership). The module serves as a central registry of land ownership information, significantly streamlining legal processes and stakeholder communication.
- Inventorying any number of rights holders for a single property (land parcel)
- Managing organizational hierarchies – e.g., a company owner and their authorized representatives, or spouses as co-owners
- Recording two addresses per person: registered address and permanent residence address
- Storing additional contact details (email, phone)
New Application Configuration Interface – No More Manual XML Editing
Until now, the configuration of NetStork required directly editing the NetStork.exe.config XML file — a process that demanded technical know-how and was prone to error. To solve this problem, NetStork 16.2 introduces a graphical configuration interface. It is accessible both from within the NetStork application itself and through the standalone NetStorkSettings.exe tool, which doesn’t even require a license to run.
- Easier and safer system configuration via a GUI
- The ability to prepare a master configuration for the entire organization and deploy it to workstations automatically — there’s no need to copy settings to each machine individually anymore.
- Automatic license installation on user workstations
- Selective change tracking — only changes to the master configuration are saved to the user profile, so updates to key parameters are still delivered as expected.
NetStork 16.2: New system configuration interface
Element Visibility Control in Optical Diagrams – Streamlined Network Design and Build Management
This enhancement makes it easier to manage network design and construction workflows. NetStork 16.2 extends optical network diagrams with the ability to freely control the visibility of individual elements based on their status. Users can toggle the visibility of fiber relations, services, and individual connections — or ranges of connections — for any selected set of statuses.
NetStork 16.2: Toggling element visibility in optical network diagrams
This improvement means that switching between the active network view and the planned network view is now possible at the optical diagram level — not just on the map.
Enhanced Optical Budget – More Accurate Optical Network Quality Analysis
The optical power budget calculation tool has been significantly expanded in version 16.2.
- High-level – a general view at the network node level (available in previous versions)
- Low-level – a detailed view that accounts for individual elements within a node: splitters, devices, and more
Additionally, users can now skip pass-through nodes, which typically add little meaningful information to the analysis while reducing report readability.
NetStork users also gain the ability to export results as a CSV report. Each row represents a single path from the signal source to a given node and includes information such as node/device name, port number, distance, and total loss from the signal source.
These enhancements enable more accurate optical network quality analysis and allow results to be further processed in external tools.
NetStork 16.2: Optical power budget for a subscriber location – detailed view showing individual elements within the node.
Fiber Tracing Direction Selection – Precise Network Topology Analysis
- Tracing in both directions (as before)
- Tracing upstream
- Tracing downstream
The network direction is detected automatically based on network objects (splitters, active devices), and the established direction also applies in fiber path analysis mode.
This change enables faster and more precise signal path analysis — particularly useful when diagnosing problems or planning PON/FTTx network expansion.
Fiber Design Engine (FDE) – Automatic FTTx/PON Network Design
The Fiber Design Engine (FDE) is a module that automates FTTx/PON telecommunications network design. It generates a cost-optimized preliminary network design (High-Level Design) along with a Bill of Materials and a complete, editable connection diagram. FDE reduces the time needed to prepare a network design concept from days to hours.
- The module designs the network based on a minimal input dataset — address points and an OpenStreetMap — using them to propose cable routes and device placement. If existing underground or aerial infrastructure routes are available, they will be incorporated into the design.
- The user selects an area on the map and defines the design parameters. The process is fully iterative, allowing users to test a variety of scenarios and configurations.
- The output is a preliminary, editable network concept plus a Bill of Materials (BOM), providing a solid foundation for the final detailed design.
- Design configuration templates can be saved to local files, helping standardize outputs across projects.
! The FDE module requires a separate license. A shared credit pool is available, enabling any number of users to work in simultaneously. Contact us for detailed pricing and licensing information.
NetStork 16.2: The Fiber Design Engine module and an automatically generated preliminary network concept (HLD).
Improved Edit History Management – Performance at Any Data Volume
The edit history feature allows users to monitor and audit all data editing operations. This data is stored in the database by default, which can lead to uncontrolled database growth and performance issues with certain operations.
To address this, NetStork 16.2 introduces automatic archiving and compression of history data. Once a defined record threshold is exceeded, data is moved to an archive in the OnlineConfig directory — in the background, without interrupting user work. This operation is performed only for users with the appropriate permissions.
Archived history data can be browsed just like regular data — if needed, it is loaded automatically from the archive, making the change completely transparent to the end user. Everything works exactly as if the history were still stored in the database.
Archive files can also be easily backed up through standard file-copy operations.
In addition, pagination has been added to the edit history browser, ensuring smooth and comfortable navigation regardless of data volume.
NetStork 16.2: The change history window
Other Improvements in NetStork 16.2
- Automatic mapping creation for all table fields in CSV reports, available via new toolbar buttons.
- Support for intermediate (junction) tables in CSV reports and CSV imports.
- The ability to rotate the map by any angle, similar to web-based mapping applications. This is especially helpful when working with maps where north is not directed at the top of the map.
- Expanded fiber splice and box specifications to allow defining internal connections directly in the dictionary editor. When inserting an object of such a defined type, not only splitters and splice trays but also the internal connections between them are generated automatically.
- Improved automatic connection layout for WDM devices with dual-type ports (Rx/Tx). The updated algorithm distributes ports to minimize connection line crossings on the diagram.
- The ability to insert virtual boxes in buildings — elements that do not exist physically but are required for visualizing connections to subscribers.
- A new Super User role in the application permission settings, which grants the user all available permissions.
- Multiple security safeguards for area-based and predicate-based authorization, protecting against data corruption and loss of integrity when multiple users work in different areas simultaneously.
- Improved safeguards for concurrent multi-user editing of the same data have been added, including secured data synchronization for various conflicting-change detection scenarios.
- The ability to configure whether the current optical diagram should be hidden when the currently active object does not appear on it.
- Detailed descriptions of data verification tests in the data validator dialog box have been added.
- The route-building tool no longer removes set nodes when switching the route type (fiber/infrastructure).
- The route-building tool now supports creating all service types for fiber routes.
- The wavelength field on the toolbar is now also applied when creating new fiber relationships, which is important for WDM technology.
- The ext_id field length has been extended to 64 characters across all tables.
Ready to Take Advantage of Everything NetStork 16.2 Has to Offer?
Update your system today or contact our team to learn more about the new capabilities — including the FDE module and licensing options.