SNMP syslocation field for GPS coordinates, and use with automation tools

Fri Dec 9 19:07:21 UTC 2016

Hello list,

I'm wondering if anyone out there has been doing something like this, and
what the results were like...

Assuming a network with routed carrier-class CPEs for singlehomed last mile
business customers, or carrier-ethernet L2 transport services for the same
sort of customers. Each CPE has a full set of SNMP monitoring features and
the standard syslocation field where many ISPs put the street address of
the device.

Has anyone out there standardized on putting GPS coordinates in this field,
in decimal degrees, such as this example:

45.563694,-122.528015 (a randomly chosen location in Portland OR)

Using this, it seems that one could use automation tools and scripting to
populate CPE statuses and locations on a huge map, or feed into a GIS
system backend (ESRI or Autodesk), which would in turn feed an interactive
mapping display. Has anyone used a system such as this for NOCs to quickly
identify county-sized power outages or other anomalies that affect CPEs
together in specific geographic regions?

Or any other examples of the use of live SNMP location data on a large
scale with thousands of CPEs.