Domain networks are the first architectural piece used to organize the utility network. They allow you to model large, logically separate sections of your system. A utility network can have one or more domain networks. The number of domain networks you use depends on the type of model you're building and the industry you manage.
Domain networks are defined during the configuration stage of a utility network by the administrator. Additional domain networks can be added to a utility network, for example, if a municipality managing gas expands to manage the town water network. An additional domain network would be added to their existing utility network to model the water network.
All domain networks come with a set of five classes that are added to your utility network: Device, Line, Junction, Assembly, and SubnetLine. Four of those classes are used to store and model your network assets. The SubnetLine feature class is system maintained and used to generate subnetwork maps (circuit and zone maps).
See the Domain networks conceptual topic to learn more about domain network feature classes and their schema.
When you create a domain network, you define two properties: tier definition and subnetwork controller type. These properties allow you to control the organization of tiers and tier groups and influence the flow direction for that portion of your network.
Tier definition
A tier definition controls the organization of tiers relative to the rest of the tiers in a domain network (either a collection of partitioned, successive tiers or a hierarchy of nested tiers). A tier definition also controls whether you can model tier groups. To learn more, see Tiers.
Systems with a hierarchical, nested topology, such as pressure networks (gas, water, and sewage), are recommended to be built using one domain network to model all assets (aside from structures) in the system. In a domain network, tier groups and tiers are used to organize a domain network based on such things as pressure, geography, and ownership.
Systems that cascade in a partitioned fashion, for example, wire networks (electric and telecommunication), are recommended to be modeled using one domain network per sector, for example, one for transmission and one for distribution.
Subnetwork controller type
The subnetwork controller type for a domain network determines the flow direction for tiers in that domain network; whether source or sink based. Subnetworks in the tiers of a domain network are all either source or sink based, never a combination. A utility network can support multiple domain networks with different tier definitions. This type of model could be used for utilities that own both gravity (sink) and pressure (source) systems. To learn more, see Subnetworks.