OSSs that enable service providers to create, deploy and manage ever-widening portfolios of converged network services are quickly forming the foundation of next-generation carrier business strategies. They are evolving not only to enable rapid service provisioning and troubleshooting, but also to integrate information across multitechnology, multivendor networks. The degree to which service providers can blend circuit-switched, packet-switched, wireline and wireless networks with their associated customer support systems will ultimately determine whether they retain or lose customers in the converged telecommunications arena, analysts say.
Because of the urgency for carriers to deploy integrated service platforms that allow the sharing of customer and network data, the upcoming SUPERCOMM 2000 in Atlanta will be ripe with announcements in the OSS and network management space. Many will emphasize the integration of front-end and back-end support systems, circuit and IP networks, OSSs from different vendors, and OSSs and elemental network management systems.
An area gaining attention, for example, is in cross-carrier customer support and service management. CLECs and incumbents, for instance, are desperate for more automation in the way that they conduct business, says Karl Whitelock, program director in Stratecast Partners' (www.stratecast.com) OSS Competitive Strategies Analysis Service in Denver. "These companies have to do business with each other, and faxing forms back and forth to each other is no longer going to cut the mustard as customer volumes increase," he says. "These processes are just not scalable, and they are prone to error."
The manual nature of customer support is of particular concern when provisioning DSL services, which are generally deployed in multitiered arrangements from multiple service provider partners. To automate procedures, Hekimian Laboratories Inc. (www.hekimian.com) will introduce a new component of its CenterOP product family called CenterOP Gateway that addresses DSL interconnection requirements, says Dave Gellerman, Hekimian's vice president of technology and corporate development. "The product will provide a mechanism by which service providers operating in partnership with each other can exchange information in a controlled, policed environment," he says.
For example, a gateway sitting in a wholesaler's network could be set to provide each carrier with only the level of detail agreed upon between the wholesaler and retail partner. "The partners could set the gateway to run at the service layer only," explains Gellerman. In this scenario, the retailer would get a notification that a service has failed, but would not be informed as to why. However, the retailer would be notified that the partner knows about the problem and is fixing it.
This setup would prevent the retailer from having to open trouble tickets, which usually take about 30 minutes each, Gellerman explains. The result is that the partners reduce operations costs, increase network uptime and improve customer satisfaction.
The initial versions of the UNIX-based CenterOP Gateway software system will run on IBM AIX and HP-UX operating systems, with Sun Solaris support expected by the end of the summer, says Gellerman. Pricing depends on the size and complexity of the network, but starts at "hundreds of thousands of dollars," he says. He adds that he expects service providers to save an order of magnitude over their investment over about a three-year period.
Robert Rosenberg, president of The Insight Research Corp. (www.insight-corp.com), a telecommunications market research firm, attests to the need to "alleviate DSL deployment agonies." He agrees that automation in the access network is not as smooth as it is in backbone networks, and advocates interworking the access side of the network with back-end operations systems.
To that end, Turnstone Systems Inc. (www.turnstone.com) plans to help automate the physical copper cabling plant with new interfaces to back-end support systems from multiple OSS vendors, says Eric Andrews, vice president of marketing. Turnstone is the maker of hardware called Copper CrossConnect that sits between a DSLAM and patch panel in an access provider's network and enables remote troubleshooting. When used with Turnstone's CrossWorks software suite, the copper plant can be controlled through software from any location, such as a centralized network operations center, reducing on-site technician visits and streamlining operational procedures.
"At SUPERCOMM, we are taking the next step," says Andrews. "This will be the first time that we'll see the physical plant automated with ties to other vendors' OSS systems."
While he would not specify which vendors' products would be integrated with the Turnstone local loop management system, he indicated that the system would interface to well-known order entry systems and message brokers--middleware that enables OSSs to communicate with one another. "Message brokers will serve as a communications bus that transports information from our system to many other systems," Andrews says.
Andrews offers an example of the benefits: If a DSL provider were to experience an 8-port card failure in a DSLAM, generally, a technician would be dispatched to find and fix the problem and patch customers around the failed card. Turnstone's existing loop management system enables carriers to detect the outage with a fault management system. But with the new links to customer support applications, the DSL provider can see what customers are assigned to which services. This will enable them to invoke protection switching and reroute customers to different equipment, thus putting them back online in seconds, Andrews says.
With the telecommunications industry migrating from the bit-transport business to one of value-added, higher layer services, service providers are requiring more options for integrated performance monitoring of multiple network layers, says Stratecast Partners' Whitelock. "There are three main layers: applications, for which carriers subscribe, unsubscribe and bill; computing; and network infrastructure," he says. "You have to monitor all three layers at the same time. Without [information about] one component, all else is meaningless."
Also addressing this situation, Objective Systems Integrators (www.osi.com) will be announcing and demonstrating a new module of its NetExpert product family called NetExpert Virtual Business Management (VBM) at SUPERCOMM. This set of data mining and reporting tools complements two other integrated management "layers" already in the company's Unified Management Architecture product portfolio.
NetExpert VBM provides a means for reporting on historical network trends, throughput measurements, and enabling service providers to set thresholds for certain network metrics, such as bandwidth utilization, explains Jim Frey, director of market programs at OSI. The product rollout will accompany a SLA strategy announcement at the show, he says, of which VBM will be a component. Another component will be a new release of the company's existing NetExpert Virtual Process Management (VPM), which enables carriers to link diverse tasks.
"Carriers will get a more granular level of control, such as the ability to set jeopardy thresholds when a customer service commitment is about to be missed," Frey says.
NetExpert VBM will work in sync with OSI's NetExpert Virtual Service Manager (VSM), which combines data from diverse elemental network management systems--spanning wired and wireline voice and data networks--for comprehensive management of the network infrastructure.
In a related move, CoManage Corp. (www.comanagecorp.com) will have a coming-out party at SUPERCOMM for its Integrated Service Manager (ISM), announced May 15, according to Dave Nelsen, CoManage's CEO. ISM is a single application that blends four functions--discovery, provisioning, fault management and performance monitoring--in a common architecture based on the emerging Common Information Model (CIM).
A real-time structured query language (SQL) database engine links data about network elements, services and customers, and as a result, instantly correlates network events with affected customers and services. This would enable a service provider to proactively redirect customer traffic and inform customers about network situations, Nelsen notes.
ISM pricing will be based on the number of nodes and circuits in a provider's network and will start at under $100,000, Nelsen says. Judging from the experiences of an early customer applying the system to an Ethernet Transparent LAN Service (TLS), Nelsen estimates that the system reduces service provisioning time by 90 percent and will pay for itself in one to two months.
For operators of networks that run transaction language 1 (TL1) and simple network management protocol (SNMP) management systems, Lumos Technologies Inc. (www.lumos.com) will be offering a new version of its Telecom Management Server that leverages Java Enterprise Beans as a development platform. The Telecom Management Server Version 4 platform is aimed at providing a foundation for developing provisioning, performance monitoring, and other operational applications related to keeping networks up and running, says Gerry Egan, Lumos' president and CFO.
"Carriers get prepackaged components that they can tailor to their particular protocol," explains Egan. The product is pre-integrated with Java SQL databases and other components for building and customizing telecommunications applications. It enables service providers to "put their service print on a Java Bean," he says.
For carriers that prefer to have someone else worry about their OSS and network management integration headaches, Lucent Technologies Inc. (www.lucent.com) will be demonstrating its recently announced Intelligent Solutions Support System (IS3), a web-based outsourcing package. Lucent will manage subscribers on behalf of service providers, providing customer care, network operations, management, call center and Help Desk functions. "All back-office functions and network management are integrated in one box," says Haptie Liu, Lucent product manager.
If carriers already have some OSS components of their own, Lucent will integrate those systems with IS3 using extensible markup language (XML), Liu says. She adds that carriers have the option to license the IS3 technology at the end of the outsourcing contract.
Because customer service levels are so closely tied to OSSs, these and other vendors are likely to be hard at work increasing the degree of integration among systems for some time. Information-sharing among OSSs and process automation enables service providers to focus on customer service rather than internal operations, and the effectiveness of these systems will be a key enabler for service providers to differentiate themselves.
Joanie Wexler is a freelance telecommunications writer. She can be reached at joanie@jwexler.com.
Sampling of What's New in OSSs at SUPERCOMM | ||
| Exhibitor | Offering | Description |
| Abatis Systems Corp. www.abatissys.com | New Business Services Architecture component | Web-based management tool that service providers will offer to their business customers as part of a managed service. It allows IT administrators to quickly create, tear down and modify collaboration sessions with guaranteed performance and security |
| BusinessEdge Solutions Inc. www.businessedge.com | VelOSSity Reference Platform | A reference model for integrating legacy and CLEC platforms |
| CoManage Corp. www.comanagecorp.com | Integrated Service Manager | Combines information about customers and services with management capabilities in a single application |
| Hekimian Laboratories Inc. www.hekimian.com | CenterOP Gateway | Enables controlled exchange of management information between service providers |
| Integral Access Inc. www.integralaccess.com | New version of PurePacket Operations Management System | Enables customer self-provisioning of IP multiservice offerings
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| Lucent Technologies Inc. www.lucent.com | Intelligent Solutions Support System (IS3) | Turnkey outsourcing package for subscriber management |
| Lumos Technologies Inc. www.lumos.com | Telecom Management Server Version 4 | Prepackaged framework, based on Java Enterprise Beans, for building and customizing telecommunications applications |
| Objective Systems Integrators Inc. www.osi.com | NetExpert Virtual Business Management (VBM) | Data management and performance
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| Tekelec Inc. www.tekelec.com | VelOSity | Diagnostic architecture for testing multiple applications in a converged telephony and Internet network from one computer
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| Turnstone Systems Inc. www.turnstone.com | CrossWorks back-end interfaces | Integration software and partnerships to tie CrossWorks DSL front-end loop management with back-office support systems from other vendors |
Not a comprehensive list Source: Author compiled
