DataLinx Unwraps Push2Test
DataLinx was showing its yet-to-be-released service-assurance product for residential networks and broadband applications, Push2Test, at Billing and OSS World 2004. Although the solution will be targeted to service providers, it takes service assurance to the consumer by allowing users to self-test home networks and IP applications in the event of a problem. Since residential users with home networks are faced with a multiprovider environment consisting of a broadband provider as well as IP phone, gateway and router vendors and applications providers, the nontechnical customer often has no idea where a service failure originates. Push2Test shows the users the different applications and elements (broadband connection, Wi-Fi gateway, etc.) that make up the home-area network. When something goes wrong, the user can send the software out with a click of the mouse, to test each element to see if it’s working properly. The system includes an automatically generated graphical representation of the network. By allowing users to isolate the issue themselves, service call volume goes down, since the calls are prequalified. Meanwhile, the consumer benefits from access to a multivendor troubleshooting engine, which the service provider can use as a customer service differentiator. DataLinx says it plans to officially announce the product at Supercomm 2004.
Cramer Unleashes Cramer5
Cramer Systems Inc. rolled out the culmination of two years of research and development at Billing and OSS World 2004: Cramer5, the latest version of its telecom back-office automation and inventory management suite. The user interface, “MyCramer,” is now Web-based instead of a C++ thin client, and uses portal technology to integrate a range of applications into a single view relating to job function. Navigation can be fully keyboarddriven and shortcuts can be configured; tool tips are available on any item; each tool has its own history cache; graphics controls are configurable; and the portal layout itself can be customized.
Cramer5 also has full localization capabilities, including multilingual labels and messages, time zones selectable at login and the ability to mix and match languages within the same deployment.
Cramer5 is on the market now. Japan Telecom is deploying the solution, and it’s available as a standard upgrade to Cramer customers.
Nakina Touts New Offers
Industry newcomer Nakina Systems Inc. unveiled Network Assurance Suite Version 1.1, for multivendor optical network maintenance, and a VoIP services management suite, at Billing and OSS World 2004. The network-assurance suite runs an audit, to determine network readiness, before guiding automated software upgrades to each element in the optical network.
It also automates backup and restoration across multivendor optical networks, and provides resource security in the form of access to network elements and accounts from a central site across nodes. The VoIP service-assurance product, brought about from the recent acquisition of iPine Networks, allows Layer 7/IP monitoring capability for SLAs and traffic shaping in real time. It is nonintrusive, recognizes any IP application and can determine jitter, delay and response times by application. Users can identify which applications are “hogging the network” and causing performance issues. It also can perform intrusion detection.
