Telecom Service Assurance

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Contents

• Telecommunication industry models –TMN and eTOM models

– SNA activities positioning

• Services & Networks assurance main processes –Processes list and description

• Fault Management Flow

Telecommunication industry models

• Telecommunication is an industry which has capitalized on experience gained by various stakeholders by standardizing business processes in different norms

• Two main models which are related to each others are currently implemented in various operators

– Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model

– eTOM (enhanced Telecom Operation Map) model

• Each model addresses different operators needs to fulfill services provision to their final customers

Telecommunication Management Network (TMN)

• 5 main domains

• 4 main layers

TMN defines interconnection points between the two networks and specifies management functionalities

Configuration Fault Performance Accounting Security

Elements management

Networks management

Services management

Business management

5 TMN domains description

• Fault management (FM): Detect, isolate, notify, and correct faults encountered in the network.

• Configuration management (CM): Configure aspects of network devices, such as configuration file management, inventory management, and software management.

• Accounting management: Collect usage information of network resources.

• Performance management (PM): Monitor and measure various aspects of performance so that overall performance can be maintained at a defined level.

• Security management: Secure access to network devices, network resources, and services to authorized individuals.

4 TMN layers description

• Element Management Layer (EML) provides management functions for network elements on an individual or group basis. It also supports an abstraction of the functions provided by the network element layer. Examples include determining equipment errors, measuring device temperatures, collecting statistical data for accounting purposes, and logging event notifications and performance statistics.

• Network Management Layer (NML) offers a holistic view of the network, between multiple pieces of equipment and independent of device types and vendors. It manages a network as supported by the element management layer. Examples include end-to-end network utilization reports, root cause analysis, and traffic engineering.

• Service Management Layer (SML) is concerned with, and responsible for, the contractual aspects of services that are being provided to customers. The main functions of this layer are service creation, order handling, service implementation, service monitoring, complaint handling, and invoicing. Examples include QoS management (delay, loss, jitter), accounting per service (VPN), and SLA monitoring and notification.

• Business Management Layer (BML) is responsible for the total enterprise. Business management can be considered a goal-setting approach: "What are the objectives, and how can the network (and network management specifically) help achieve them?"

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SNA positioning in TMN model

Configuration Fault Performance Accounting Security

Elements management

Networks management

Services management

Business management

Domains and layers currently covered

Domains and layers covered in the future

Service & Network Assurance activities basically consists in all activities which tend

to ensure service provision to final customers either by corrective actions (Fault

Management) or by proactive actions (Performance Management)

eTOM-Enhanced Telecommunication Map Operation (eTOM)

The TM Forum Business Process Framework (commonly known as eTOM)

describes all the enterprise processes required by a service provider.

eTOM model philosophy • The Business Process Framework has multiple groupings for the processes that it contains:

– Vertical process groupings: Focus on end-to-end activities (for example, Assurance). Each vertical group links together the customer, supporting services, resources, and supplier/partners. Taken together, these vertical groupings can be visualized as a ”lifecycle” view moving left to right across the Framework from the initial strategy for the products and their components, through development and delivery, and on into operations and billing.

– Horizontal process groupings: Focus on functionally related areas, like Customer Relationship Management. These groupings can be visualized as a “layered” view of the enterprise’s processes, moving from top to bottom, with the customers and products supported by the underlying services, resources, and (where relevant) interaction with suppliers and partners.

– Where a vertical process grouping and a horizontal process grouping intersect across the map, further process detail can be applied in either that horizontal or vertical context, according to the user’s needs.

• Process structure in the Framework uses hierarchical decomposition, so that the business processes of the enterprise are successively decomposed in a series of levels that expose increasing detail.

SNA positioning in eTOM model

Processes currently covered

Processes covered in the future

SNA dedicated eTOM processes list Resources

Management & Operation

RM&O Support and readiness

Resource mediation and

reporting Manage workforce

Resource data collection and

distribution

Resource performance management

Resource trouble management

Resource provisioning

SNA dedicated processes are not grayed on the process hierarchy above

Processes are described hereunder

Process Description

Resource trouble

management

Responsible for the management of troubles with specific resources

Resource performance management

Managing, tracking, monitoring, analyzing, controlling and reporting on the

performance of specific resources

Resource data collection and distribution

Collect and/or distribute management information and data records between

resource and service instances and other enterprise processes

Resource mediation and

reporting

Manage resource events by correlating and formatting them into a useful format

Resource trouble management

• Resource trouble management consists in the following activities

– Detecting, analyzing, managing and reporting on resource alarm event notification

– Initiating and managing resource trouble reports

– Performing resource trouble localization analysis

– Correcting and resolving resource troubles

– Reporting progress on resource trouble reports to other processes

– Assigning and tracking resource trouble testing and repair activities

– Managing resource trouble jeopardy conditions

• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by proposing :

– Alarms collection mechanisms gathers alarms into one single system)

– Alarms enrichment mechanisms helps to localize and analyze collected alarms

– Alarms correlation mechanisms helps to find root causes of set of alarms and then focus on root causes resolving instead of resolving symptoms

Resource performance management

• Resource performance management consists in the following activities

– Processing data coming from Resource data collection and distribution process

– Identifying any resource performance violation and passing this notification to Resource Trouble Management process

– Identifying any potential service performance violation and passing this notification to Service Quality Management process

– Implementing control mechanisms to monitor specific resource performance

• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by proposing :

– KPI computation mechanisms Computes indicators that reflect network performances

– Thresholding mechanisms Triggers alarms based on thresholding criteria

– Reporting mechanisms Helps Operation Centers supervisors to monitor resources performance in some “at a glance” reports, tuned to their needs

Resource data collection and distribution

• Resource data collection and distribution consists in the following activities – Collecting resource data

– Formatting resource data into a common format for other processes

– Filtering, aggregating, correlating and transforming resource data for other processes

– Storing processed data for making those data available to other processes

• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by proposing : – Data collection mechanisms gathers data into one single system for processing

– Data transformation & filtering mechanisms Transforms & filters incoming data before storing those into the system

– Data enrichment mechanisms helps to enrich data with external systems information

– Data processing mechanisms helps to compute new data from raw data, aggregate data against chosen aggregation areas

Resource mediation and reporting

• Resource mediation and reporting consists in the following activities

– Collecting resource events

– Formatting resource events into a common format for later analysis

– Storing resource events for later analysis in case of issues (billing part)

• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by proposing :

– Events collection mechanisms gathers events into one single system

– Transformation mechanisms Transforms incoming events into aligned formats

– Events enrichment mechanisms helps to enrich events with external systems information in order to facilitate later analysis

Fault Management Block Diagram

Fault Management Important Steps

• Data collection from different NMS/EMS

• Parsing of data and identification of potential faults

• Enrichment of alarms

• Co-relation of alarms

• Data Loading and creating an alarm

• Ticket Creation

• Fixing the fault

• Closing Ticket

• Clearing alarm