Automation - In addition, automation is key to cost-effective and on-time project rollout. Process automation for network rollout should include work order management, configurable process templates, and seamless integration of design and planning processes with other day-to-day processes such as service delivery, maintenance and support, consistent scheduling, and optimization of the workforce load. Use of telecom-aware workforce management system that is optimized for mobile operators can go a long way in rapidly monetizing the investment that is being put into LTE rollout.
Optimizing the Back-Haul. - New LTE traffic brings along higher bandwidth consumption and its impact will be felt on the backhaul network immediately. Capacity optimization and dynamic bandwidth allocation becomes central to backhaul upgrade and deployment. Reuse of the existing (UMTS or other) backhaul is not an option.
Service Management - Another key aspect to successful LTE deployment is enhanced service management. With the provisioning done partly by the network itself (IMS and/or SDP based service fulfillment), the need for a flexible/configurable and extensible service catalog allowing for modeling of complex IP-based services is higher than ever. Such service catalog will have to be based on latest industry standards for flexibility and interoperability and will have to accommodate CFS (customer facing services) and RFS (resource facing services) service categories to ensure proper degree of functional componentization and maximum network resource utilization.
Service Assurance. To ensure that users getting the quality they pay for, a deep understanding of the service experience
Automation is key to cost-effective and on-time project rollout
coupled with service quality management across a diverse set of devices and dynamic user preferences becomes the foundation of LTE assurance. Speeding up trouble resolution by correlating service monitoring with service topology will also become important and real time video and other media –based applications will require much more real time monitoring.
Device Management. As diverse set of smart devices become part of the overall mobile broadband era, they also become part of the OSS considerations for LTE. The access bandwidth for LTE will be comparable to fixed broadband, which is common in many homes and businesses today. However, mobile handsets have yet to incorporate some of the elements of remote management, and service providers will struggle to manage or troubleshoot the devices, especially as users begin using third party devices. This influx of new devices will throw up a host of challenges around remote management, version control and backwards compatibility.
Inventory - Lastly, inventory is critical to the successful LTE rollout. As with any other technology rollout, LTE requires a unified and sophisticated infrastructure model to enable resource lifecycle management, configuration management, and to ensure maximum resource and asset utilization. With the LTE infrastructure spanning all kinds of backbone technologies, the inventory needs to be flexible enough to accommodate the current multi-technology views and be prepared for possible future extensions.
LTE will bring with it an exciting future. Through the combination of very high download and upload transmission speeds, more efficient and flexible use of spectrum and reduced packet latency, LTE promises to enhance the delivery of mobile broadband services while adding exciting new value added service possibilities.
Pipeline
Publishing, Volume 6, Issue 8
