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services and CSS converge to the point when one is impossible without the other. A strong Web-based self-service interface is required, for example, to update the frequently-called numbers, to order a new IPTV channel, or to reroute VoIP calls to an alternate number. These self-service features are inseparable from the service itself and are a big part of the overall user experience.
Clearly all these new services depend on software. Of course, software is not a new kid on the block for telecommunications. Intelligent network (IN) solutions, many of which are still responsible for call control and stove-pipe service delivery, have relied on software for decades for call and session control and service execution. There are big differences, however. When a network
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Service assurance needs to be upgraded to include application performance management (APM) as an essential component. |
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Perhaps now the hybrid car analogy is even clearer. If we go back to our original example with legacy phone or TV cable services, merely making sure that your network and devices operate properly was enough to guarantee good service. To provide full service assurance function for the new converged services and CSS, full visibility into both networks and applications is required. Service assurance needs to be upgraded to include application performance management (APM) as an essential component. While for enterprise IT environments and data centers,
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equipment manufacturer (NEM) released an IN-based service, a management component was usually built in. And since, in most cases, the software was proprietary and well integrated with the hardware, assuring high performance and availability through built-in element management was easy. Today, with the emergence of service delivery platforms (SDPs) and the convergence of network and IT, services rely on IT standards-based technologies adapted for use in telecommunications. Web and application servers, portals, service busses and orchestration engines, databases, SIP and JSLEE-based service execution environments, along with standardized network integration interfaces like Parlay(/X), are increasingly becoming responsible for next generation services. Services themselves are becoming business transactions running through these standards-based software components. Just like in legacy and IN-driven services, network elements were responsible for service delivery, in today’s IP-based environments standards-based software components are becoming new “software elements.”
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APM has been a key piece of an architecture, in the telecommunications industry it is a less familiar tool (especially in network operations and service delivery departments). So, what are the specific requirements to APM that can help operators get the most out of their SDP and CSS?
The ultimate goal of service assurance is to prevent problems or detect them before customers are impacted. From the APM standpoint, these goals can be achieved by getting visibility into all the application and infrastructure layers responsible for delivering services to the end users or partners: the presentation layer (portals), OSS/BSS and IT infrastructure, and all the way to the edge of the network where network and element management tools can take over. Monitoring user experience in real time while correlating real response times to the end-user with the events and processes happening in multiple components can dramatically improve customer satisfaction. That, in turn, increases customer retention and consequential
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