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Management processes need to be built-in to functional processes and also automated, so the network can handle anything that’s thrown at it from nearly any direction—and do it on the fly. In particular, since new IMS-based capabilities are software-based, version control becomes an issue. A combinatorial explosion of versions needs to interoperate, so services can be managed according to multiple policies and delivered to multiple devices. This situation will also continue to grow over time.
Policy and Device Management
Within the next-generation network architecture, operators must be able to control the services and applications they provide, as well as the underlying network that supports these services. Policy management is a fundamental capability that allows operators to manage the resources within their IP network and provides hard performance guarantees for services such as VoIP and IPTV. Policy management needs to be supported by BSS/OSS, so policies can be created and managed throughout their lifecycle—from service creations to service fulfillment and activation.
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Flexibility comes from the ability to construct different options in a “plug and play” service-style environment. However, this also means that demand is less easily forecast by traditional means. |
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IMS Makes Tighter Cohesion within OSS Mandatory
With IMS, the interrelationship between operational processes is no longer merely desirable, but necessary. This is where it has its greatest impact on OSS.
In the service fulfillment process, for example, each service and service instance must be associated with a particular policy at the point of fulfillment. There is an implicit relationship between policy and services, and OSS is required to make that link explicit at the time of provisioning.
This also has implications for policy design. For an IP network, policy can be associated with two points of QoS on one service (A end and Z end), but cannot be assigned over the entire network. In the short term, the
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The delivery of next-generation services makes the ability to manage an end-user device increasingly important. As the number and sophistication of these devices grows, it becomes necessary to have a management solution integrated within OSS. As the industry has seen, the protocols to support device management are not consistent between definitions of next-generation architectures. Even within the same industry, there may be regional variations.
Service enablement is more productive when the inventory of devices, the non-application software (e.g., the operating system) and the applications it can support are all in one place. For example, service activation can become less prone to failure if end-device capabilities are recognized earlier in the service fulfillment lifecycle.
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realistic option is to manage capacity over access networks, and over-provision the core. However, this leads to higher capital expenditure costs than necessary, which will be unacceptable in the face of low- and decreasing-margin services.
Ultimately, OSS needs to take an “upstream” role to make sure the right type of IP network is available at the point of provision, compatible with the service being ordered. Planning within operations has to take on a bigger role and greater responsibility and, critically, network plan and design must take place commensurately with service design.
Going a step further in the provisioning process, the diversity of devices such as handsets, set top boxes and different
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