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Thierry Jacq, Product Manager for French monitoring and QoS leader Astellia, sees a particular lack of understanding of the importance of monitoring in the mobile world. “Some mobile operators sometimes do not understand the importance of monitoring solutions, which measure the QoE per cell and give them a 360° view of their networks,” said Jacq, pointing out that many mobile operators are satisfied relying on OMC counters alone. In addition, Jacq asserts that many mobile operators “underestimate the importance of Radio Access Network (RAN) vs core in the global question of quality”, and sometimes “add network elements instead of optimizing the existing networks with QoS/performance monitoring and optimization systems.” These components all combine to form a network that lacks the sort of optimization that would make it faster, better, and smarter.
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A faster, better, smarter network is just what the doctor ordered. |
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However, though IP reduces the overall difficulty of monitoring, we can’t forget that we’re not all-IP, all the time just yet. “One of most prevalent contributors to complexity in IT today is the convergence process,” said Wiggins. “Moving from older technologies to newer ones takes time, and during the process there is a mixture of equipment, applications and support processes that must also change.” Wiggins goes on to quote a Gartner study that found that “85 percent of networks are not ready for VoIP and 75 percent of VoIP deployments fail if a pre-network assessment and network optimization is not performed prior to loading IP voice traffic on the existing corporate network.”
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The Perils of Complexity
And a faster, better, smarter network is just what the doctor ordered as we move into an era of increased complexity. “[IP Networks] are more complex,” said Trevor Hayes, an analyst with LTC International and Contributing Editor for Pipeline, “but the tools we have to manage them are a whole lot more sophisticated than they used to be. They don’t require nearly as much installation of equipment in the network. There are packets going in and out all the time, but you can identify and prioritize them much more readily than you could before.”
Cullen concurs. “More and more we are seeing network convergence drive the need to have the same system/platform across multiple topologies – often fixed and mobile together with a single reporting tool to give analysis across both topologies.” So there’s certainly more to keep an eye on, but that “more” isn’t spread out across numerous areas. It’s localized. “So it’s becoming more complex, Cullen said, “but not necessarily harder.”
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Therefore, oftentimes these new technologies are utilized with the intent to make communications simpler and less expensive, but end up on networks that are ill-equipped to handle their complexity. “In fact,” Wiggins said, “poor voice quality is one of the most common complaints from users of IP telephony networks.” And, at the end of the day, a phone that can’t be relied on to deliver high-quality voice is a pretty lousy phone, no matter how new and shiny it is.
Hard Times
It bears mentioning, of course, that we aren’t exactly living in an era that provides a lot of tolerance for unnecessary spending. The soft economy we presently face is impacting network monitoring just like it’s impacting everything else… but it’s not all bad news.
“I know it’s a cliché,” said Cullen, “but in every crisis there is opportunity.” In this particular
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