Introduction

As Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) for IMS-based services are gradually embraced by providers, the role of operations support systems (OSS) is rightly being re-examined. Most SDP vendors are positioning their offerings as encompassing service creation, orchestration, and execution, as well as back-office functions that traditionally have been handled by OSS solutions. Despite this overlap, there remains an ongoing need for scalable, standards-based OSSs that can complement the flexible service delivery model defined by the SDP vendors and help providers get new services operational quickly.

As a result of the ongoing process of circuit-to-packet migration, service provider back offices have become enormously complex. To meet the market requirements for legacy services and the rapidly growing list of IP-based services, the vast majority of the world’s leading providers have each implemented dozens (and in some cases, hundreds) of OSS systems.

The result in many cases is a hodgepodge of systems that has the potential to cause major operational headaches, including frequent operator interventions, high error rates, intricate transaction rollback scenarios, complex system integrations, painful upgrade scenarios—and, ultimately, ballooning operations costs.