Service Provisioning
With TDM, it was relatively straightforward to provision a T1 and start to backhaul traffic. Today, connectionless Carrier Ethernet running on multi-vendor networks can make it much harder to understand and then provision backhaul capacity correctly. Leading operators are utilizing the network model they have for planning to also drive the provisioning systems. By integrating their planning capabilities into the service provisioning process, providers can ensure that new service roll-outs will comply with SLA requirements and then automatically provision them without the risk of introducing errors as plans are moved from one system to another. By ensuring the planning, provisioning and monitoring system is automatically updated with information from the live network, models are kept in synch so planned and deployed networks are identical.
Service Monitoring, Visibility and Control
Once backhaul services are provisioned and activated, of course, traditional performance management activities need to continue monitoring that traffic is being delivered as expected.
Figure 3: Managing to an SLA requires full visibility of the network
A classic requirement in Mobile Backhaul is for operators to know which customers traffic flows over which components within the network. Understanding the relationship between each layer of the infrastructure and being able to model the impact of making a change to that network enable the service provider to proactively notify their customers before their service is disrupted. Where SLAs call for customer notification before maintenance work that might impact services this level of visibility allows the task to be automated.
By integrating the performance system with planning and control functionality, providers ensure changes in traffic flows, failures within the network, or topology changes do not negatively impact services. Should issues be seen, the system can be used to design remediating actions – not just tell the provider that there will be problems!
About Cariden Technologies
Cariden Technologies, Inc. is a software company serving telecommunications providers worldwide. Networks serving 85 percent of the U.S. broadband customers have adopted Cariden software, as have 8 of the 11 global Tier 1 ISPs. Cariden's success is fueled by its technical innovations in delivering visibility, efficiency, and automation to networks.
For more than a decade, Cariden has been working with network operators providing planning, engineering and operational traffic management solutions. Building and operating a network efficiently isn’t done by gathering an assortment of isolated tools but by building systems that support the network engineering activities throughout the lifecycle of a service. Cariden prides itself on helping our customers to build such systems.
