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By Chris
Purdy
Today, handheld devices smaller than
a wallet are able to transmit volumes
of digital voice, video and data traffic
to enable multimedia communication and
entertainment from virtually any location.
Now that converged services visions
of anywhere-anytime communication are
coming to fruition, why aren’t
service providers reaping more profits
than ever? The success and growth of
these new “Quad Play” devices
– and the networks and services
that support them – has been enabled
by astounding progress in wireless and
broadband networking technologies. This
progress can be traced back to rapid
advances in computer processing and
storage components. However, as they
have followed Moore’s Law, the
latest line-up of advanced PCs, notebooks,
PDA’s, iPODs™, cell phones,
video games, and a myriad of other devices
– have grown increasingly complex.
And what they all have in common to
effectively manage that complexity is
an often overlooked, yet equally critical
component to their success: the development
and evolution of an operating system
(OS). Given the parallels of rapid change,
convergence and complexity in telecommunications
networks and devices, it is time that
the industry – and communication
services providers (CSPs) in particular,
apply the concept of a “network
operating system” (NOS) to achieve
similar benefits as in the PC industry.
If it were not for operating systems,
the growth in PCs would never have taken
place driven by the multitude of applications
that have been built for them. As in
the PC market, most telecommunications
end-users are more interested in services
or applications rather than the detailed
understanding of the hardware itself.
But anything beyond "Quad Play"
may seem like a step into the unknown
for CSPs when many are still getting
to grips with implementing the latest
voice, video and data services bundles.
Today, Quad Play services are all too
often just "marketing packages",
with convergence only really taking
place at the point of sale and billing.
With no truly converged services delivery,
CSPs are left with more complexity,
but many of the same associated capital
and operational costs as they were for
the separate services. The intention,
of course – and the whole premise
behind XoIP services, service delivery
platforms (SDPs), and the 3GPP’s
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) –
is to be able to rapidly rollout new
services on increasingly converged Next
Generation Networks, with high quality
and significantly lower costs.
A common SDP for all services starts
to address these key concerns. However,
SDPs rely on OSS/BSS systems underneath
them, which in turn interface to the
network elements (NEs) through element
management systems (EMSs). The problem
is
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The
problem is that a fundamental disconnect
persists between the NE and OSS
layers of the network. |
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that a fundamental disconnect
persists between the NE and
OSS layers of the network – a
problem that has become costly
and complex due to the continuous
changes taking place at both
levels. Rapid innovations made
in network element technologies
have to be constantly married
to new operational support
systems (OSS) above them. As
the number of OSS and network
technologies grows, the problem
grows exponentially with it –
the classic N-squared, full-mesh scaling
problem.
To address this, sometimes
a single application is used
to do everything;
“to get the job done”.
This usually means no Service
Orientated Architecture (SOA)
is used, which limits a service
provider’s ability to deploy
best-in-breed applications. Often,
in-house systems are built organically
or toolkits are used, and so
they become nonstandard interfaces
that create complex and expensive
management software to maintain
and manage. Or if the all too
common mistake is made of just
considering a single service,
it results in all components
from the SDP through to the network
being tightly coupled and each
operations function (billing,
device management, fault management,
etc.) being designed specifically
for that service. As NEs change
so too does the OSS/BSS interface
layer, which may have a ripple
effect on the overlying services.
If CSPs wish to implement a new
OSS/BSS application, these interfaces
need to be rebuilt and tested
to both the SDP and to the underlying
EMS layer. An architecture that
considers all these elements
is critical if a sustained advantage
is to be held in the market.
The proposed solution is to
implement a “network operating
system”
(NOS) that abstracts the network
complexity and disengages it
from direct integration with
the upper layer OSS’s
in the same way that the operating
system on your PC or cell phone
separates its hardware from
its applications. This mediation
and abstraction function allows
higher-level applications or
services to be developed independently
while simultaneously enabling
new hardware or peripherals
to be
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