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By
John Wilmes
We have all heard that B/OSS can be built on standards, but if there is one characteristic that categorizes a B/OSS application, it's the interface. Frameworks like the TM Forum's New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) define processes, data structures and application characteristics in a technology-independent manner. Recently, technology-specific interface specifications like Multi-Technology Network Management (MTNM), Multi-Technology Operations System Interface (MTOSI), OSS through Java (OSS/J), and Internet Protocol Data Record (IPDR) have been built using, or in harmony with, the NGOSS frameworks.
Now the TM Forum Interface Program (TIP) is consolidating those specifications and standardizing OSS interface definitions across fulfillment, assurance, and billing. As service providers migrate away from one-off and internally developed applications to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications, they still encounter high cost and complexity in systems integration and maintenance. One of the most effective solutions is the use of open interfaces, which can be adopted by application vendors or used as a "common denominator" by systems integrators. But open interfaces come with a price - they
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Taken together, the NGOSS frameworks lay the groundwork for B/OSS integration. |
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Application Framework (TAM), and Systems Integration Framework (TNA). Each aspect is developed as a framework, beginning with the business viewpoint, and then working through the remaining viewpoints: system, implementation, and deployment. Taken together, the NGOSS frameworks lay the groundwork for B/OSS integration, as shown in figure 1.
The eTOM starts by describing the highest-level divisions of the business process universe: planning and lifecycle management, operations management, corporate and
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need to be specified, designed, implemented, tested, and supported - preferably in a neutral environment. TIP offers a unified approach that is expected to catalyze widespread adoption of open interfaces in the communications, information, and entertainment industries. This article examines TIP and its NGOSS foundations, through recent innovations in NGOSS contracts, into the Prosspero ecosystem.
To understand the significance of TIP, let's begin at the roots. NGOSS is an ambitious and largely successful effort to describe and relate, from four complementary viewpoints, four critical aspects of management systems: process, information, application, and systems integration. NGOSS calls these four aspects the Business Process Framework (eTOM), Information Framework (SID),
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support management. Cutting across those process areas are the highest-level functional processes, from market, product and customer through service and resource, to suppliers and partners. These high-level vertical and horizontal process divisions are further subdivided into process groupings. These groupings include horizontal, functionally-oriented views like Customer Relationship Management and Service Management & Operations, as well as vertical, business-oriented views like Product Lifecycle Management, Operations Support & Readiness, as well as the familiar Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing. The interplay between these horizontal and vertical process groupings is a matrix that allows the eTOM to
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