Introduction of Service Assurance Domain

1. Telecom Service Assurance
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2. Contents
• Telecommunication industry models
– TMN and eTOM models
– SNA activities positioning
• Services & Networks assurance main processes
– Processes list and description
• Fault Management Flow

3. Telecommunication industry models
• Telecommunication is an industry which has capitalized on experience
gained by various stakeholders by standardizing business processes in
different norms
• Two main models which are related to each others are currently
implemented in various operators
– Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model
– eTOM (enhanced Telecom Operation Map) model
• Each model addresses different operators needs to fulfill services
provision to their final customers

4. Telecommunication Management Network
(TMN) networks and specifies
TMN defines interconnection points between the two
management functionalities
Configuration
Fault
Performance
Accounting
Business management
Services management
Networks management
Elements management
• 5 main domains
• 4 main layers
Security

5. 5 TMN domains description
• Fault management (FM): Detect, isolate, notify, and correct faults encountered in the network.
• Configuration management (CM): Configure aspects of network devices, such as configuration
file management, inventory management, and software management.
• Accounting management: Collect usage information of network resources.
• Performance management (PM): Monitor and measure various aspects of performance so that
overall performance can be maintained at a defined level.
• Security management: Secure access to network devices, network resources, and services to
authorized individuals.

6. 4 TMN layers description
• Element Management Layer (EML) provides management functions for network elements on
an individual or group basis. It also supports an abstraction of the functions provided by the
network element layer. Examples include determining equipment errors, measuring device
temperatures, collecting statistical data for accounting purposes, and logging event notifications
and performance statistics.
• Network Management Layer (NML) offers a holistic view of the network, between multiple
pieces of equipment and independent of device types and vendors. It manages a network as
supported by the element management layer. Examples include end-to-end network utilization
reports, root cause analysis, and traffic engineering.
• Service Management Layer (SML) is concerned with, and responsible for, the contractual
aspects of services that are being provided to customers. The main functions of this layer are
service creation, order handling, service implementation, service monitoring, complaint
handling, and invoicing. Examples include QoS management (delay, loss, jitter), accounting per
service (VPN), and SLA monitoring and notification.
• Business Management Layer (BML) is responsible for the total enterprise. Business
management can be considered a goal-setting approach: "What are the objectives, and how can
the network (and network management specifically) help achieve them?"

7. SNA positioning in TMN model
Configuration
Fault
Performance
Accounting
Security
Business management
Domains and layers
covered in the future
Services management
Networks management
Domains and layers
currently covered
Elements management
Service & Network Assurance activities basically consists in all activities which tend
to ensure service provision to final customers either by corrective actions (Fault
Management) or by proactive actions (Performance Management)

8. eTOM-Enhanced Telecommunication Map
Operation (eTOM)
The TM Forum Business Process Framework (commonly known as eTOM)
describes all the enterprise processes required by a service provider.

9. eTOM model philosophy
• The Business Process Framework has multiple groupings for the processes that it contains:
– Vertical process groupings: Focus on end-to-end activities (for example, Assurance). Each vertical
group links together the customer, supporting services, resources, and supplier/partners. Taken
together, these vertical groupings can be visualized as a ”lifecycle” view moving left to right across the
Framework from the initial strategy for the products and their components, through development and
delivery, and on into operations and billing.
– Horizontal process groupings: Focus on functionally related areas, like Customer Relationship
Management. These groupings can be visualized as a “layered” view of the enterprise’s processes,
moving from top to bottom, with the customers and products supported by the underlying services,
resources, and (where relevant) interaction with suppliers and partners.
– Where a vertical process grouping and a horizontal process grouping intersect across the map, further
process detail can be applied in either that horizontal or vertical context, according to the user’s
needs.
• Process structure in the Framework uses hierarchical decomposition, so that the business
processes of the enterprise are successively decomposed in a series of levels that expose
increasing detail.

10. SNA positioning in eTOM model
Processes
covered in
the future
Processes
currently
covered

11. SNA dedicated eTOM processes list
Resources
Management &
Operation
RM&O Support
and readiness
Resource
provisioning
Resource trouble
management
Resource
performance
management
Resource data
collection and
distribution
Resource
mediation and
reporting
Manage workforce
 SNA dedicated processes are not grayed on the process hierarchy above
 Processes are described hereunder
Process
Description
Resource trouble
management
Responsible for the management of troubles with specific resources
Resource performance
management
Managing, tracking, monitoring, analyzing, controlling and reporting on the
performance of specific resources
Resource data collection
and distribution
Collect and/or distribute management information and data records between
resource and service instances and other enterprise processes
Resource mediation and
reporting
Manage resource events by correlating and formatting them into a useful format

12. Resource trouble management
• Resource trouble management consists in the following activities
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Detecting, analyzing, managing and reporting on resource alarm event notification
Initiating and managing resource trouble reports
Performing resource trouble localization analysis
Correcting and resolving resource troubles
Reporting progress on resource trouble reports to other processes
Assigning and tracking resource trouble testing and repair activities
Managing resource trouble jeopardy conditions
• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by
proposing :
– Alarms collection mechanisms  gathers alarms into one single system)
– Alarms enrichment mechanisms  helps to localize and analyze collected alarms
– Alarms correlation mechanisms  helps to find root causes of set of alarms and then focus
on root causes resolving instead of resolving symptoms

13. Resource performance management
• Resource performance management consists in the following activities
– Processing data coming from Resource data collection and distribution process
– Identifying any resource performance violation and passing this notification to Resource
Trouble Management process
– Identifying any potential service performance violation and passing this notification to
Service Quality Management process
– Implementing control mechanisms to monitor specific resource performance
• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by
proposing :
– KPI computation mechanisms  Computes indicators that reflect network performances
– Thresholding mechanisms  Triggers alarms based on thresholding criteria
– Reporting mechanisms  Helps Operation Centers supervisors to monitor resources
performance in some “at a glance” reports, tuned to their needs

14. Resource data collection and distribution
• Resource data collection and distribution consists in the following activities
–
–
–
–
Collecting resource data
Formatting resource data into a common format for other processes
Filtering, aggregating, correlating and transforming resource data for other processes
Storing processed data for making those data available to other processes
• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by
proposing :
– Data collection mechanisms  gathers data into one single system for processing
– Data transformation & filtering mechanisms  Transforms & filters incoming data before
storing those into the system
– Data enrichment mechanisms  helps to enrich data with external systems information
– Data processing mechanisms  helps to compute new data from raw data, aggregate data
against chosen aggregation areas

15. Resource mediation and reporting
• Resource mediation and reporting consists in the following activities
– Collecting resource events
– Formatting resource events into a common format for later analysis
– Storing resource events for later analysis in case of issues (billing part)
• IT systems implemented as part of SNA Service Center support those activities by
proposing :
– Events collection mechanisms  gathers events into one single system
– Transformation mechanisms  Transforms incoming events into aligned formats
– Events enrichment mechanisms  helps to enrich events with external systems
information in order to facilitate later analysis

16. Fault Management Block Diagram

17. Fault Management Important Steps
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Data collection from different NMS/EMS
Parsing of data and identification of potential faults
Enrichment of alarms
Co-relation of alarms
Data Loading and creating an alarm
Ticket Creation
Fixing the fault
Closing Ticket
Clearing alarm