Network/Element management System – A Savior

- Sreecharan G

Telecom services are revolutionizing the world today & we are all enjoying the fruits of
it. We will try to figure out the importance of managing a ‘network’. When we say
network, it is a conglomeration of logical + physical functionalities embedded to provide
an end –end service to user. Well to handle a network it is really cumbersome to manage
each of its services individually without any framework. So lets dwell into the framework
which already exists (of course for reducing costs in managing the networks!!).

Why a frame work?

When we question the existence of a typical frame work for managing the network
services; has its own answers as classified below

1. Business requirements drive in for factors like capex (capital expenditure) & opex
(operational expenditure) reduction, competitive advantages customer
satisfaction, reliability etc...
2. Service provider flexibility in terms of process flow ( work order flow
handling),work center organization & trouble shooting the network problems
3. Network management in terms of device configuration, network services
&scalability ( eg : upgrade)

Secondly, frame work helps in defining & fetching the information (data) in a common
terminology across multiple network elements rather using its own syntax

Logical interpretation of TMN frame work

The functionalities of each logical layer is listed below & we would try to throw some
light on them in future articles.

1. NE layer (physical devices used to carry voice/data) with agent running on each of
them
2. Element Management layer (EMS –Provisioning the NE’s)
3. Network Management layer (NMS – Provisioning NE’s in bulk of multiple networks,
may be of same type but managed by different service providers)
4. Operation support systems (OSS -Service fulfillment & assurance)
5. Business support systems (BSS – Customer service management –business
applications)

We will try to focus on EMS/NMS functionalities in detail viz... Fault, configuration,

accounting, performance& security management. The advantages of keeping the above as
driving factors has some justifications to be made.

FCAPS – A reasonable classification:

1. To estimate on the problem incidence

2. To identify the performance characteristics of critical components (both
software/physical elements)
3. To organize the network architectures based on the capacity data available
4. Streamline the configuration changes based on demand ( like upgrade/rollback) &
to take appropriate corrective measures
5. Locate/localize the security breaches when they occur.

In a nutshell , FCAPS is of technology centric for effective management of Networks

/Network elements .Await for more details in next article & do drop in your comments on
the same .