AMDOCS OSS 8.

Amdocs Service Fulfillment Adapter

8.1
Product Description
Document Information

Release: 8.1
Publication Date:
Catalog Number:
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Created: 06/02/11
Account/FOP:
Author: Segev Lev
Editor:
Last Edited: 06/02/11
File Name: Service Fulfillment Adapter 8.1 Product Description.docx
Template: Product.dot

© 2011 Amdocs. All Rights Reserved.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction to Amdocs Service Fulfillment Adapter ............................................... 5

Key features and benefits .............................................................................................................. 7

2 Product Features ........................................................................................................ 9

Core features ................................................................................................................................. 9
Standard Plug-in features ............................................................................................................ 11

3 User Interface Functions .......................................................................................... 13

Resource and Relations Browsers............................................................................................... 13
Homepages .................................................................................................................................. 14

4 Licensing Information............................................................................................... 15

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1 Introduction to Amdocs Service
Fulfillment Adapter
Amdocs OSS 8.1 provides a complete range of products to support the
service fulfillment lifecycle.

 Amdocs Resource Manager maintains an accurate model of network

capacity and connectivity by maintaining a detailed inventory of the
physical, logical and service components of the network.
 Amdocs Task Engine provides automated technical design of service
orders using pre-defined templates.
 Amdocs Delivery Engine performs translation of the design outputs
into optimized implementation jobs.
Fulfilment of complex service orders may require a combination of several
processes involving the collaboration of both Amdocs and non-Amdocs
fulfilment components each with its own distinct interface.

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Amdocs Delivery Engine 1.9 Product Description

Figure 1 – Amdocs Service Fulfillment Adapter Architecture

The Amdocs Service Fulfillment Adaptor provides a single service
fulfilment interface for both Amdocs OSS and non-Amdocs fulfilment
systems handling the complexity of each fulfilment application program
interface (API) and managing the exchange of parameters between these.

Pre-integrated with the Amdocs OSS 8.1 suite, the Service Fulfilment
Adapter supports the eTOM service configuration and activation lifecycle.
Its pluggable architecture allows fulfilment plug-ins for other third-party or
legacy fulfilment systems to be easily developed and integrated into the
overall fulfilment architecture.

Since Amdocs Service Composition Manager (SCM) and Amdocs Service

Order Manager (SOM) use this same fulfilment interface for network
feasibility check and service fulfilment plan orchestration, respectively, the
Service Fulfilment Adapter allows seamless integration between Service
Management and Resource Management components of the Amdocs OSS
8.1 suite.

The Service Fulfilment Adapter promotes modular template design and

reduces overall total cost of ownership by encouraging the decomposition
of the service fulfilment process for a single service into multiple fine-
grained and reusable fulfilment operations and providing built-in support
for intercommunication between these.

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 Chapter ‎1. Introduction to Amdocs Service Fulfillment Adapter

Key features and benefits

Single Consistent Fulfilment Interface
The Service Fulfillment Adapter provides a single consistent interface for
all fulfillment operations including feasibility, design, and implementation.
It shields Order Manager components from the complexities of having to
manage the many different fulfillment systems which participate in the
service fulfillment processes.

Flexible Fulfillment Architecture

New fulfillment operations can be configured. This provides greater
flexibility in designing complex-lifecycle fulfillment architectures and
supports the eTOM service configuration and activation lifecycle.
Fulfilment operations are not limited to simply design or implementation
and customer-configurable operations and their dependencies may be
defined according to the customer’s business processes.

Pluggable Architecture
Service Fulfillment Adapter’s extensible design allows fulfillment plug-ins
for other fulfillment components to be developed, allowing easy integration
of new and legacy components.

Plug-ins for Resource Manager, Task Engine and Delivery Engine are
provided as standard.

Simplified Configuration
Configuration of fulfillment processes is though a single XML-based
configuration file for each high-level service operation. This file-based
approach facilitates simplified configuration management and deployment.

Modular Template Design

The Service Fulfillment Adapter supports calls to multiple processes within
a single service fulfillment operation and provides built-in support for inter-
process communication between these. As a result, processes (e.g. Task
Engine Templates) can be made smaller and more modular thereby
promoting reusability and reduced cost of ownership.

Pre-integrated with Service Order Manager and Service Composition Manager

Service Composition Manager’s service catalog defines fulfillment
operations, actions, methods and characteristics for each service
specification which map to the configuration items required for the Service
Fulfillment Adapter.

Resource feasibility checking during service composition uses the Service

Fulfillment Adapter’s synchronous interface. Orchestration of the service
fulfillment process by Service Order Manager uses the asynchronous
interface to request design and implementation services.

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Amdocs Delivery Engine 1.9 Product Description

Enhanced Fulfilment Process

The Service Fulfilment Adapter enables sophisticated mapping of design to
delivery within a service fulfillment operation and, in conjunction with
Service Composition Manager, across the entire service plan for an order
allowing the optimization of implementation plans for all components of an
order.

Multiple transport options

Alternative transport protocols are supported including

 Synchronous operation through RMI where a quick answer is

required (e.g. network feasibility checking).
 Asynchronous operation through JMS suitable for longer-running
fulfillment operations.

Figure 2 – Amdocs Product Positioning

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2 Product Features
The Service Fulfillment Adapter offers a range of features designed to
simplify the rollout of service fulfillment components and to reduce the cost
of deploying and maintaining the fulfillment process for new services.

Core features
Unified Fulfillment Interface
The Service Fulfillment Adapter implements the Manage Resource Service
(MRS) capability.

The MRS capability defines the functionality to request the design and
implementation of a service on the network including its characteristics.

Configurable Fulfillment Operations

Fulfillment processes are configured through XML-based configuration
files. Different processes may be specified according to

 service specification and version

 operation to be performed
 order type (provide, cease or modify)
 custom-defined fulfillment method
Each configuration file specifies the characteristics of the service
specification which will be input to and output from the operation, the
processes which must be executed and the mappings of parameters between
these processes.

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Amdocs Delivery Engine 1.9 Product Description

For example to create a broadband access connection service, the following

fulfillment processes are required.

CPE Location
Find Free Port

Port No.

Create xSDL
Service Name Connection

DSL Circuit

PVC
Create ATM PVC Project

Project

Implement
Connectivity

Figure 3 – Broadband Access Connection (Provide)

The configuration file will specify:

Input characteristics

 CPE Location
 Service Name
Fulfillment processes and the mappings between these

 Find Free Port – provided by a legacy system

 Create xDSL Connection – provided by Task Engine
 Create ATM PVC - provided by Task Engine
 Implement Connectivity – provided by Delivery Engine
Output characteristics

 The PVC circuit created

Service Fulfillment Process Orchestration

The Service Fulfillment Adapter controller component performs
orchestration of the fulfillment processes defined by a configuration file.

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 Chapter ‎2. Product Features

The controller handles the execution of each fulfillment process in sequence

and the passing of parameters between these. The state of the overall
operation and parameters is persisted at each stage allowing long running or
manual processes to be managed.

XML-based Configuration
XML-based configuration files are used to specify the detailed fulfillment
steps which must be performed for a particular service specification,
version, operation, order type and method. Such configuration files are
reusable so that for example the same fulfillment steps may be relevant to
multiple service specifications or multiple versions of the same
specification. Such configuration files are easy to maintain and to deploy
and may be configuration managed.

Extensible Architecture
The Service Fulfillment Adapter has been designed to be extensible and to
support the integration with non-Amdocs and legacy fulfillment processes.
This is achieved by creating a fulfillment plug-in which implements a
standard interface and which wraps the fine-grained complexity of the
fulfillment system API.

Standard Plug-in features

The Service Fulfillment Adapter is delivered with standard plug-ins for
Resource Manager, Task Engine and Delivery Engine.

Resource Manager
The Resource Manager plug-in allows the Service Fulfillment Adapter to
perform Resource Manager API calls. An example of such a call is to
perform a network feasibility check to determine the optimal fulfillment
solution prior to design and implementation of a service.

Task Engine
The Task Engine plug-in automatically creates a Design Project based on
the Template specified in the configuration. It the starts and orchestrates the
Project flow, synchronously processing automatic Tasks for lights-out
operation and asynchronously handling manual Tasks, resuming the process
once manual Task processing has completed.

The plug-in returns the Design Project identifier which may be passed into
the Delivery Engine for implementation project processing.

The Task Engine plug-in supports rollback of Tasks to support order cancel
and amend requests.

Delivery Engine
The Delivery Engine plug-in automatically creates an Implementation
Project based on the Template specified in the configuration. Using the

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Amdocs Delivery Engine 1.9 Product Description

Delivery Engine API, it then generates Jobs using the Design Records
attached to each of the Design Projects which are passed as input
parameters and then groups and optimizes the Jobs. Jobs can be auto-issued
or processed manually and the plug-in keeps track of the Job status
returning once the Project is complete.

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3 User Interface Functions
Since the Service Fulfillment Adapter is designed to be independent of
specific Order Management and Network Resource Management
components, it does not depend on any user interface framework.

Specific fulfillment plug-ins, however, may make use of user interface

capabilities within the products which they support. For example both the
Task Engine and Delivery Engine plug-ins make use of the Resource
Manager user interface to provide information about the status of
fulfillment processes.

Design and Implementation Projects are associated with a Service

Fulfillment Order object which represents the entire service fulfillment
operation. Other fulfillment plug-ins may make use of this framework if
required.

Resource and Relations Browsers

Service Fulfillment Orders details can be browsed from the SFAOrder Tab
in both the Resource and Relations Browser. Design and Implementation
Project details, Task and Jobs can be explored by drilling into further levels
of detail.

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Amdocs Delivery Engine 1.9 Product Description

Figure 4 – SFAOrder Object Hierarchy

Homepages
Service Fulfillment Orders have a dynamically generated HomePage
allowing access to configuration information on the object, and links to
other related objects. Every HomePage has standard attributes for naming,
audit trail and status management purposes.

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4 Licensing Information
Product name Amdocs Service Fulfillment Adapter
Product Code IN7-CN-0830-00
Product pre-requisites Amdocs Resource Manager
Amdocs Task Engine (if used with Task Engine)
Amdocs Delivery Engine (if used with Delivery
Engine)
Platform pre- Amdocs OSS 8.1 Platform Requirements.
requisites
Licensing The product is licensed on a deployed instance
basis with a base price plus a service capability
increment
Notes Amdocs does not grant the rights to connect to
the external systems; these rights must be sought
from the external system vendor.
Delivery list  Right to use license
 Software
 Documentation
 Installation notes and release notes

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Document Release Information

Release Editor Edited Date Comments Doc Version

8.1 Segev Lev 06/02/11 Updated version for 8.1 1

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