The end of OSS silo era
Services provided by the network infrastructure that used to be simple and straightforward, are now a complex mesh of connected resources, content and suppliers. They are now logically separated from the underlying transport network. Such changes in the services model approach make the traditional “silo-based” OSS organization obsolete. Building a separate stack of systems for each new service or network takes too long and is too expensive. Operators must reorganize themselves, transforming their OSS infrastructure along with their entire network into the new era. This is the place where modern NGOSS compliant systems take their role. The core element of modern OSS is the inventory management system.
Knowledge about facilities is an essential requirement for management. A typical network infrastructure consists of hundreds of thousands of network elements composing a complex web of connections and relations. More importantly, the network is constantly evolving and changing due to expansion, failures and optimizations. It’s a living organism that can’t have a day off even for maintenance. The main goal of an OSS system is to provide mechanisms for managing this organism, providing functionalities which allow operators design services, delivering them to the customers and assuring their quality. Additionally, OSS systems help maintain the network, optimizing connections and exchanging information between external networks or suppliers. All of these tasks are performed according to well defined processes or procedures. Unfortunately, each operator has their own specific characteristics and organization. Lack of standard OSS processes and procedures makes the implementation of any business process management system a complex and expensive task. The standardized approach for defining all management processes to be carried out by Telco operators have been proposed by TeleManagement Forum in the Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM). Thanks to eTOM, all interested parties can communicate in the same language. TM Forums eTOM describes management processes by dividing them into a number of areas in the four layers (customers, services, resources, suppliers) and at several levels of details.