Trouble Ticketing X Interfaces

1

• Trouble Ticketing X Interfaces
• for
• International Private Leased Data Circuits
• and
• International Freephone Service

Stefan Covaci Deutsche Telekom Berkom / GMD
FOKUS Goslarer Ufer 35 D-10589 Berlin,
GERMANY covaci_at_fokus.gmd.de
Lucia Marchisio CSELT Via Reiss Romoli 274 10148
Torino, ITALY lucia.marchisio_at_cselt.it
David J. Milham BT Laboratories Martlesham
Heath Ipswich IP5 3RE, UK milhamdj_at_boat.bt.com
2
Process Integration Objectives

• Faster access to relevant information
• Reduce transaction costs

Customers

• Control service dependencies
• Reduce transaction costs

Service Management Systems

Other Providers

• Reduce manual intervention
• One-touch flow-through
• Primary Focus For Value Add

• Faster service creation
• Easier provisioning
• Meaningful data

Courtesy of NMF
3
Interoperable Trouble Ticketing
Telecom Network Operator A
Repair Control
Trouble Ticket Record of Repair Progress
TNO B
Close
Create
Repair Control
Processes
Trouble Ticket Record of Repair Progress
Create
Close
Network surveillance
Analysis diagnosis
Restoration Repair
Repair Reception
Processes
Network surveillance
Analysis diagnosis
Restoration Repair
Repair Reception
Physical Repairs
Alarm Reports
Physical Repairs
Alarm Reports
Equipment Alarms
Interoperable Interface
4
Projects Objectives

• To move rapidly into the implementation phase of
  specifications for automating inter Service
  Provider management capabilities in Europe.
• To gain a practical understanding of what it
  takes to develop, validate, deploy and operate
  these automated interfaces.

5
Entities influencing the Interface
Administrative Organisational Structures
Business Agreements MoU
Trouble Ticketing Interface
Repair Processes
Legacy Operations Support Systems
Policy
Network Service
6
Project Deliverables

• Operational Scenarios Policy Reqs.
• X.Coop /X.User Specific Reqs.
• Service Specific Reqs. IPLC, ATM,...
• Non- Functional Reqs.

Harmonised Requirements
Compliance Checks

• Analysis of problem domain
• Structured into Management Function Sets
• (MFS) with Pre and Post conditions
• Protocol Neutral Management Functions (MF)
• Profile Based upon X.790 with corrections

Ensemble X.Coop and X.User
Test campaign tests scenarios

• Organised into MFS tests and MF tests
• Ensemble tests follow the Operational
• Scenarios
• Test normal and abnormal behaviours

Test Suites
7
TT operations at X Interface - X.User
X.User
TNO - Service Provider
Customer
(Agent Role)
(Manager Role)
Trouble
Ticket
Escalate
Update TT
Escalate
Progress
Archive
Monitor
Key
Cancel
Manager Process
Verification
Agent Process
Internal Agent Process
Clear/Close
8
TT operations at X Interface -X.coop
X.Coop
Trouble
Trouble
Ticket
Escalate
Update TT
Ticket
Escalate
Progress
Archive
Monitor
Key
Cancel
Manager Process
Verification
Agent Process
Internal Agent Process
Clear/Close
9
Trouble Ticketing Ensemble
Trouble Ticketing X.User / X.coop Ensemble
Creation
Tracking Monitoring History
Management
Closure
Trouble Report Information Retrieval
Trouble Report Monitoring
Trouble Report Tracking
Trouble Report Resynchronisation
History Retrieval
10
Management Information Model
Notation

M.3100-network
Aggregation
Inheritance
contains
Many (zero or more)
account
contains
contains
contains
X.721-log
cnmService
troubleReport
is logged in
is related to
contains
troubleHistory
Record
MO in
provider
telecommunications
Trouble
TroubleReport
TroubleReport
11
Validation of the specification
HP OPENVIEW
TI
IBM TMN 6000
BT
HP OTS 9000
IBM TMN SF/6000
Set-up the test-bed (platforms interoperability
at protocol level) Run the application tests (ATS)
X.25 RFC 1006
HP OPENVIEW
IT
HP OPENVIEW
HP OTS 9000
DT
ST
Vertel Upper Layers
HP OTS 9000
SunLink OSI
Vertel Dev. Tools
Feedback from tests logged and fed back into
final specification
12
Learning Points

• Availability of a Standard doesnt remove need
  for
• In depth understanding of specification
• Understanding the business processes
• Need to balance complexity with flexibility
• Establishing how to apply to specific operational
  environment service

13
Implementation Issues

• Large number of attributes across the X
  interfaces
• XMP API (XOM data structures) not efficient
• Higher level APIs not suitable for GUI
  implementation
• JAVA / WEB based GUIs preferred
• Managing GDMO
• Mapping from ASN.1 v2 to v1

14
Conclusions
Adopting Standards ITU-T X.790 - correcting
errors, profiling NMF - SMART
Facilitating MoU process ETNO ATM MoU -
Operations Support Services
Injecting real operational requirements Harmonis
ation among legacy operations systems Minimum
list of trouble error codes and trouble error
causes codes
Providing a pre-field solution