Analysis of NGMN Requirements REQ 8: OSS Standard Itf-N

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Analysis of NGMN RequirementsREQ 8 OSS
Standard Itf-N
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Specifications

• Related 3GPP SA5 specifications
• IRP Methodology specification 32.15x
• All Interface IRPs and NRM IRPs defined in 3GPP
  SA5

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IRP Concept Build to last and to cope with
change
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IRP Development Principles

• NRM IRP Extendibility
• vsDataContainer
• Rule-based NRM Extensions (e.g. Sub-classing)
• Enabling Technology vendor specific NRM
  extensions (e.g. 3GPP2 NRMs are
  technology-specific NRM extensions !!)
• Interface IRP Flexibility
• Flexible use of qualifiers mandatory and
  optional for operations, notifications and/or
  parameters allows for simple as well as
  feature-rich implementations
• NRM/Technology-neutrality avoidance of
  competing procedures
• Enabling wide applicability, phased introduction
  capabilities broad industry adoption (not just
  for wireless !!)

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OSS Standard Itf-N
Requirements Existing 3GPP Standards Status
Plug Play It must be possible to implement the interfaces between Network and OSS systems easy and efficient by lowest costs and smallest effort (ideally without any development and/or configuration). SA5 IRPs are fully standardized an allow Plug Play to the extent possible. It would help the industry if ISVs would get more involved in the work.
Useful It must deliver efficient support for the OSS business processes. The interface must deliver the needed OSS semantics to support the process. IRPs have been designed to deliver the information on the Itf-N. In case anything is missing it is possible to extend IRPs.
Re-useable / Generic The interface must be generic enough, to enable the re-use in different integration/business scenarios. Interface IRPs are clearly separated from NRM IRPs. Interface IRPs are generic, and therefore reusable to a high degree.
Flexible / Extensible It must be possible to extend the interface capabilities (methods and attributes), without breaking the standard. Mechanisms to add vendor specific extensions to resource models are specified. Interface IRP usage is highly flexible as defined containing necessary mandatory capabilities, while allowing usage of additional optional features
Standardized / Open The interface has to be based on unambiguously standardized specification, which does not allow room for interpretation. The specification and related artifacts must be freely available and useable for everybody. SA5 IRPs are fully standardized up to the syntax going over the wire. Specifications are available without any restriction.
Mature / Stable The interface must be stable and mature, to avoid expensive changes on implemented interfaces. The majority of the Interface IRPs are mature and stable since several 3GPP releases
De-coupled Changes in the application or in the interface implementation at one of the communication partners may not lead to the need for changes in the application or in the interface implementation of the other communication partners. The business logic of applications is always independent from the interface as such. More clarification needed for the requirement wrt interface changes.
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OSS Standard Itf-N
Requirements Existing 3GPP Standards Status
Evolutionary OSS interface shall re-use already existing, widely adopted and mature IT standards (e.g. transport protocols) to avoid reinventing the wheel. IRPs use CORBA, SOAP and XML.
Independent The interface specification must be independent from underlying infrastructure. Needs more clarification but by separating the IS definitions (IF semantics behavior) from SS definitions (syntax), there is a high degree of independence, and new protocol technologies can be adopted easily, w/o changes to applications
Upward-/Downward Compatibility It must be possible to implement a new version of an interface specification at one of the communication partners, while the other communication partners still use an old version of the interface specification. It is an implementation choice if the IRPManager or IRPAgent supports multiple versions. Nevertheless there is a communication mechanism to retrieve information about what IRP versions are supported by an IRPAgent.
Interoperability The interface implementation shall be based on an interoperable portfolio of interfaces / interface specifications to support different OSS business processes using a common architecture and a common information model. Different Interface and NRM IRPs are available for different business needs. They can be freely combined to cope with any business processes.
Scalability No performance constraints caused by the interface specification or the implementation. IRPs are based on standard IT technology
Security The interface has to be able to ensure confidentiality and availability of the data, which is transferred by the interface. SOAP Solution Sets are based on standard WS, and WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0 can be used. See also TS 32.37x specification for related security concepts, services solutions
Reliability / Integrity The interface implementation has to ensure the reliability and the integrity of the data, which is transferred by the interface. CORBA SS is based on OMG specifications. SOAP SS are based on standard WS, and WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0 can be used.
Adopted Verified Widely adopted and verified, so that every vendor supports it. Accepted by 3GPP community, and adopted by 3GPP2 community (considered by WiMAX). More involvement of ISVs would be beneficial.
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Conclusion

• 3GPP SA5 Interface IRPs and NRM IRPs meet all
  requirements specified