“What happened to mobile on voice will happen to mobile data in the next 5 years… The key success factors that enabled the mobile revolution in voice will help mobile data as well.... intuitive user interfaces, and simplified access to services, affordable pricing of spectrum, clear LTE roadmap and economies of scale will herald a mobile data revolution for years to come, with every year bringing us closer to an always connected world...” Reference: Telecom Outlook 09, Frost & Sullivan

Communication Service Providers (CSP) continue to introduce new mobile data services at an ever-expanding rate. Hundreds of new services need to be deployed and managed. This includes both customer-facing and resource-facing services and sub-services. Often with no visibility of the overall customer experience the customer care organizations are searching for a better way to manage these new services.

In managing wireless data services OSS requirements are shifting. Event monitoring and management practices are not enough to manage the shift from voice to data which has accelerated over the last several years. Traditional voice services primarily relied upon cell site coverage. Management of handoffs between cellsites was the primary concern in customer assurance in combination with the customer plans, handsets, and minutes.

With data services, the service provider is challenged by even more complexities, such as:

• short messaging service (SMS),
• multimedia messaging service (MMS),
• games,
• GPS-based location services,
• music,
• video downloads,
• email,
• internet,
• ring tones,
• streaming video,
• mobile advertising, and
• mobile social networking

which all increase the complexity of customer assurance. Wireless Service Providers are demanding new Next Generation Service Assurance solutions that are not just managing network resources and cell sites but also managing the services and the overall customer experience.

Services ride upon the following mobile standards, each with various service facing resources that need to be modeled and managed appropriately:

• CDMA2000 is a hybrid 2.5G / 3G technology of mobile telecommunications standards that use CDMA, a multiple access scheme for digital radio, to send voice, data, and signalling data (such as a dialed telephone number) between mobile phones and cell sites. CDMA2000 is considered a 2.5G technology in 1xRTT and a 3G technology in EVDO. (definition reference from CDMA2000 wiki)
• GSM (Global System for Mobile communications: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. (definition reference from GSM wiki)
• General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet-oriented Mobile Data Service available to users of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and IS-136 mobile phones. It provides data rates from 56 up to 114 kbit/s. (definition reference from GPRS wiki)
• Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backwards-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE can be considered a 3G radio technology and is part of ITU's 3G definition[1] but is most frequently referred to as 2.75G. (definition reference from EDGE wiki)
• W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is a type of 3G cellular network. W-CDMA is the higher speed transmission protocol used in the Japanese FOMA system and in the UMTS system, a third generation follow-on to the 2G GSM networks deployed worldwide. W-CDMA transmits on a pair of 5 MHz-wide radio channels, while CDMA2000 transmits on one or several pairs of 1.25 MHz radio channels. (definition reference from W-CDMA wiki)
• Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) cell phone technologies, which is also being developed into a 4G technology. Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA as the underlying air interface. It is standardized by the 3GPP, and is the European answer to the ITU IMT-2000 requirements for 3G cellular radio systems. (definition reference from W-CDMA wiki)

Fundamentally management solutions need to collect events and KPI's from the various network resources, cell sites, HLR, MSC, and related equipment themselves. In addition, there are other data sources that contribute to the total customer experience such as Call Detail Records, Signaling, Customer Trouble Tickets, Customer Relationship Management, Inventory, and other integrations. Below we reference the network diagrams for CDMA2000 and GSM networks.

CDMA 2000 Network Resource Diagram

Example: CDMA network diagram (Reference CDG)

GSM Network Resource Diagram

Example: GSM network diagram (Reference GSM)

The demand for wireless data services anywhere and anytime increases the complexity in management. The multi-protocol multi-vendor network resources need to be not just monitored, but also managed. As an example service providers have increased challenges in managing the following functions:

• Monitoring of protocols including IP SNMP, 3GPP, XML, Corba, CMIP, etc...
• Collecting KPI's across protocols including IP SNMP, 3GPP, XML, Corba, CMIP, etc...
• Sending Activation, Test, Reset, and Reconfiguration commands across protocols including IP SNMP, 3GPP, XML, Corba, CMIP, etc...
• Correlating events and KPI's together and sending commands directly to a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) to reset it due to problems.
• Propagation of KPI exceptions to impacted services and products when a resource is degraded

One of the most critical components is a Common Information Model (CIM) which can be synchronized with an existing inventory system, Configuration Management Database (CMDB), and service modeling tool. The CIM can also be populated as an active inventory through resource and service management discovery adapters. The goal is to be able to model point-to-point relationships between resources, services, and products.

Example:
If a GGSN fails
Then what services are impacted
are there redundant failover GGSN's?
can a user simulate this service impact?
can I propagate this using algorithms?

Example: Service Model Relationships

Getting it right the first time

With wireless services it is even more important to get the service right the first time, as customer churn can be very difficult to overcome other than locking users down with one to two year contracts. Contracts aside, getting the service right or wrong can often feed the technology and business news hungry press. Early adopters may immediately purchase the latest handsets, while others are just waiting and reading the latest news, peer reviews, opinion sites, etc... to determine if they should make the switch, and therefore, getting the wireless data service fast enough and of highest quality is critical to growing your subscriber base.

Where is the problem?

Managing the Wireless resources layer, event correlation, service impact, and service activation is where OSI NETeXPERT has been leveraged for nearly 20 years.

OSI's goal is to help Communication Service Providers proactively provide as much information as possible on service-impacting resources, as well as help automate the test and resolution of end-to-end Wireless resources, including but not limited to the following resources:

• base transceiver station (BTS)
• base station controller (BSC)
• Home Location Register (HLR)/Visitor Location Register (VLR)
• Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)
• Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN),
• Radio Network Controllers (RNC)
• 3rd Party: Email, Content, Internet, and
• High ARPU Blackberry business service resources

Retaining customers in today’s competitive wireless environment requires the development and management of Customer Experience Management. Customers have higher expectations for wireless data services. The bar has been set very high with new 3G handsets and wireless broadband mobile technologies.

Wireless resources, services, and products must be managed, not just monitored, for optimal customer satisfaction. Existing event monitoring systems which just monitor and filter events are not sufficient in managing today's wireless networks. If you are relying on a successful launch of new services you cannot merely rely on event monitoring and filtering.

• Network topology relationships are required between BTS/BSC, HLR/MSC, and GGSN/SGSN equipment for resource correlations and service impact.
• Service model propagation is also required to help determine service impact.
• Customer and service portals then provide visibility to service impact.
• Portals can also enable on-demand testing and configuration.
• Service impacting escalations help to much more rapidly diagnose problems, increasing customer satisfaction.

OSI is actively managing Wireless networks and services across Communication Service Providers around the world. NETeXPERT is used to manage network resources, to maintain service quality, and to improve the customer experience. OSI implements solutions built with network and service models and automated behavior policies for correlation and propagation for service impact. Adapters are also available to help gather events, exceptions, and KPI's from service resources, including signaling, active tests, fault, performance, and other systems.

To learn more about these solutions, feel free to contact us.

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