OSS: The Midfield Engine in the Next-Generation OAM

As mobile internet evolves and multi-network integration accelerates, network classes, service types and operation modes are changing. This is revolutionizing the environment for operation support systems. OAM is no longer confined to device alarms but emphasizes service quality. It is no longer satisfied with wireless indicators but concerned with customer experience. In addition, OAM did not limit to a single service but starts multidisciplinary and multi-service parallel operation.

Service Perception and Active Services Push OSS to the Front Stage
In the 4G era, as data and applications increase exponentially, the open, sharing, real-time mobile internet poses great challenges to the operator management model of decentralized maintenance and sequential scheduling. To break through barriers in existing operational support systems, traditional OAM is in transition from pure background support to customer experience-centric and service-oriented front end. This helps an operator realize full-service, end-to-end OAM and reduce OAM costs. The forward lead of OSS is an inevitable trend.
Intense competition is pushing operators to improve their service levels, which requires the OSS platform to support process reengineering and resource integration.

Lateral Coupling and Centralized Opening Pave the Way for Flatness and Intensification
A traditional stovepipe OSS individually serves professional networks so that multiple data sources are difficult to share. Lacking correlation of multidisciplinary service processes, it is hard to find faults. 
The flatness of networks and organizations strengthened the internal relations between professional networks and services. Intelligent OSS urgently needs unified resource management and full end-to-end service control to achieve the lateral coupling of services and networks. In addition, rising OTT services are leading to de-channel and growing virtual operators begin to slice off traditional operator market share. The open demand of OSS is extending from inside to outside networks. At present, OSS is casting off the shackles of isolated systems and eliminating proprietary applications. With open interfaces, the OSS is being integrated with OTT services flexibly in order to achieve interoperability from pipeline lease to service OAM. Therefore, the relationship between operators, OTT providers, and virtual operators is moving to cooperation from competition. Interoperability at the OSS layer is the key to good end-to-end customer experience. Interoperability increases the demands of end user for new services, creates traffic, and interprets an OSS as a service. Meanwhile, through the ongoing interconnection between e-Tom and ITIL on the TM-Forum, full professional and full information monitoring, cross-service correlation, and fast scheduling and adjustment will be achieved in the CT and IT domains. Quick access to multiple vendors’ networks through a unified platform enables strong centralized access of OSS and provides effective protection for intensification.

Real-Time, End-to-End Presentation Enables Visualization
In the mobile broadband era, operators are eager to shift from extensive pipeline operation to customer experience-centric optimized operation. As the foundation of optimized operation, visualization cannot stay on the network alarms and wireless indicators any more. Intelligent OSS makes concrete and digitalizes multiple dimensions indicators in terms of network operation, process status, service indicators, user perception and service quality. It also provides end-to-end visual data, including service data and OAM processes. Visualization establishes a data warehouse based on multiple data sources and encompasses Dashboard, GIS, graphics and tables, so that improve precise OAM and customer experience.
Without strong analysis function, an existing OSS still relies on the DPI analysis control flows in pipelines or service data flows captured by probes.  These do not accurately show the real-time status of user and network end-to-end pipelines traffic and are thus unable to support traffic services or troubleshooting. As SDN and NFV are being widely used, OSS not only presents alarm correlation of multiple network devices in the same service chain but also provides user-based, end-to-end, real-time multidimensional views and analysis capabilities. OSS enables intelligible, intuitive, comprehensive views through oriented query and mining functions. This helps OAM personnel obtain information quickly in order to guarantee customer experience.         
Visualized OSS simplifies abstract concepts and indicators and resolves physical differences in order to unify remote and local maintenance management. Moreover, by adding mobile OAM intelligent applications, OSS enables material scanning, electronic work order processing, remote fault location, performance tracking and micro knowledge bases. This normalizes remote OAM, and saves manpower, money and space. OSS also enables full space and time control of network operation status to make OAM support become a new area of competitiveness.

Increasingly Intelligent OSS Enables Automation
Most existing OSSs only report faults without displaying causes or provide analysis for a single subsystem. OAM personnel have to troubleshoot the faults. Today, a visual OSS is far from enough. Correlating various processes and services effectively to form automatic processes and an intelligent analysis engine is particularly important.
Intelligent OSS uses a data warehouse for multidisciplinary correlation analysis in terms of information, data, resources, and terminals. An intelligent terminal is triggered to collect data or conduct dial testing, automatically find the cause of a fault, list and sort possible causes, obtain related accurate and real-time information of service quality and critical performance indicators through alarms, and automatically add key users and services to the tracking menu to provide expert-level support for OAM. The depth of analysis has surpassed what is addressed by the traditional root cause analysis (RCA) process, and 80% to 100% of fault causes can be searched. In addition, intelligent OSS provides statistics so that OAM personnel and customer service center can analyze data in a timely way. It is capable of automatic self-healing, parameter optimization and automatic upgrade by collaborating with configuration management and commissioning management systems to resolve potential network problems and guarantee the quality of the infrastructure. It is also capable of automatic inspection and list dispatching by collaborating with electronic process systems. In addition, by supporting cloud computing management and cloud-based applications, OSS enables intelligent extensions and flexible deployment of system management domains.

ROSE Ushers in the Next-Generation OAM

ZTE's next-generation OAM solution will be integrated with the self-developed Revolution Operation Support Environment (ROSE), an OAM tool support platform, to achieve innovation.
ZTE has created a full-network, full-service operation support system called NetNumen™ ROSE (Fig. 1). This system has been created through self-development and joint development with industry-leading manufacturers. ROSE covers network planning, operational readiness, service provisioning and OAM management. It also provides customized solutions according to operator's actual operational status. As a convenient, intelligent and open visualized operation support system, ROSE satisfied operator requirements by guaranteeing excellent multidisciplinary end-to-end customer experience based on services. It reduces the maintenance difficulty created by new technologies and services, increases efficiency, and centralizes OAM.