A Smarter, Faster, More Profitable Communications Network

The TeleManagement Forum (TMF) is working on a framework called eTOM, short for enhanced Telecom Operations Map, which precisely lays out the operational and business processes that communications service providers should implement to best run their businesses. eTOM is one of three pillars of NGOSS. The one missing piece was how to implement NGOSS in the real world. That's where the OSS through Java (OSS/J) Initiative comes in.

A network that manages and repairs itself, makes it easier for telecommunications companies to develop and launch new services, is highly customizable but fully standards-compliant, reduces costs while it increases revenue. ... It sounds too good to be true, right? But it's on its way.

This new telecommunications network will be a lean, mean machine that provides next-generation functionality without the complexity and cost of current setups. Built using the framework and standards developed by the TeleManagement Forum (TMF)—an industry group that has provided strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the management and operation of information and communications services for more than 15 years—the proposed standards promise to boost operational efficiency and adaptability by providing communications service providers with a true Internet-enabled infrastructure.

The TMF's New Generation Operations Systems and Software, or NGOSS, is a roadmap intended to facilitate the rapid development of flexible and affordable communications solutions. Using such proven technologies as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), NGOSS will allow providers to open their networks to new services and partnerships, enabling broad-based convergence while maintaining security and control over corporate assets.

The Pros and Cons of Convergence

"All over Europe convergence is already happening," says Philippe Lalande, a member of the TMF's board of directors. "You have cable TV operators providing high-speed Internet and phone services. At the same time, you have DSL providers broadcasting TV programs on the telephone line and offering phone services, content development companies providing mobile and/or fixed communications, and so on.

"Convergence means new business opportunities, but it also means telecommunications firms are facing competition coming from different horizons, and are now only one element in the 'food chain' with dependencies or partnerships with content owners," Lalande adds. "Clearly the companies who will be able to best control the monetizable assets, including the network, the content, the service infrastructure, customer base, and the supply chain—and who can run the leanest operations and business processes—will win."

But is it possible to have a lean network capable of integrating hundreds of complex software applications and the dozens of operational and business processes necessary to manage nationwide heterogeneous networks, hundreds of services with millions of customers, and billions of transactions per day?

Complexity breeds complexity—or at least it has until now.

"Integration and convergence costs run extremely high," says Alan Murray-Hill, a technology financial consultant based in the United Kingdom. "And companies aren't getting a real return on their outlay. In Europe and the Americas, we're seeing that over 50 percent of spending on system integration work is not recyclable from one project to another. Each project involves reinventing the wheel.

"Compound that with limited existing systems that are inflexible—do not easily allow for the introduction of new services, block alterations on operational processes, do not permit the integration of the several OSSs (operations support systems) necessary in B2B or post-merger scenarios—and it's easy to see why telecom companies are struggling with what they want to do, and what their current network allows them to do."

Java Technology Offers a Solution

Happily, a solution is on the way. The TMF is working on a framework called eTOM, short for enhanced Telecom Operations Map, which precisely lays out the operational and business processes that communications service providers should implement to best run their businesses.

eTOM is one of three pillars of NGOSS. The other two components are the Shared Information/Data (SID) project, which will provide the industry with a common vocabulary to define NGOSS architectures, and a Technology Neutral Architecture, which allows NGOSS to continually leverage the best technologies as soon as they are developed.

These three pillars provided a foundation to build on. But the one missing piece was how to implement NGOSS in the real world. That's where the OSS through Java (OSS/J) Initiative comes in.

"NGOSS is defining the overall process and data-model views, and OSS/J is focusing on real implementation through standard Java APIs that enable a plug-and-play approach to build OSS/BSS solutions," explains Lalande, who is also the program manager of the OSS/J Initiative. (APIs are the application programming interfaces that allow software applications to communicate.)

"Because of the recent and rapid success of OSS/J with some tier one service providers such as Vodafone, British Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom, TMF now wants to embrace and reference OSS/J as the first technology-specific implementation of NGOSS," Lalande says.

Nokia Networks is using the latest NGOSS framework and deliverables from OSS/J to speed service deployment, reduce complexity, and lower its integration costs, according to Kari Rossi, chief architect and director of OSS technology at Nokia Networks. In a recent TMF case study, Rossi notes that NGOSS and the OSS/J Initiative "together comprise one of the few industry efforts producing standard architecture and interfaces enabling interoperable OSS applications, systems, and equipment."

Members of the TMF and the OSS/J Initiative are developing a cost-effective, multitier network architecture based on J2EE technology to create interchangeable, interoperable components that can be quickly and easily assembled into OSS solutions that run on any platform.

Sun Microsystems is a founding member of the OSS/J Initiative.

"Sun's adherence to open standards allows a programmer to write code once and then distribute to many different clients, knowing it will work perfectly with virtually every system and product that's out there," explains Java technology programmer Keith Andrews.

"Adopting Java technology widely in the telecommunications industry is going to cut through a world of complexity and accelerate an entirely new technology and business environment right now and in the immediate future, not years down the road," Andrews adds. "You will be amazed by what your network will be able to do."