Liberalization of communications Industry-
wireless network life cycle-
What is Network Lifecycle Management? It is a new concept that simply means that a company’s
network needs tender love and care from the planning phase all the way through the EOL phase when
a new network is installed. And careful lifecycle management means that the length of time before
that happens will be extended.
A network lifecycle begins with the conceptual stage. Careful planning as to the customer’s current as
well as future needs must be taken into consideration, and scalability must be built in from the start.
An assessment of existing infrastructure and needed upgrades is performed at this time.
Installation is the next phase of the lifecycle – and this is followed by a thorough validation of the
install to make sure no present or future “gotchas” exist. Any latent point of failure is identified and
rectified to make sure the network is robust.
During the operational phase of the network lifecycle, it makes sense to remotely monitor the network
for any signs of new problems through services like Cisco’s Smart set of services or Broadsoft’s
PacketSmart technology. Proactive network management is far superior to trying to figure out what
went wrong after the fact, with irate employees with no Internet, email or phone service asking what
is going on.
Any issues discovered during the monitoring phase should be dealt with immediately, so that small
problems never escalate into large ones.
If designed properly in the conceptual phase, a network should scale and grow to meet the needs of
employees over time by simply adding new wiring and equipment. Equipment upgrades can be
performed remotely (in the case of SW upgrades), or by swapping out pieces of equipment for newer
models without replacing the entire network.
When the time finally comes and an entirely new network is required to keep pace with technology –
proper lifecycle management will make this task painless too!
To make sure your network is managed properly in every phase of its useful life, why not
call structured wiring experts? They will create a comprehensive plan for your network that will allow
you to gain maximum value from it for the longest time frame possible, making it a cost effective and
logical choice. They will carefully assess your unique needs, as the right installer should understand
that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to a network.
ETOM-
Telecom Operations Map (TOM) is a network management model by the TeleManagement Forum (part of ITU-T) to
replace the aging Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model. The enhanced Telecom Operations
Map(eTOM) is the current version of this model. eTOM describes the full scope of business processes required by a
service provider and defines key elements and how they interact. eTOM has been adopted as ITU-T International
Recommendation, known in 2004 as M.3050.
In the eTOM framework, four lifecycle stages are defined:
Fulfillment: operations for providing customers with their requested products and services in a timely and
correct manner. It translates the customer's business or personal need into a solution, which can be delivered using
the specific products in the enterprise's portfolio. This process informs the customers of the status of their purchase
order, ensures completion on time, as well as ensuring a delighted customer.
Assurance: includes all activities for the execution of proactive and reactive maintenance activities to
ensure that services provided to customers are continuously available and performing to SLA or QoS performance
levels. It performs continuous resource status and performance monitoring to proactively detect possible failures. It
collects performance data and analyses them to identify potential problems and resolve them without impact to the
customer. This process manages the SLAs and reports service performance to the customer. It receives trouble
reports from the customer, informs the customer of the trouble status, and ensures restoration and repair, as well as
ensuring a delighted customer.
Billing: involves everything necessary for the collection of appropriate usage records, production of timely
and accurate bills, for providing prebill use information and billing to customers, for processing their payments, and
performing payment collections. In addition, it handles customer inquiries about bills, provides billing inquiry status
and is responsible for resolving billing problems to the customer's satisfaction in a timely manner. This process
grouping also supports prepayment for services.
Operations Support & Readiness: responsible for providing management, logistics and administrative
support to the above FAB process groupings, and for ensuring operational readiness in the fulfillment, assurance
and billing areas. This group of functions maybe none-real-time and none-customer-facing in most cases.