| The telecommunications market space has seen a lot | | | | functions that are vital for any ISP. These range from |
| of changes from the simple telephone days to the | | | | configuration solutions to alarm reporting and other |
| present day triple play solutions. While the initial phase | | | | control features. What these NMS/EMS systems |
| of telecom landscape was defined by getting in more | | | | have done is that they have allowed ISPs to start |
| bandwidth in the network, followed by providing bigger | | | | monitoring and troubleshooting the network problems |
| pipes to consumer, the present day challenge is being | | | | remotely from a central location rather than from field. |
| more agile and quicker to react to market needs and | | | | This gives a lot of cost savings and reduced |
| demands. Telecom OSS systems are key in these | | | | troubleshooting cycles. |
| new rules of the land. | | | | With the growing market demands and changing |
| Operational Support Systems, or OSS as they are | | | | equations, the scope of OSS solutions increased from |
| called for short, are not necessary for the service to | | | | network element management to customer and |
| work, but are critical to ensure that service can be | | | | business management and more importantly to |
| delivered, is delivered, and will continue to be delivered. | | | | inventory management solutions. These new solutions |
| They are the support systems that make the service | | | | are vital for the ISP to maintain its edge over the |
| delivery happen. Over the years, the telecom | | | | competition. Without good management systems, in |
| operators have expanded their operations into many | | | | today's complex networks losing track of things is not |
| domains and that has led to a lot of network built up. | | | | tough. |
| Keeping track of and managing these networks is | | | | Inventory management is probably the most important |
| where OSS solutions help. | | | | addition to OSS functions in recent times. With lot of |
| One of the earlier OSS solutions to hit the market was | | | | planning and upgrading going on, keeping track of |
| EMS solutions or Element Management Systems. | | | | inventory is absolutely essential. The inventory needs |
| These were management solutions provided by a | | | | to be maintained to ensure that existing customer do |
| single network equipment vendor to manage their | | | | not get cut off mistakenly or new customers are left |
| network elements in the ISP network. However, with | | | | without service due to insufficient resources. OSS can |
| growing business and competition among vendors, | | | | help address both these problems. |
| ISPs have diversified their networks to have elements | | | | The next phase of OSS solutions would be becoming |
| from different vendors. This way they can de-risk | | | | versatile to handle any technology, any solution and |
| dependence on a single source. This led to the NMS, | | | | any network deployment situation. This is critical as all |
| or Network Management System, evolution that could | | | | ISPs are now pushing for triple play solutions to attract |
| manage elements in such a heterogeneous | | | | customers and retain them. In such an environment, the |
| environment. | | | | OSS systems need to be equally strong to allow the |
| The NMS/EMS solutions provide several management | | | | ISP to deliver these services in a timely fashion. |