Page 354 - Handbook of Modern Telecommunications

Network Management and Administration 3-145

• Handle Configuration Requests: This process initiates/accepts configuration requests to/from
other providers.
• Upgrading and Reporting: This process upgrades customer records and reports the completion of
the configuration/activation tasks.
3.6.5.3 Service Design and Assign
This process is part of the fulfillment process on those services that require specific custom design or
topology changes. These are typically complex business services that can include service to multiple
users and locations, and possibly multiple service elements. As a simple example, imagine a typical busi-
ness requirement for VPN services between two or more locations. Historically the design of these paths
to enable the service was planned by engineering planning departments and the service was assigned
or enabled manually.
Due to the multitechnology, multinetwork, and multiplayer nature of most services and the fact that
networks typically contain thousands of network elements and nodes, the manual design and creation
of services is a time-consuming and error-prone process.
To simplify service design, intelligent path analysis functions and other tools are needed, usually built
into the inventory to automate the process. These features enable network engineers to quickly identify—
after selecting just a few key criteria—an optimal service design based on rules such as least-cost rout-
ing, diversity, and preferred carrier. The tools should also return multiple service design options. Once
an optimal service design is identified and selected, the inventory OSS/BSS assigns network elements to
the end-to-end service to ensure effective tracking of service details and capacity requirements.
3.6.5.4 Service Problem Management
The Service Problem Management process responds immediately to customer-affecting service prob-
lems or failures in order to minimize their effects on customers, to invoke the restoration of the service,
or to provide an alternate service as soon as possible. They encompass the reporting of problems, mak-
ing a temporary fix or work-around, isolating the root cause, and finally recovering the complete func-
tionality of the service and providing information for future enhancements.
This process encompasses isolating the root cause of service-affecting and non-service-affecting fail-
ures and acting to resolve them. Typically, failures reported to this process impact multiple customers.
Actions may include immediate reconfiguration or other corrective actions. Longer-term modifications
to the service design or to the network components associated with the service may also be required.
The aim is to understand the causes impacting service performance and to implement immediate fixes
or initiate quality improvement efforts.
Principal functions are:
• Evaluate and Qualify Problem: Determine the nature of a problem that has been reported by a
customer and whether the customer is using the service properly.
• Reporting to Customers in the Event of a Disruption: This is done whether the disruption was
reported by the customer or not.
• Diagnose Problem: Isolate the root cause of the problem. To achieve this, this process performs
the appropriate tests and/or initiates queries for information. These processes perform a problem
escalation to report the severity and, if necessary, to solve the incident.
• Plan and Assign Resolution: Identify the necessary steps in order to activate the different units that
will be involved in fixing the problem.
• Resolve the Problem: Resolve the problem to the customer’s satisfaction.
• Track and Manage Work Orders: Launch all the operational tasks needed to accomplish each
solution requirement. The information flow associated with these processes includes the com-
munication with the supplier/partner in order to accept requests for service configuration, ser-
vice configuration changes, and/or for additional resource capacity. It coordinates the different