WiMax Operator's Manual

Provisioning
CHAPTER 8 ■ NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND OSS 181
A large subcategory of OSS customer care products is concerned with provisioning, that is, setting
up services for existing accounts as well as signing on new customers and providing them
with services. Provisioning software can completely eliminate the need for a customer representative
for routine transactions and can save the network operator substantial amounts of
money for that reason. Normally such software customers will be directed to a secure Web site
where, after authenticating themselves, they can request new services or alter existing ones.
The provisioning software will then communicate back to the inventory management software
to determine whether the resources are available to support the new service and will then signal
the network management software to command the necessary operations to take place in
the network elements to enable the service. Additional communications will be made to the
billing and mediation software to correct a customer’s account to reflect the changes. In the
case of new customers, a credit card may be requested as well as an address. Obviously, with a
new customer, the process cannot be completely automated because a subscriber will still
have to be provided with a terminal, but in many instances that can be mailed to a customer’s
residence and self-installed rather than involving a truck roll and a visit by a technician.
Some provisioning software is capable of throttling bandwidth to users who attempt to
command a disproportionate share of network resources, and such capabilities are valuable
and desirable. Bandwidth is still a scarce resource in wireless networks, and low-value customers
should not be permitted to monopolize it.
The actual implementation of service is sometimes defined as a separate process and is
known as service activation. Normally service activation is accomplished through the network
management and element management modules, not through a specialized software solution.
Billing, Mediation, and Service-Level Agreements
Billing and mediation software forms a large subcategory of OSS. Such software will usually be
tied in with the provisioning, network element, and network management software to register
changes in service and to track subscriber usage if the service plan is based on anything other
than flat-rate billing.
Here a word is in order on billing plans and service-level agreements: The usual pattern
in the formative period of broadband access services was to charge subscribers a flat rate for
service and allow customers as many transmissions as they desired. Such “all-you-can-eat”
service plans still prevail in the residential broadband market, though they are declining
among business-oriented broadband offerings in favor of what are known as tiered services.
Tiered services are just what the name implies—stratified offerings where higher service
fees command higher speeds and additional capabilities. Such plans allow the network operator
to tailor services to individual users and make certain that the subscriber is charged only for
the bandwidth and network resources actually utilized, and it also allows the operator to regulate
“bandwidth hogs” such as individuals running peer-to-peer video and music file-sharing
sites or call centers, as well as online gamers who may spend hours at a time in bandwidthintensive
transactions.
Increasingly, tiered service plans are accompanied by service-level agreements (SLAs),
which bind the service provider to meet certain quality of service metrics stipulated in the
agreement. Such metrics may include minimum throughput, latency, jitter, and bit error
rate—anything under the control of the network operator and for which the subscriber is
willing to pay. Such agreements usually provide for penalties to be imposed upon the service