Authors include: - Connect-World

Service assurance
agesandofferacompellingsetofservicessuchasIPTV,onlinegaming,distancelearningandmanynewapplications.Thisappealstobothconsumers
and service providers. The convergence
of IP networks with both fixed
and wireless networks facilitates the
delivery of rich multimedia content,
traditionallydominatedbycablecompanies,bytelcos.
Telecomserviceprovidersareencouraged
by technology, now available,
that lets them cost effectively deliver
advanced services to users. There is
still some time for telcos to roll out
suchservices.Thechallengeistotake
advantageofthelimitedtimewindow.
Adoptionofnewtechnologies
Todeliverthesenewconvergedservices,
networkoperatorsmustupgradetheir
legacy equipment at unprecedented
speedandgettheirIP-basedservices
tomarketquickly.Thisputspressure
upon the TEMs to meet the network
operators’ speed and cost requirements.
Traditionally, TEMs have developed
proprietary systems that have been
costly,andtookyearstogettomarket.
Giventhecostandspeedconstraints,
this approach no longer works. So
TEMsaremovingawayfrombuilding
proprietary telecom systems to systems
based upon commercially
available,pre-integratedpre-tested,
standards-basedcomponents.
The challenge for TEMs is to decide
where they must add core value, and
wheretheyshouldrelyuponpartners
and suppliers to deliver the components
quickly to build systems that
addressthecarriers’service,costand
time-to-market requirements. This is
notatemporarysituation.Thesechallengeswillcontinuetodefinethetelecom
environment for the foreseeable
future.
Aparadigmshift
In the early days of enterprise computing,
single source computer systems
suppliers provided a full, vertically
integrated, computing solution.
They would design, manufacture and
deliver their own silicon, hardware,
operating systems, middleware and
thecustomerapplication.
The supplier’s differentiating factors
were usually distinct features, functionality
and speeds and feeds. Such
proprietary offerings locked the customerintothesolutionfortheforeseeable
future with little flexibility to
changeorupgradethepieceswithout
payingthesupplierpremiumprices.
Realising that they were locked into
expensive proprietary, single-supplier,
solutions, companies sought the
flexibilitytopickandchoosesolution
components from best-of-breed suppliers.
This encouraged the developmentandadoptionofstandardsforall
manufacturerstouseandhelpedcreate
an eco-system of suppliers specialised
in producing individual systems
elements better, faster, cheaper
thananyotherplayer.
Since the elements are standards
based,theyworkperfectlywithother
complementary systems elements
provided by other standards based
suppliers to create a cost effective
solution for the customer. This gave
birthtoasuccessfulhorizontalindustrymodelandanefficientcommercial
off-the-shelf supplier (COTS) ecosystem
for enterprise computing.
Industry players that successfully
adopted this model have benefited
fromit.Otherseitherexitedthebusinessorwererelegatedtoniches.
Thetelecomindustryisjustbeginning
tobenefitfromthehorizontalindustry
model with a COTS ecosystem of its
own.TheemergenceofIPinthetelecom
industry is accelerating the convergencebetweenITandthetelecom
network.Theshiftismadepossibleby
the adoption of a few key standards
thatdefineinterfacesbetweenthevarious
layers of the telecom equipment
systems.
Hardwareplatformstandards,suchas
AdvancedTCA, specify carrier-grade
hardware architecture to provide the
reliability,performanceandscalability
required for telecommunication
applications. The Open Software
DevelopmentLaboratory(OSDL)now
hasaworkinggroupspecificallydedicatedtodefiningCarrierGradeLinux
(CGL) feature roadmaps and specifications
to use in telecommunications
architectures.
Serviceavailability
One of the most significant recent
developmentshasbeentheadventof
the Service Availability Forum, an
industry consortium dedicated to
developingspecificationsforstandard
interfaces necessary to enable the
delivery of highly available carriergradesystemswithCOTScomponents
including hardware platforms, middlewareandserviceapplications.The
ServiceAvailabilityForumisdeveloping
three sets of specifications that
apply to various layers of a highly
availableserviceplatform.
HardwarePlatformInterface
specification
The Hardware Platform Interface
(HPI) specification separates the
hardware from management middlewareandmakeseachindependentof
the other. It specifies services which,
when implemented by the hardware
platform manufacturer, simplify the
integrationofthird-partymiddleware
thatcomplieswiththeHPIspecification.
The interface allows portability of
middlewarecomponentsbetweenvarioushardwareplatformsthatprovide
servicesspecifiedbytheinterface.
ApplicationInterfaceSpecification
The Application Interface Specification
(AIS) standardises the interface
between Service Availability Forum
compliantHighAvailability(HA)middlewareandserviceapplications.Just
as the HPI interface allows hardware
platformabstraction,theAISenables
compliant applications to be ported
across AIS compliant middleware
fromvariousvendors.
SystemsManagementSpecification
TheSystemsManagementSpecification
(SMS), a complementary specification,
acts as an umbrella to tie together
existing HPI and AIS specifications.
The overall goal of the SMS is to
addresstheadministrativeoperations
andmanagementofvariousaspectsof
thehighlyavailablesystem.
The IP telecom network is creating
unprecedented demand for new and
converged consumer telecommunications
services. This in turn is forcing
TEMstorethinktheirsystemdevelopment
strategies and develop telecom
network systems quickly and cost
effectively.
The emergence of a set of key standards
is enabling an ecosystem of
COTS suppliers. The COTS suppliers
help TEMs to build, quickly and cost
effectively, highly available systems
using standards-based components.
TheServiceAvailabilityForum’sspecificationsareplayingapivotalrolein
the transition from proprietary to
standards-basedsystems.
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