| NMS |
|
Core to the overall management hierarchy is the SOLANTE-NMS and at the heart of the SOLANTE-NMS are management applications associated with FCAPS-- Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security management-- and subscriber or service management.The ISO/ANSI standards classifies the functionality required for network management into the five categories known as FCAPS. The functional architecture defined by these categories identifies the key facets of network management and enables a modular approach to be taken towards the design of the management system. The SOLANTE-NMS is designed around this modular approach.
FaultThe primary function of the SOLANTE-NMS is to rapidly identify and isolate fault conditions within the satellite network and to report this information in a concise manner to the network operator. Using FOW/ROW control channels, all remote stations and gateway elements periodically report fault/status and performance information to the NMS. The update rate for this information is set by the network operator and can vary from as little as every few minutes to an hour or more. This is a non-polling reporting mechanism that is designed to minimize the amount of satellite bandwidth consumed for normal status reporting. When necessary, a remote station can also initiate an asynchronous status report plus the operator can also manually poll for status at any time. All status information is processed, filtered and displayed to the network operator on the SOLANTE-NMS graphical user interface (GUI). This GUI includes a network map that identifies remote station locations and displays terminal status in real-time. ConfigurationSOLANTE-NMS configuration management is concerned with provisioning of the remote station equipment when the equipment first enters the network and at any time in the future when either the types of services supported or number of phone lines supported at a remote station changes. The SOLANTE-NMS operator is in full control of virtually all system parameters ranging from the customer name to the port configurations for every remote station in the network. When necessary, configuration management is also responsible for the download of software upgrades to the remote terminals. In the SOLANTE multi-channel system, software downloading is performed in the background, without interruption to network operations or affecting call-setup performance. Tied to the Configuration Management function the SOLANTE-NMS validates and authorizes the remote station to enter the network. Information pertinent to the call-control management of the remote station are forwarded to the NMS and any necessary service provisioning information, that was not loaded as part of the commissioning process, is forwarded automatically to the remote station. AccountingAccounting management is associated with the collection of usage data and the generation call detail records (CDR) used to generate billing information. This is currently a function of the NMS. PerformanceA complete set of details about the call setup and teardown are collected including the information that is separately stored on CDR records as well as further information identifying the different elements involved on data and voice call and the major timing events. Another set of information are recorded as part of the event logs where every single important event is recorded allowing the operator to identify the overall behaviour of the system down to a network element or device. SecuritySecurity management includes all processes that police access to the management system. Security management determines who or what has access to an element, management function or shared database, and what breadth of access is allowed. Multiple levels of authorization are supported. |
