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Realizing that the integration of individual network elements was an inefficient process - and causing more complexity than was needed - Nokia Siemens Networks' engineers developed software to speed up and automate the process. The result - O&M Agent - is available to reduce time to market and allow quicker fixes. Arif Pathan, Product Manager, Open EMS Suite, explains.
As networks grew and became more complex, the integration of network elements into the management systems became an onerous task. This was beginning to slow down the functional growth of networks and making them time consuming to update. Nokia Siemens Networks realized that some sort of agent, consisting of ready-made components supporting efficient network element O&M implementation towards the management system, was needed.
'In the past engineers had to read complex interface specifications and then build the O&M interfaces based on these specifications, often all from scratch.But every engineer would interpret the specification in their own way creating slight variances for each implementation. This resulted in some network element features not working properly and causing various other headaches on the management side down the track.' says Arif. 'It meant that 1), we- and our customers for that matter - were not reaping the full benefit of the money spent on our products and that 2), we were seeing lots of unnecessary post implementation work done to ensure all functionality was present. It was clear that some sort of agent, that was pre-tested with the management side, and could be plugged straight into network element side, would be of great benefit.'
Now with O&M Agent - as part of the OES family - network builders can focus on adding value, rather than spend time on the interface. The O&M Agent eliminates the need to develop O&M configurations manually, and make the set-up of O&M functions much easier. Furthermore it has a wide variety of internal back-end interfaces to which plug in network element functionality.
'We first developed a Java version of O&M Agent, starting with the SNMP part, and clearly it was a success from the start. Network element developers liked it and found it easy to use. We have now created a web service version that provides even more comprehensive O&M functionality and features, also a variant based on C is coming' continues Arif. '
'In quantifying the business benefit, we conducted research and found that by using the O&M Agent - compared with creating a new implementation from scratch - we can save up to 90% of the time needed. This is pure development resource that could be used elsewhere. And, on top of this, with O&M Agent, you have the benefit of a common implementation interface, meaning testing is rapid, faults are fewer and corrections can be deployed faster. Also, adding new features and upgrading is a much simpler job too. This all benefits our customers as the time between network element rollout and management system support is much quicker.
The implications for Nokia Siemens Networks' customers and partners - not just on the mobile side but in core and transport too - where soon NetAct will be implemented universally, is clear. It means that in the wider telco space where proprietary network elements and management systems exist, they can interface with NetAct wherever it is found. In other words the O&M Agent will be the easiest way to integrate your products with NetAct.
'We are doing our best to make integration easier and this has been recognized by winning the Frost and Sullivan award (APAC region) for reducing integration tax.'