With the broad application of ICT technologies and the popularity of the Internet, all traditional media have gone digital, with verticals such as transportation, healthcare, automobiles, education and finance now joining the game. User behavior has changed dramatically in the digital era, as consumers expect everything to be ROADS-enabled (Real-time, On-demand, All-online, DIY and Social). For example, they want real-time video conferencing, bandwidth-on-demand, online access to content & services, customizability for everything, and to be able to share everything via social networking sites (SNS).

Expectations of the next-gen OSS

As user experience requirements change, so must business. Telcos must shift their focus from ‘size’ (performance, capacity and cost) to ‘speed’ (agility in service innovation / provisioning, in responding to customers and in network troubleshooting), and this shift is helping drive the move towards software-defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). So, how can telcos adapt themselves to the new industry ecosystem? How can they cut costs and improve service agility? What can they do to unleash their network potential? And, in the process, how can they increase revenue? As an Infrastructure Enabling System (IES), the next-gen OSS, must have the following capabilities:

l  Real-time, on-demand, E2E service & resource orchestration

Physical and virtual networks will continue to coexist for a long time to come. The ‘service orchestrator’ is the key to rapid service deployment. It controls the physical and virtual networks from end-to-end and orchestrates network function resources in real time, based on service requirements. Additionally, the ‘service orchestrator’ coordinates DCs and virtual / physical networks in different geographical locations and supports the planning, design, optimization, automated provisioning and configuration of ICT services.

l  Elastic scale-in and scale-out

A traditional OSS suite has independent service fulfillment and service assurance systems, with service assurance being event-driven for the most part. One such event takes place when an alarm triggers fault management. But a next-generation IES will be intelligent, with service assurance being analysis-driven rather than event-driven. The analysis will be conducted in real time and involve SLAs and KPIs / KQIs on a per-service per-user (PSPU) basis. When combined with offline big data analysis (network capacity forecasts, index trend analysis, etc…), proactive service assurance will be enabled. Service assurance and service fulfillment will also be streamlined, with service assurance triggering service fulfillment so that elastic scale-in and scale-out, dynamic service optimization and issue closure are all realized.

For example, based on the SLA and performance indicators of enterprise users, the ‘service orchestrator’ can be automatically triggered to schedule resources (bandwidth, QoS), to dynamically satisfy the required SLA parameters.

l  Open APIs that boost telco revenue

As the ICT industry becomes increasingly open and telcos shift from competition to cooperation with ICT service providers, OSS capacity will emerge as a new resource for third-party markets. By opening APIs to these parties, telcos can both address their customers’ needs for more flexibly, as well as open the ecosystem to new partners, thereby driving new business. Open APIs can thus help cultivate new partnerships and establish a less linear and more networked industry chain.

Pioneering IES in Europe

In 2012, as part of its network architecture development strategy for the next decade, Huawei launched SoftCOM, a convergence of technologies that re-defines the network, eliminating the gap between business demands and ICT capabilities, leveraging Open APIs and the internet paradigm of self service to create a customer and service-centric operational model. IES resides within the ‘Telco OS’ component of SoftCOM’s strategy for open telecom network architecture. Modeled on the new user experience focus that is embedded in our ROADS framework, IES will become the front-end service system and customer-oriented product and solution development platform that will aggregate telco and third-party resources. It will also open network capabilities and build an industry ecosystem, thereby greatly enabling service agility and innovation by introducing automation and intelligence to the network.

In 2014, Huawei collaborated with leading European telcos to participate in their NFV innovation projects. In addition to comprehensive NFV lab testing, Huawei also verified the ‘service orchestrator’s, effectiveness in such areas as NFV network design and planning, and the deployment of VoLTE (vIMS, vEPC) service, GiLAN service and small and medium enterprise (SME) applications.

[Highlight] Centered on a ROADS user experience, IES will in the near future become the front-end service system and a customer-oriented product and solution development platform that builds the industry ecosystem. IES will greatly enable service agility and innovation by bringing automation and intelligence to the network.