Integrated service management for intelligent networks

Abstract

The Intelligent Network concept introduces new network elements, such as Service Control Points and Switch Adjuncts, and specifies additional flexibility for switching systems, allowing a greater variety of services to be offered by telecommunications service providers (telcos). Since conventional methods of subscriber and telco administration of these services are clearly not adequate, a new type of operations function, Service Man agemenent has been defined for Intelligent Network services to control and to administer subscriber-specific and service specific network information. Service-specific Service Manage ment Systems have been built and deployed in the U.S. to support the first generation of Intelligent Network services. This paper describes a new concept: an integrated set of Service Management functions which will give telcos the flexibility to support next generation Intelligent Network services and the abiliry to provide new degrees of subscriber and service provider access and control, while offering significant potential for cost reduction as compared to successive purchases of dedicated Service Management Systems for each service. Before the advent of the Intelligent Network, services were primarily implemented as features of switching systems and developed on a service-by-service basis. Control and management of these services were, and continue to be, performed by assorted operations systems which load, update, retrieve and audit switch-based parameters that configure, enable, disable, monitor and measure services. In addition, subscribers can exercise limited control through their telephone sets, over some of their services after they are enabled and configured, such as activation of Call Forwarding. Service Management affords new degrees of service access and control for service providers and subscribers by translating the conventional, physically-oriented network view into a service view for a specific service or for an individual subscriber. One way of implementing the described set of Service Management functions is via an integrated Service Management Operations System, generically referenced as SM-OS. Such a system is expected to be part of a new generation of operations systems based on a modular computing architecture and whose data are integrated into an overall Corporate Data Architecture and Logical Data Model. The system will be part of an integrated platform of operations and network systems which afford new degrees of service and operations programmability.