Formalizing operator requirements for the development of telecommunications networks and services

Abstract

In the industrial context, the link between standardized service/protocol specifications and the needs of a network operator has been mostly informal, which breaks the "formality chain" of the system life-cycle. We present the idea of formalized operator requirements (ORs) that can be effectively used by network operators as a backbone of their development activities. We define a semi-formal OR notation and discuss its properties. We show how it may support network development tasks that require the handling of relations between the capabilities of signalling protocols and implementable services. We also present the support tool that has actually been used to handle ORs for the ISUPv2 signalling platform