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Abstract：the author explores the structure of the new generation
BSS in light of the current international and domestic situations
and brings attention to several problems in construction.
Key words：NGOSS；BSS/OSS；system structure
Recently, telecommunication business support system (BSS/OSS)
has been a heated topic of the industry. After China Mobile launched
BSS/OSS, other operators such as China Telecom, China Netcom and
China Unicom all show strong enthusiasm. Why has the new generation
OSS (NGOSS) based on BSS/OSS become the focus of China's operating
sector? What will it bring to Chinese operators? This article hopes
to provide help, through the exploration into NGOSS, for the targeted
construction and development of current OSS (operation support system),
and in particular, system modeling and software development.
1 NGOSS demonstrates the demands of a new operating era
The new operating era has several characteristics as follows:
first, operators do business in the same way as enterprises do,
which makes efficiency and profit become the core issues. Second,
the open market, in which service competition is increasingly fierce,
has made customers the focus of operators. Third, as the gap in
network technology is closing, market and service have become the
key to operators' success. The advent of the new operating era has
imposed impacts on the whole telecom operating structure.
Nine reasons by the Telecom Administration Forum for the construction
of OSS given：
（1）cost reduction
（2）rapid revenue increase
（3）fewer risks
（4）reduced revenue loss
（5）rising sales
（6）high return on investment
（7）support of value-added services
（8）heightened customer satisfaction
（9）lowered operation cost
At present, Chinese operators rank high in the world in terms
of network coverage and technology, however, they still lag behind
in terms of network management, operation and performance. After
China enters WTO, Chinese operators all face the external pressure
of how to lower cost and retain customers in addition to the internal
pressure. After trying various means, the major operators have turned
to NGOSS.
The key feature of NGOSS is to have a high level of system integration,
converging and linking various disparate services to form a complete
system so as to smooth and co-ordinate the internal and external
business processes. As a result, enterprises can improve their management,
operating efficiency and service capability at large.
Therefore, NGOSS best meets the need of the new operating era.
2 TOM and eTOM
Much has been put forward by TM Forum on NGOSS, among which,
the essence is TOM, put forward as system modeling. Initially raised
as a blueprint to guide telecom companies and a springboard for
the operating support system, TOM was named telecommunication operation
mapping when it was formally publicized in 1998.
At present, TOM model is being widely used. When discussing
problems, classifying software functions and modules, telecom operators
and software developers all start with customer management, business
management and network and equipment management from the perspective
of implementation, protection and billing.
ETOM is a further development of TOM, in which, "e",
as defined by TM Forum, refers to:：
（1）Enterprise processes
（2）eBusiness enabled
（3）Enhanced
（4）Expanded
（5）Everything, Everywhere, Every time
While TOM has expanded from general network management to cover
the whole OSS, eTOM has further expanded to incorporate OSS/BSS
of telecom enterprises. Compared with TOM, eTOM has expanded in
several aspects:
（1）eTOM has extended TOM model to cover all of the activities
of the enterprise rather than the pure operation of telecom businesses.
In addition to strategic planning, basic structure and product planning
of the enterprise, it also involves the employees and shareholders
of the enterprise other than customers.
（2）Given the importance of marketing process in e-commerce, eTom
specifically gives a definition of the process.
（3）The enterprise management process is specifically defined
so that eTOM is able to give guidance to the activities of the whole
enterprise, and therefore, all the departments of the enterprise
will be aware of the important production or management processes
within their range of responsibilities.
（4）Give top priority to Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing(FAB)in
the overall module so as to emphasize the customer-centered process
should be the key process of the enterprise.
（5）Define a vertical progress group for operation support and
preparation, which links up all the function layers (including customer
relations, business management and operation, resource management
and operation and supplier/partner relations management) except
the enterprise management layer. This makes it possible for e-commerce
and self-management of customers since customer online operation
processes will become even greater and important with the improvement
of OSS and the development of Internet and e-commerce.
（6）Identify three enterprise progress groups, which are different
from functional operation and customer operation processes. The
three groups form a SIP (strategy, basic structure life cycle management
and product cycle management) process.
（7）Recognize different management cycles for SIP and various
customer-related business operation process and therefore separate
the two processes in daily operation in terms of operation cycle.
（8）Transform from customer-oriented services to CRM oriented
services so as to give more emphasis on customer self management
and control, increase customer value to the enterprise and offer
better personalized services to the customers. CRM oriented services
enrich the customer operation layer in that it can better describe
the sales process and combines the implementation of marketing with
CRM. CRM in eTOM will have more connotations and denotations than
some CRM.
（9）While in TOM, IT management is managed vertically without
layers, eTOM recognizes the unified IT management and redefines
network and system management as resource management and operation,
which also involves system information management.
OSS is now expanding to eTOM coverage. Applications in this regard
include partnership management application, telecom CRM application
and planning and asset management application.
Figure 1 shows the latest structure of telecom operation business
framework.
3 NGOSS' s Support for New Services and Technologies
Communication resource management must be automated so as to
realize end-to-end management, a key goal of NGOSS and a challenging
task in the current era when telecom business and technology are
developing rapidly.
Research has shown that telecom technologies are developing in
the following directions:
（1）Bundled service offerings
（2）IP-based networks
（3）Fiber optics
（4）Wireless data
（5）Soft Switch & VoIP
（6）Internet
（7）GPS
The support for ever more diversified services on the telecom
network has raised new demands for network and equipment management
such as the management of QoS and different tariff rates and billing
methods for services with different traffic features and QoS. As
telecom equipments and technologies, which support new services,
are also witnessing diversified development, effective management
and support of these accesses must be accomplished so as to realize
end-to-end solution. The rapid emergence of new technologies and
services makes it a daily task for NGOSS to upgrade and update the
operation support system.
NGOSS must support new technologies and services. Take for example
the rapidly developing mobile service, which is migrating from 2G
to 3G.with the development of mobile communication technologies
and the improvement of the performance and function of mobile communication
system, more and more mobile services will be provided. It is undoubtedly
a major challenge for OSS to provide under the complex mobile technological
environment various powerful services such as m-commerce, m-office
and location-based service (LBS) since many problems need to be
solved compared with traditional services. Both operators and customers
have more pressing demand for these Service Level Agreement (SLA),
so it is a key of NGOSS to realize the automatic SLA management
and end-to-end management. In the sense that OSS does not only influence
the management support method but also gets directly involved in
customer service, the dividing line between network and operation
support management will become even more indistinct. With the support
of NGOSS, more attentive and even completely new services will be
available for customers during and after the network migration.
4 System Structure of Target System Software
The system structure of target system software derived from the
telecom operating business framework is composed of enterprise information
platform, data service layer, service handling and data collection.
Among it, enterprise information platform is the basis of the whole
system, which is in turn composed of customer data, service parameters,
billing data, accounting data and settlement data. Data service
layer, including data access service layer, data access control
layer and data access security mechanism, works to ensure the security
and control of the access of service handling to the data in enterprise
information platform. As the result of the separation of enterprise
data and service handling, scalability and flexibility of service
handling have been improved. See Figure 2 for details.
5 Issues Deserving Attention in NGOSS Construction
5.1 System Structure Migration
In order to transfer from the current system and structure to
a new system, system structure migration is a task of utmost complexity
and risk, although necessary. It is best advised to materialize
the change through structured and controlled methods so as to minimize
risks.
Figure 3 shows roughly these considerations. Each layer facilitates
or is limited by the implementation of the next layer.
5.2 Testing
Most of the computer system failures are due to inadequate testing
in certain phase. In fact, hardware failures often lead to system
deterioration because the software is unable to restore the system
(more often than not this process wasn't tested) even if the fault
is corrected.
Environment testing may be carried out in different forms, the
best of which is to make a complete image of the system being used
including various hardware, system software, data and applications.
Incomplete testing environment may result in reduced testing precision.
If enough understanding and consideration have been given during
the evaluation period in service publication, testing environment
can be effectively managed.
It is imperative to define and test the whole process on all
aspects, such as
（1）formulation of testing plan
（2）preparation of testing situation
（3）preparation of testing data
（4）technological support for testing
（5）backup and return
（6）diagnose
（7）performance testing
（8）trouble ticket management
（9）recovery publication
（10）end
（11）back
It is as important to make sure the basic structure and testing
group stay where they should be beforehand because it may take a
lengthy time to train and stabilize the process. Moreover, professionals
should be encouraged to find problems rather than staying satisfied
with meeting the bottom line requirements. If testing personnel
are under inappropriate pressure to accept the system before a given
date, the testing quality will surely be affected.
6 Conclusion
China's telecom sector is now walking into the new operating
era characterized by more heated competition and more open market,
and the new generation telecom operating support system (NGOSS)
will play a significant role in this process.
Wang Zhi-rong, graduated from Harbin Engineering University in
1999 with a master's degree and working with Beijing Institute of
Telecommunication Planning and Designing.
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