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TD 87 (WP 2/2)

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION / STUDY GROUP 2
TELECOMMUNICATION
STANDARDIZATION SECTOR
STUDY PERIOD 2013-2016
English only
Original: English
Question(s): / SG2 WP2/2 Q5,Q6
TEMPORARY DOCUMENT
Source: / Chairman, Service and Network Operations
Title: / Report of the meeting of the Service and Network Operations Group, Ezulwini, The Kingdom of Swaziland,21 – 24October 2013

Table of contents

OPENING OF MEETING

AGREEMENT OF AGENDA

REGIONAL SNO UPDATES

ITU-T RAPPORTEUR REPORT: B.J. Taylor

PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTION SUMMARIES

TOPIC GROUP ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

1.Topic Group Telecommunications Service

2.Topic Group Alarm Correlation

3.Topic Group Metrics

4.Topic Group Security

5.Topic Group Evolution

TOPIC GROUP REPORTS

1. Topic Group: Definition of a “Telecommunications” Service

2. Topic Group: Alarm Correlation

3. Topic Group: Metrics

4. Topic Group: Security

5. Topic Group: Evolution

OTHER ACTIVITIES

SNO Newsletter

Best Paper Awards

Web Site

FUTURE MEETINGS

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

CLOSING OF MEETING

ANNEX 2 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Delegate attendance

ANNEX 3 LIST OF DOCUMENTS

ANNEX 4 TERMS OF REFERENCE

ANNEX 5 SNO WORK PROGRAMME

ANNEX 7 ACTION POINTS

ANNEX 8 REPORT OF PREVIOUS MEETING

OPENING OF MEETING

PetrosDlamini, host, officially welcomed delegates to the 2013 meeting.Petros introduced the meeting and the distinguished guests.

Jacob Munodawafa SATA

Mr. Munodowafa spoke of the quality of the delegates, not just the numbers, that bring about remarkable changes to the industry. He thanked the organizers of the meeting for a job well done. He thanked Theo Hess for starting the African SNO and championing these meetings in Africa. He would like to invite more countries to participate. He did point out that there are still some language issues with some countries using French, not English, that causes some countries to stay away from these meetings.

Peter Sutherland, as the International SNO Chair,officially opened the meeting SNO 2013. He thanked the host, SPTCfor their generosity in having this year’s meeting.

Mr. Sutherland than gave an introduction of himself and his hopes for this meeting.

This is an official ITU meeting.

BhekieCramaUnder Secretary - Ministry of ICT introduced the keynote speaker.

SikelelaDlamini, Secretary to Cabinet

On behalf of the government, a warm welcome to all of the delegates. This is a unique group coming together, not as competitors, but as in the industry. International standards ensure a level playing field which provides great experienc. for the customers. Standards are critical to the interoperability of telecommunications and for companies in emerging markets. Standards enable global communications by ensuring that countries networks and customers are speaking the same language. Telecommunications is vital to enable global community access to the world for trade , education, progress to achieve this is essential to be part of the group that sets the standards that ensure that customers experience is the highest level of service. We need to be in a world where customers can reach us and we can reach them.

Peter Sutherland:

The world in which we live is changing. People are living in an increasingly crowded world. As network operators, we need to manage the changes as technology evolves, as devices become more advanced and more stress is placed on our networks, with higher demand for availability.

We are at a network revolution age, where competition has increased giving customers more choices. With that comes more challenges for the operator. We are moving away from network centric to customer centric. Broadband services are more expensive in developing countries compared to the rest of the world. But, this is exactly where the services are needed the most.

The main challenge is to ensure that customers are satisfied.

Mr. Sutherland introduced the management team, regional vice-chairs, and topic group chairmen

Secretary: BJ Taylor

Vice Chair, Host: SPTC, represented by PetrosDlamini

Regional Vice Chair:

APAC: China Mobile – Madame Wei

North America: Time Warner Cable – Dave Flessas, Stephanie Feiss - Ericsson

Africa: Swaziland – PetrosDlamini

Europe: Deutsche Telcom – HaraldMetzner

South America: Vacant

AGREEMENT OF AGENDA

The agenda for the meeting was reviewed and agreed upon per document SNO 13/10/01 entitled Meeting Agenda and is contained in ANNEX 1 of this report.

Other documents reviewed were as followed:

DOC. NO. / TITLE / SOURCE
13_10_01 / Draft Agenda / Chairman
13_10_02 / List of Participants / Secretary
13_10_03 / List of Contributions / SNO Secretary
13_10_04 / Terms of Reference 2009 - 2012 / Secretary
13_10_05 / Work Program Areas Assigned to Topic Groups / Chairman
13_10_06 / Report of Previous Meeting / Secretary (SNO)
13_10_07 / Chairman Presentation Cover Sheet / Chairman
13_10_09 / Topic Group Report (Template) / Topic Group Chairmen

REGIONAL SNO UPDATES

Lawrence Nkala: SNO Africa

The meeting was held in Windhoek, Namibia 23-26 of July, 2013.

There were 9 carriers, 8 industry representatives, and 20 presentations.

The next meeting will be 22-25 of July, 2014 hosted by Tanzania Telecommunications Company, Limited (TTCL).

There were 5 Resolutions taken by the members.

1.1There was need to develop a general regional framework on the establishment of Network Operation Centres (NOCs) in SADC:

1.1.1Trouble ticketing system-Regional; SATA to speak to vendor

1.2Any appointment of an individual to a given regional task should be formalised by the SATA Executive Secretary by officially writing to the Chief Executive Officer of the given organization informing him/her of the appointment of his/her staff member to that Task.

1.3As companies migrate into NGN and other technologies there are some equipment and spares that are being laid idle. SATA Secretariat should coordinate the pooling of these spares and equipment for reuse by those companies who are still running similar equipment in the region.

1.4Focus should be on deployment of “green technologies” in order to deal with the power supply challenges and hence guarantee high network and service uptime.

1.5SATA Secretariat to invite expert(s) on “Electromagnetic Compatibility and Radiation” to make presentation at the 8th African SNO Workshop

Joseph Beaulac: North American SNO

The meeting was held 21-22 May, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

There were 80 executives and managers from 30+ carriers

Empirix and JDSU were corporate sponsors and presenters.

Topics of discussion were:

Monitoring and Alarming

Knowledge Management

Reports and metrics

NOC organization structure

Executive communications

Achieving operational excellence

Presentations can be found at the NA/SNO web site

HaraldMetzner: SNO Europe No meeting this year

Wei Li Hong: SNO China No meeting this year

ITU-T RAPPORTEUR REPORT: B.J. Taylor

B.J. Taylor attended the ITU-T SG2 meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in August, 2013, where she presented the meeting minutes from last year's meeting.

  • Introduction to ITU-T, SG2, WP2/2 and Q.5/2
  • ITU-T:StandardizationSector of the International Telecommunication Union
  • ITU-T has Members (countries) and members (industry, research institutions, universities)
  • Governed by World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA)
  • 4 year governance cycle: current study period 2013-2016
  • Technical work progresses independent of governance cycle
  • ITU-T comprises 10 Study Groups (SG)
  • The work package for a SG is formulated by WTSA as a series of questions: "Which new or enhanced Recommendations are needed to …?"
  • A SG comprises several Working Parties (WP)
  • A WP studies several Questions (Q)
  • Detailed technical work is done in experts groups, studying a single Question
  • Example: Q.5/2, Network and service operations and maintenance procedures
  • SG2
  • Operational aspects of service provision and telecommunications management
  • Lead Study Group for:
  • Service definition, Numbering and Routing
  • Telecommunication for Disaster Relief/Early Warning
  • Telecommunication Management
  • SG2 Study Areas
  • Principles of service provision, definition and operational requirements of service emulation
  • Numbering, naming, addressing requirements and resource assignment including criteria and procedures for reservation and assignment
  • Routing and interworking requirements
  • Human factors
  • Operational and management aspects of networks including network traffic management, designations, and transport-related operations procedures
  • Operational aspects of interworking between traditional telecommunication networks and evolving networks
  • Evaluation of feedback from operators, manufacturing companies and users on different aspects of network operation
  • Management of telecommunication services, networks, and equipment via management systems, including support for next-generation networks (NGN) and the application and evolution of the telecommunication management network (TMN) framework
  • Ensuring the consistency of the format and structure of IdM identifiers
  • Specifying interfaces to management systems to support the communication of identity information within or between organizational domains
  • Structure of SG2
  • 2 Working Parties
  • WP 1/2: Numbering, naming, addressing, routing and service provision
  • former SG 2, excluding Q.5/2
  • WP 2/2: Telecommunication management and network and service operations
  • former SG 4, minus Q.4/4 and Q.5/4, plus Q.5/2
  • WP 2/2 Structure
  • SNO Terms of Reference
  • Recommendations for SNO work for the this study period include:
  • E.41 Correlation: Q5/2 Alarm correlation and impact analysis. We need to produce reference document
  • E.861Defining operation competencies (TOC) metrics: We need to produce reference document in conjunction with Annex 8 of Com 2: D83 from 2004-2008
  • M.3016 Security: Q6/2 Enhancements to Security requirements, services and mechanisms: availability. With SG 15 & 17

PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTION SUMMARIES

All contributions were presented and discussed in Plenary.

CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-07
SOURCE: / Telstra Chair of SNO
PRESENTED BY / Peter Sutherland
TITLE: / Life's Better When We Connect
ABSTRACT: / Technology shift drives change. World wide support numbers.
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-30
SOURCE: / Secretary SNO
PRESENTED BY / BJ Taylor
TITLE: / ITU-T update
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-31
SOURCE: / TelOne
PRESENTED BY / Lawrence Nkala
TITLE: / 7th African SNO Report
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-32
SOURCE: / TWC
PRESENTED BY / Joseph Beaulac
TITLE: / North American SNO Report
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-34
SOURCE: / Huawei Technologies
PRESENTED BY / Marius Rous
TITLE: / Excel in Operations Transformation
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-35
SOURCE: / SPTC
PRESENTED BY / Edward Ntshangase
TITLE: / TDM/NGN Migration
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-36
SOURCE: / SATA
PRESENTED BY / Jacob Munodawafa
TITLE: / The NOC in Pictures
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-37
SOURCE: / TelOne
PRESENTED BY / Lawrence Nkala
TITLE: / The Impact of Broadband on the evolution/transformation of telecom/ICT networks and the telco business model
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-38
SOURCE: / New Telco
PRESENTED BY / EckartZollner
TITLE: / Outsourced shared neural infrastructure
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-39
SOURCE: / QSDG
PRESENTED BY / John Kimbe
TITLE: / Framework for future developments in NOC
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-40
SOURCE: / TWC
PRESENTED BY / Joe Beaulac
TITLE: / Security Operations Center (SOC)
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-41
SOURCE: / TWC
PRESENTED BY / Joe Beaulac
TITLE: / Global Fraud Loss Survey
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-42
SOURCE: / LGR
PRESENTED BY / AyandaDlamini
TITLE: / Intelligent Data Analysis: A need, not a want
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-43
SOURCE: / Telecomunicacoes de Mocambique
PRESENTED BY / MalaquiasMacaringue
TITLE: / What keeps us awake at night
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-44
SOURCE: / Bofinet
PRESENTED BY / DidimalangMoaro
TITLE: / Botswana Fibre Networks
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-45
SOURCE: / MTN Swaziland
PRESENTED BY / ThembiMkhonto
TITLE: / Welcome to the New World
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-46
SOURCE: / TTCL
PRESENTED BY / FaustineKazaura
TITLE: / Tanzania NICTBB
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-47
SOURCE: / Telkon South Africa
PRESENTED BY / Steve Jump
TITLE: / Communicating Information Threats
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-48
SOURCE: / Swazi Telecom
PRESENTED BY / Ishmael Nkambule
TITLE: / Customer Premises Equipment
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-49
SOURCE: / Swazi Telecom
PRESENTED BY / MndeniMahlalela
TITLE: / Terrestrial Broadband
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-50
SOURCE: / Swazi Telecom
PRESENTED BY / MkhosiDlamini
TITLE: / Fraud Management System
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-51
SOURCE: / Swazi Telecom
PRESENTED BY / Charles Ndlovu
TITLE: / What keeps You awake at night?
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-52
SOURCE: / Swazi Telecom
PRESENTED BY / SthembisoDlamini
TITLE: / SPTC NOC Update
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-53
SOURCE: / TruTeq
PRESENTED BY / Vendor
TITLE: / 7x Home and Business Annuity Services
ABSTRACT:
CONTRIBUTION / SNO 13-10-54
SOURCE: / ZTE
PRESENTED BY / Vendor
TITLE: / Bearer Network and Access Network
ABSTRACT:

TOPIC GROUP ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Each Topic Group chair was asked to present a short discussion on the current status of their team and to review any actions that have taken place since the last SNO meeting. This year the focus of the conference was distinctly set around themes and it was decided that for this year, we would combine network and service management into one topic group and customer and green technology would be covered in Hot Topics. The format for each Topic Group report should be prepared per document SNO 10_10_09 Topic Group Reports. The organization of the 2009 Topic Groups are:

1.Topic Group Telecommunications Service

  1. Chair:Lawrence Nkala

2.Topic Group Alarm Correlation

  1. Chair:Wellington Ford

3.Topic Group Metrics

  1. Chair:MalaquiasMacaringue

4.Topic Group Security

  1. Chair:Joe Beaulac

5.Topic Group Evolution

  1. Chair:Francis Dlamini

TOPIC GROUP REPORTS

1. Topic Group:Definition of a “Telecommunications” Service

Chairman: Eng. Lawrence Nkala

Name / Company
Mr. SiphoNhlabatsi / SPTC
Mr. MacelaDlamini / SPTC
Mrs. Linda Nxumalo / SPTC
Mr. Ishmael Nkambule / SPTC
Mr. Charles Ndlovu / SPTC
Ms. PhilileSimelane / SPTC
Eng. Lawrence Nkala / Tel One
Eng. John S. Kimbe / SATA

1. Brief summary of Topic Group meeting.

Definition of a Telecommunications Service

Intelecommunication, atelecommunications serviceis a service provided by atelecommunications provider, or a specified set ofuser-information transfercapabilities provided to a group of users by a telecommunicationssystem.

The telecommunications service user is responsible for the information content of themessage. The telecommunications service provider has the responsibility for the acceptance,transmission, and delivery of the message.

The definition of telecommunications service is "the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used." Telecommunications, in turn, is defined as "the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received."

Problem Statement: There is a mismatch between the promised and the delivered quality of service and customer experience.

Actions Needed:

(a)there is need to explore methods of end-to-end monitoring and management of service offered to the customer

(b)operators may need to establish a service operation centre (SOC) as an integral part of the network operation centre or as a separate unit in order to differentiate themselves on service provisioning, monitoring and management

Future Work:

(a)There is need in the Region to have more workshops on the subject of establishment of Service Operation Centres (SOCs) through ITU and SATA

(b)Integration of the SOC into the existing NOC need to be studied and concluded depending on the size of each organisation

(c)Recommendations on this study including workshop results will be compiled by the following:

(i)Mr. Lawrence Nkala – Chairman of the Group

(ii)Mr. Ishmael Nkambule – Swazi Telecom

(iii)Botswana Telecommunication Corporation Limited

(iv)Telecom Mozambique (TDM)

(v)Telecom Namibia

(vi)Eng. John S. Kimbe – SATA Coordinator

and tabled at the next International Service and Network Operations )(ITU-T SNO 2014)

2. Should Topic Group be continued?

The Topic Group need to be continued to the finish.

3. What changes if any to your Topic Group?

N/A

4. Other

N/A

2. Topic Group: Alarm Correlation

Chairman: Wellington Ford

Name / Company
Wellington Ford / BTCL Botswana (Chairman)
Jacob Munodawafa / SATA (Rapporteur)
FaustineKazaura / TTCL, Tanzania
Cm Mdlalose / SPTC, Swaziland
PupuzyanjiSichembe / Zamtel, Zambia
ThembelaniManyatsi / SPTC, Swaziland

1. Brief summary of Topic Group meeting.

There was no paper dealing and focusing on alarm correlation. The group discussed several other reference papers on NOCs and existing ITU Recommendations on TMN

  1. ALARM CORRELATION FOR COMPLEX TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS USING NEURAL NETWORKS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Emmanuel Marilly, ArmenAghasaryan, StéphaneBetgé-Brezetz, Olivier Martinot, Gérard DelègueALCATEL CIT Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France e-mail: {Emmanuel.Marilly, Armen.Aghasaryan, Stephane.Betge-Brezetz, Olivier.Martinot, Gerard.Delegue} @alcatel.fr
  1. ALARM CORRELATIONCORRELATING MULTIPLE NETWORK ALARMS IMPROVES TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK SURVEILLANCE AND FAULT MANAGEMENT,

Gabriel Jakobson and Mark D. Weissman

  1. A MODEL FOR ALARM CORRELATION IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS, PhD Thesis, DilmarMalheirosMeira

2. Should Topic Group be continued?

Yes

3. What changes if any to your Topic Group

Standardization of different vendor equipment for interoperability and common interfaces /probes

4. Other

Papers Discussed

Presenter / Topic / Focus / Summary / Key Themes
Jacob Munodawafa / NOCs in Pictures / Network Management / All NOCs have a common design but vary in design / If you can’t see it , you can’t manage it
StembisoDlamini / SPTC NOC Update / Network Management / SPTC NOC integrated but having several NMSs / If you can’t see it , you can’t manage it
ThembiMkhonto / What Keeps me up at night: Swazi MTN / Network Management / Separate Element Managers and the desire is to integrate the NMSs / If you can’t see it , you can’t manage it

Recommendations:

Problem Statement (Question)

Efficient Real Time Network Management and Alarm Correlation

Expected Outcome

  • Chronology of events e.g. high temperature alarms leading to BTS TRX service outages, these should be correlated (interpreted) in analyzing the root cause of problem in relation to the service outage or disruption
  • High degree of impact analysis and mitigation plans /action triggers
  • Proactive corrective maintenance so as to minimize resolution times
  • Reduction of OPEX
  • Leading to the realization of manager of managers

Workplan / Action ITEMs

  • Conduct a gap analysis of the existing OSS capabilities and the desired capabilities through an Operator Survey on Telecom Network and Service Management
  • Formulation of the Framework for Alarm Correlation

3. Topic Group: Metrics

Chairman: Malaquias Elias Macaringue

Name / Company
Malaquias Elias Macaringue / TDM, SA Mozambique
Onesmo S. Mrema / TTCL – Tanzania
DidimalangMoaro / BoFiNet – Botswana

1. Brief summary of Topic Group meeting.

The Topic is related to Quality of Service and Quality of Experience, and we know that there are many parameters to be monitored (Technical KPIs and Service KPIs), and some are more relevant than others. In order to make this information collection possible, we need to ensure that we have the necessary tools in place (network management systems, service robots, probes, etc.