This document details the results of a TPC Technical Task Team’s (the “Task Force” or “the Team”) activity that focused on the advancement of support for backup and redundancy (including protection and resilience) for the TM Forum specifications.
Although the Task Force focused primarily on the Service and Resource information models, the work led to an understanding of the commonality across a broad problem space including other information domains (such as, Product, and Supplier/Partner) and also the operations model with respect to the backup and redundancy consideration.

Initially it was proposed that a single Service Management Information Model could be used for all Resource and Service cases, but it rapidly became clear that this was not a viable approach and it was determined that instead a set of patterns that underpin the backup and redundancy consideration needs to be developed and it is upon this set that new specific backup and redundancy models can be based. It was clear from the Resource model analysis that there are indeed arguments that point to there being several different model forms to deal with the variety in this area and it is expected that there will also be sound rationale for the development of several different models in the other domains.

The Task Force recognized the need to maintain and then evolve the existing TIP protection models (for example, from MTNM and MTOSI) and as a consequence it is proposed that the TIP models be migrated to the SID as an initial step.
It was clear that not all aspects of the Information Model patterns had been identified and only limited exploration of the detail was achieved in the timeframe and as a consequence it is recommended that a broader study of the patterns be carried out and that the results of this work be documented in the SID.

It was also clear that the application of patterns could be extended to the process aspect of backup and redundancy and as a consequence it is also recommended that work be carried out with respect to the development of patterns in the eTOM/TAM related to backup and redundancy.

As will be seen from the detailed recommendations, this work is only in its early phase and there is significant ongoing work that needs to be carried out to suitably advance the specifications. It is expected that through the pattern work, a clear set of terminology will be developed.


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