TM Forum's Management World 2012

Overview

TM Forum wishes to enhance the adoption capability of TM Forum Frameworx for all our members. As Tool Vendors are a gateway to wide spread adoption this catalyst will seek to include as many tool vendors as possible who market themselves or see the potential to market themselves as tools to aid the adoption of Frameworx.

This catalyst project will look to utilize the available formats of each of the core Frameworks as well as the aligned Frameworx model and work to ensure that the latest version of a specific Frameworx release is included in each tooling product in a timely manner.

If you are a tool vendor and position your product as a tool to aid the adoption of Frameworx, participation in this catalyst will help you to demonstrate to your customers that your product is aligned with the latest Frameworx releases resulting in increased customer satisfaction.

All interested participants should contact, Joann O’Brien, Director of Frameworx Collaboration, jobrien@tmforum.org

Overview

Streamlining processes and improving timelines from lead generation to cash injection is a key interest area for all Service Providers. This catalyst is intended to demonstrate how to maximize efficiencies in the area’s of Lead to Cash across both network and IT environments demonstrating Business Process and data integration across the different frameworks. The expected outcome from this catalyst would be a quick start guide outlining the work flows recommended to configure an environment for maximum efficiency in this space, along with a demonstration at MW Dublin showing how this can be executed using a number of vendor and IT solution providers.

All interested participants should contact, Joann O’Brien, Director of Frameworx Collaboration, jobrien@tmforum.org

 

Overview

Wireless service providers are facing increasing pressure to provide quality services to their end users over converged networks. Keen market competition is pushing “quality services” to the forefront. End-to-end service management will need to overcome the disconnected structures frequently encountered in converged networks: Business silos (e.g. wireless versus fixed line) and organizational (traditional transport management versus packet management) silos need to consistently managed. The management of Ethernet backhaul services will play a key role in the mitigation of these issues; wireless backhaul is the link between the access network and core networks, and providing quality service management on this part of the network will be critical to meeting the above challenges.

This catalyst will demonstrate the procurement, activation, and monitoring of wireless Ethernet backhaul services with a focus on quality management. The goal of the catalyst will be to create and demonstrate a service management interface that can be used to address the use case scenarios outlined below. The technology will be based on currently accepted standards which may span multiple SDOs, and will showcase how this approach is necessary to achieve the level of service quality that is desired on converged networks.

Use Case/Scenarios

For the purposes of the catalyst, the converged network will consist of a Radio Access Network, an Ethernet Backhaul network (assumed to be provided by a third party), and a Core Network (which hosts the Application Servers providing the services). The general use case will involve service activation and service quality management for Ethernet backhaul services as procured by a wireless service provider from an Ethernet backhaul provider. Particular tasks to be modeled may include:

• The purchase and activation of Ethernet Backhaul products from a third party (e.g. EVPL, EVPTREE)
• Visualization of end-to-end of services through the network (Core to Access Networks) 
• Collection, processing, and presentation of live metrics provided by the Ethernet Backhaul provider, relating to performance, availability, and reliability 
• Dynamic bandwidth allocation (Backhaul)

A typical scenario for this catalyst may involve configuration and activation of a virtual connection over the Ethernet Backhaul (this may involve business-to-business transaction processing), followed by bandwidth and service level agreement (SLA) monitoring. To ensure service quality and backhaul SLA compliance, connection performance will be monitored. The main goal of the catalyst will be to provide a set of tools that service providers can use to properly monitor services end-to-end through a converged network.

Deliverables

The Catalyst will deliver an information model that is harmonized with the relevant SDO standards being used to create the management system. In addition, a standardized interface (based upon existing interfaces) will be developed. The catalyst will demonstrate these artifacts using a simulated network and service management system.

Participants

The Catalyst will be of interest to service providers that are currently managing converged networks. In addition, Backhaul Ethernet Providers might be interested in the development of the business-to-business interface needed for Ethernet Service activation. Wireless and wireline equipment vendors will also have an interest in developing the modeling tools needed to manage the performance of the underlying networks.

 

Overview

The velocity of New Services is quickly become a management issue for the Cable industry. As more and more New Services such as over-the-top content and other types of IP-based content services are offered to subscribers, operators need a better way to both ensure delivery in a quality manner, and accurately account for that activity.

Very quickly tablets are becoming an integrated part of the customer experience for a sector of Cable subscribers – it is part app platform, part program guide, part viewing screen, part remote, - all innovation! This will continue to expand as the tablet is a natural extension of the Cable value proposition.

As the customer experience becomes more entwined with the tablet, there is a new set of requirements for integration into the Cable OSS/BSS environment. Cable, as an industry, is going to continue to be very innovative with the tablet, but what is the proper governance and approach to ensure that all of this innovation is grounded in Operations, support the new Business Models, and ensure a positive Customer Experience?

The Catalyst project will demonstrate “Frameworx for Cable” Phase 2 – a series of functional areas and use cases that will provide the audience with a clear understanding of how Frameworx can support Cable New Services such as tablet-based TV.

 

Use Case/Scenarios

For the purposes of the catalyst, proposals are encouraged to extend the existing Phase 1 Cable Catalyst. Particular tasks to be modeled may include:

• Cable New Services for Commercial
• Multi-screen Operational management
• Next Gen Headend OSS/BSS integration and management 
• Next Gen Media Gateway management 
• Testing of New Services for Customer Experience 
• Measurement and Monitoring

A typical scenario for this catalyst may involve the business alignment of engineering, OSS/BSS, and business process to support an end to end view of New Service configuration, measurement, and monitoring. The main goal of the catalyst will be to provide a set of tools that cable operators can use to successfully plan, launch, and manage New Services.

Deliverables

The catalyst will deliver presentations and extensions of the GB-949 Cable New Services Quick Start Pack.

Participants

The catalyst will be of interest to Cable Operators that are planning, launching, and operating New Services based on new devices such as tablets. Proposals are encouraged from suppliers who support the New Services value chain for the Cable Industry.

 

Overview

Cyber Security Metrics as a Service will confirm viability of providing security SLA metrics in contracting for Cyber Security services. The broad scope and objectives are to explore contract scenario issues from the technical monitoring standpoint concerning:

1. What cyber security obligations can or should be imposed in future service contracting - incident/data loss reporting, rights to collect/access logs and audit information, rights to deploy sensors on networks supporting contract delivery, rights to direct steps to protect stakeholder information both before and then in the event of compromise etc...

2. How should such obligations be imposed - and what should be the balance between mandating/standardization; seeking and auditing evidence of compliance; and reliance on codes of practice/voluntary arrangements

3. How do such obligations change with the nature of the service/contract being delivered - I.e. Are there strict requirements on certain contracts (e.g. IT and comms provision, or sensitive services); while others are of less concern

4. What is the impact of any proposed measures on the open market provision of services and/or compliance costs

The principle objective and unique idea to this Catalyst is the aim to deliver demonstrable monitoring and of new cyber security metrics for SLA’s in the context of scenarios for the above.

Underpinning this is the need to obtain consistency in the supply of cyber security capability across the extended supply chain. This builds on the federation principle of previous Defence Interest Group catalysts in the ‘Federated SLA Management Catalyst which was demonstrated at Management World (Nice) 2010’. Possible services in the ‘Cyber Security’ category cover everything from monitoring and log file access to control of resources into contracted outsourced domains, e.g. with policy management.

The concept is to apply TM Forum Frameworks and best practices to rapidly establish SLA metrics in Cyber Security for services supporting federated or operator/supplier contract provision of cyber security services, e.g. log data access. The project aims to leverage the ‘SLA Handbook’, ‘Revenue Assurance’ processes, e.g. in Fraud detection and the Security team development of security processes in the TM Forum Process Framework and covering ITIL security implementation.

A range of sample KPI metrics will be suggested to the catalyst by the Sponsors for team research and development against the use case. The catalyst will then demonstrate the viability of monitoring and exploring, for example KPI’s in:

• Detection (signatures) 
• Detection (behavioral)
• Response, e.g. mean time to implement or complete changes 
• Recovery, e.g. mean time to incident recovery

Various approaches to KPI development may be explored, for example left of arc where the Operator maintains ownership of parts of the IT infrastructure, e.g. log files, used for generating KPI’s to right of arc where everything is outsourced and the Operator is whole dependent on trust in delivered KPI’s. The KPI’s may vary as a result.

Deliverables

• Cyber Security Service definitions
• Policy
• SLA metrics for Cyber Security
  
  Possibly:
• Enterprise Risk Management metrics
• Revenue Assurance metrics

Audience

• Operators contracting for service and requiring cyber security assurances, whether commercial or Defense.
• Other audiences who may find value in this work include:
  • Value Chain Service Providers
  • Cloud buyers
  • Revenue Assurance
  • M2M/Smart Grid/ecommerce

Benefits

We have a committed project champion, and it’s a topic of high interest to our Defense Market Center.

 

Overview

This Catalyst project builds on the successful demonstrations at MW Orlando. Specifically, how the TIP Resource Alarm Management (RAM) interface allows multiple vendors to connect to multiple Network Management Systems (NMS) through a standardized interface, thereby allowing for the processing of alarms received from multiple sources and reduced cost. With strong Service Provider support, any company that with an interest in alarm/fault management of converged networks should give serious thought to participation in this project.

 

Overview

The goal of this Catalyst project is to create an industry best practice model for measuring and reporting the financial impact of Revenue Assurance, including preventive and risk reduction activities. Building on the success of this Catalyst at MW Dublin 2011 which created a new addendum F to GB941, the continued work will focus on showing the outcomes of the project so far, and investigating some open issues that will be incorporated to the second release of GB941.

 All interested participants should contact Gadi Solotorevsky CTO of cVidya at gadi@cvidya.com

Overview

The proposed Catalyst continues the work on TMF614/874 on “OSS Single Sign-On/Off” to solve multiple single sign-on/off issues in a SOA environment. An external component (“Identity and Access Management Engine”) will manage all user authentication and single sign-on/off functionality between the application and its services. Once delegated, the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), on service request, queries the IAM (Identity and Access Management) system for authentication and authorization validation.

 

Overview

The aim of the catalyst is to build resource view to improve service capabilities such as customer self-service, customer solution design, resource capacity to identify, customer impact analyses in resource change and troubleshooting processes, which is essential in transformation from single mobile network to converged network. The catalyst demonstrates customer topology view, service topology view, and resource view which can be drilled layer by layer, and include resource across domain, especially in plant and out of plant. The catalyst Scenarios can be demonstrated On-site.

 

Overview

Dynamic, on-demand bandwidth trading has understandably been ‘under a cloud’ since the collapse of Enron in controversial circumstances a decade ago. The recent emergence of dynamic, on-demand computational resource trading with Amazon EC2 Spot Instances may suggest a re-evaluation of complementary bandwidth-on-demand service offerings. These would allow for the cost-effective movement of appreciable quantities of data between end-customer and data centre over short time durations. A necessary precursor for this would be the ability to trade bandwidth contracts for on-demand end-to-end Ethernet circuits between the end-customer and the data centre mediated through an electronic exchange to enable price-discovery. BT Ireland (with support from BT Innovate & Design), First Derivatives, Amartus and Intune Networks will develop a bandwidth exchange marketplace. This will look at both a commodity exchange and a spot market.