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iSStar: a network O&M star

iSStar: a network O&M star

China Mobile has innovatively reformed its operation and maintenance (O&M) system while providing first-class mobile network services. The iSStar intelligent development platform helps China Mobile promote centralized management and intelligent network O&M.
By Chen Zhihui
s telecom networks become bigger and more complicated, telecom operators are more challenged by network O&M. To i n c r e a s e t h e O & M e f f i c i e n c y while keeping a lid on costs, each operator needs to classify and standardize work processes based on the characteristics of its O&M system. In the long run it is fruitless for the operator to rely on equipment suppliers and always ask them to meet all requirements and customize network O&M modes. A Chinese proverb says, Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. Huawei embraced this maxim when developing iSStar, an intelligent script development platform. The platform helps operators to create automatic work processes and inherit O&M experience. It frees O&M engineers from arduous and repetitive work, decreases O&M costs and improves network quality.

China Mobile Huizhou: automatic adjustment

During the holidays, people far away from their families usually make long distance calls. Network optimization engineer, Mr. He at China Mobile Huizhou said, During holidays and festivals, we are always busy maintaining the network. Our biggest wish is to enable all the mobile users of China Mobile Huizhou to make successful calls. It is easier said than done. In some periods and some areas, the sharp spike in traffic might exceed the network capacity and cause call failures. Subscribers will naturally get frustrated. Two requirements have been challenges for China Mobile Huizhou: One is to open the halfrate channels dynamically and the other is to satisfy subscriber requirements during specific peak periods as well as their network usage requirements in 43 MAY 2009 . ISSUE 49

Huawei Communicate

normal traffic periods. By opening half-rate channels in some areas, more calls can be connected to alleviate congestion, but call quality is slightly deteriorated. Dynamic adjustment is always made according to the real-time data of network elements (NEs) and the historical reference data in the operations support system (OSS). The traditional, manual O&M mode requires multiple executions of the NE query command. Related results have to be chosen from mass results to get correct real-time data through complicated calculation. Then historical reference data has to be worked out from traffic statistics data, and calculation is done again to work out the baseline for adjusting half-rate channel ratio. After the baseline is obtained, a series of commands need to be issued before the half-rate channels are opened. This is a complicated process and mistakes can be easily made. Whats more, the process must be repetitively executed on a periodic basis, explained Mr. He. It is obvious that as the network gets larger, the traditional manual O&M mode can no longer satisfy the requirements for largescale network operation and maintenance. The operator urgently needs to quickly solidify the O&M experience and customize proper service processes to automatically carry out O&M tasks and ensure network quality. If the operator places the requirement on equipment suppliers to customize the function, it takes a long time. Moreover, the situation will repeat correspondently with other requirements. This leaves the operator unable to effect fast, intelligent O&M. To find a way out of the slow lane, China Mobile Huizhou came to Huawei, their equipment supplier for the existing network. After two weeks, Mr. He was amazed when he found that the half-rate adjustment script ran automatically in the O&M system and it took only six minutes to adjust half-rate channels for all cells in the same BSC. Problems solved. iSStar developed by Huawei provides simple language, rich interface function library and a strong integrated development environment that enable O&M engineers to develop automatic work processes. Network O&M engineers using the tool no longer run commands without logic control.

Mr. He said, I developed this script together with Huaweis engineers. With their guidance, I used the iSStar script language for the programming of our own processes and methods. In case the traffic model is changed, I need to change only some parts in the script. With this innovation, we are on track towards intelligent operation and maintenance.

much enhanced as well.

iSStar: outstanding for intelligent O&M

The customized iSStar intelligent script development platform is based on highlevel script language (HSL), providing an integrated development environment for O&M engineers, covering development, commissioning and operation. It is embedded with man-machine language (MML) functions and script task dispatching is enabled. i S St a r p r ov i d e s a s c a l a b l e H S L foundation class (HFC), encapsulating common service realization processes and covering many service functions, including NE operation, file operation, MML text resolution, database access, and report operations. Such service functions can be flexibly expanded. In program testing, the iSStar enables breakpoint setting, single-step commissioning, and variable observation to quickly locate program faults. It also enables offline operations, which lets the O&M engineers edit and test programs in various scenarios. Overall O&M efficiency is markedly improved. O&M engineers can easily handle repetitive operations by using iSStar. Engineers can carry out mass maintenance operations with one-button operation. With periodical task scheduling, they can quickly process large maintenance workload and ensure good network quality. The O&M engineers can also use iSStar to set network monitoring points while editing intelligent programs, thereby abstracting key information and customizing service processes to satisfy personalized O&M requirements. The iSStar can cut costs for product innovation and customization, decrease long-term investments, and improve an operators core competitiveness. Ne t w o r k q u a l i t y h a s re m a i n e d a competitive focal point. As China Mobile is implementing intelligent network O&M, a new O&M mode is gradually evolving. Constant innovations and changes have been improving network quality and decreasing O&M costs, allowing China Mobile to keep its leading position in the marketplace. Editor: Xu Peng xupeng@huawei.com
MAY 2009 . ISSUE 49

China Mobile Henan: automated office data

Mr. Han, an equipment manager with the network management center at China Mobile Henan, was once greatly troubled by the allocation of new numbers and said, In 18 branch offices, 120 new number segments have to be allocated each month. To fulfill this, the maintenance staff needs to input 1,680 commands in nearly two working days. The long-term, rigid operations can easily make the operators tired, leading to errors. As equipment runs in the network, office data and circuit bearer units need to be constantly added and adjusted, resulting in a lot of trash data and data for integration. If the office data is not managed in time, data maintenance and management will become more complicated and might affect existing network operations, Mr. Han added. To solve the technical problem, China Mobile Henan talked to Huawei several times and finally decided to use iSStar to develop an automatic softswitch maintenance system. The system would be comprised of several modules to offer rich functions including: automatic configuration of site data, automatic database optimization, automatic board switchover testing, automatic load sharing, and automatic monitoring. Mr. Han participated in the entire development process and was quite satisfied with the outcome. The workloads, which previously needed two working days, now can be done in ten to fifteen minutes. The results are completely correct. In the past, we did not have proper methods to integrate various service operation processes. Now this problem is solved through intelligent O&M measures. The work efficiency has been greatly improved and the network quality is

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