Case Study Of A Global Telecommunications Solution And Service Provider

By Author: Alan Jackson
Total Articles: 2
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The following case study is based on an organization that manages a team of developers and technicians that install systems and implement integrations into a telecommunication giant’s voice network. The team is especially focused on intelligent network (IN) services that allow subscribers to locate businesses (hotels, restaurants, etc.) with their cell phone.

IN services handle hundreds of millions of pre and post-paid mobile calls each day. Fixed line subscribers might, for example, call a generic Pizza Hut phone number. The IN, using business rules and the caller’s phone number as a location, routes the call to the nearest Pizza Hut.

To be of value, IN services have to be constantly available and very fast. Providing high levels of availability and performance requires keeping a careful eye on the underlying network, identifying and fixing potential problems before they cause service interruptions, and building capacity to keep pace with subscriber demand.

The team decided to meet these demands using a popular network monitoring company. The capabilities of the networking monitoring software ...
... have been proved in other scenarios where it used its network maps to diagnose issues over a widespread network. Software provided by the company was renowned for being easy to use and extremely cost-effective when compared to other network traffic monitoring systems.

At the telecommunication company, systems handle all the call and data processing through TCP/IP once it’s handed over from the Telco switch’s SS7 link (E1/T1). The team uses the network software to check the health of those systems and connections. Network maps and alerts point out performance problems and software data is used to plan for capacity increases.

The software’s remote access client lets the company see customer sites from a central operations desk. “We are able to see just want we want through the firewall without having to introduce anything new at customer sites,” says a company representative. “Our customers are excited about this value-added service.”

“The software is such a great value,” says Bryant. “The difference in cost between it and a management system like HP OpenView is phenomenal. I’ve been able to roll out the software for 10% of what a network analyzer would cost. And it also reflects network configuration changes in minutes as opposed to weeks.”

That kind of cost-effective, fast, reliable service is critical to the telecommunication company’s subscribers.