Operator User Management System Based on the TMF615 Standard

Abstract

Multi-vendor telecommunications networks in a typical service provider environment are managed using multiple proprietary user management systems (UMS), supplied by the operational support system (OSS) vendors. The management of a typical service provider includes communications solutions put into place between the global UMS and the local UMS. Nowadays, in service provider environments OSSs exist that use multi-vendor communications' protocols. In the telecommunications sector, the centralized management of all these different OSSs can cause serious problems for the network operation. In this respect, there is an urgent need for a standardized and centralized provisioning and auditing mechanism for the operators and their entitlements that work on these management systems. To address this need and to provide efficient operations among different service provider network components, this paper outlines the design and development of a TMF615 (Tele Management Forum) standard-based, common communication platform. In this respect, the proposed approach includes a common interface to address communication problems in multi-vendor, service provider environments. The interface and performance evaluations developed are some of the first solutions in this field, and the resulting solutions are converted into a commercial product with a high added value. In this regard, our proposed approach makes an important contribution to scientific literature and commercial applications. The realization of the proposed TMF615 standard-based interface enables the efficient and easy integration of existing and new OSSs of the service providers. In this way, a standardized interface is offered, along with a common communications platform adequate for all different systems. The vendors are thereby only responsible for application development based on specifications, and a standardized communications process is introduced for all related systems. This significantly facilitates the management of service providers, system performance is improved, and a massive cost reduction is provided at the same time. Consequently, the efficient management of network components is provided using a common standardized interface. In this respect, we aim to explain the TMF615 specifications; the evolution of UMS, OSSs and TMF615 with centralized UMS, as well as the implementation and performance evaluation of the TMF615 protocol are all explained in this paper.