Product Lifecycle Management. Popularly about the processes of life cycle management of telecommunications services
We all use communication services for a variety of purposes: get access to favorite sites and blogs, chat with loved ones, friends and colleagues, hold talks, watch your favorite TV shows or online broadcast, send emails. The era of telecommunications has presented us with unimaginable opportunities and a huge range of new products and services. One of the key services are telecommunications directly: Internet access, voice communication, television, and many others. I work in the field of telecommunications and I would like to tell you how telecommunications services are born, how they develop and serve, and how they die.
Probably should start with the terminology. By service we mean a commercial product (product) that is provided to the end user, has the cost and terms of service, implies the existence of a contract for its provision. You can see that there are a lot of telecommunication services on the market at various prices and under various conditions, but all of them are provided with a narrow range of telecommunication services (service). Services can be basic and additional, and all of them are provided with a stack of information systems and telecommunications equipment. To better understand the differences between product and service, you can give an example: Internet access is a service, and Internet access at a speed of 10Mbps at a price of 600r per month is a product.
Since services are the backbone of the business of communications enterprises, ensuring their lifecycle management processes is a very important function. Building PLM (product lifecycle management) processes always begins with the development of a service model. There are many methodologies, but the most common is the TMForum SID (Shared Information Data) model. I want to tell by the example of this model how services appear. We should start with the metamodel, which in a simplified form looks like this:
The model presents three classes of entities. The entity class Customer Facing Service (CFS) is a service that the end user uses directly, such as the notorious Internet access. The CFS service is the minimum atomic unit for creating a commercial product. An entity of the Resource Facing Service (RFS) class is a service that is provided by telecommunications equipment or an information system and ensures the existence of the CFS service, for example, the AAA server authorization service is one of such services for providing Internet access. As a rule, the end user knows nothing about the RFS service. An entity of the Resource class is a specification of telecommunications equipment or an information system providing RFS service. It is important to note that the structure of services can be hierarchical and have multiple nesting.
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The management of the service model and their life cycle is carried out in the information system with an unexpected name service catalog (service catalog), also called the technological catalog. The service catalog, for good reason, occupies a central place in the stack of service level systems of enterprise information systems for TMForum TAM (Telecomm Application Map), since it is precisely the interface between technology and commerce. The service stack information systems such as Service Order Management, Service Inventory, Service Provisioning, Service Assurance and others work on the basis of the models and specifications of the services included in the catalog. It is important to understand that when I talk about systems, I mean roles. Often, one industrial information system can fulfill several roles at once. Such systems are offered by many manufacturers of solutions for telecommunications, like Oracle, Amdocs, Comptel, HP and others.
On it we will finish with the theory and we will pass to practice - we will try to build model of services. Let's imagine that we installed a new network element and published its specification. For example, I chose a SIP server, which can be either a standalone system or a part, for example, IMS. SIP server provides voice communication over IP channels. SIP telephony has huge advantages over analog or digital, because can be fully used in the clouds. In other words, we can allow the subscriber to use the service from home (having our local network), mobile phone (via the local network of the mobile operator or using GPRS / LTE), from anywhere in the world via an IP channel (for example, WiFi in Starbucks anywhere in London). In general, the service is purely cloudy and convergent.
Having received the SIP server specification, we, first of all, have to find out which RFS services it provides, most often it is:
As a rule, SIP servers provide a huge range of various additional services, but I propose to limit ourselves to these five. I propose to draw a model of RFS services:
The model represents the resource and resource services (RFS) it provides. Four additional services (supplementary service) depend on basic service. However, this service cannot be provided to a client without an IP line, so the model can additionally specify service dependencies that describe the lines, such as mobile access, broadband access, wireless broadband access, and others.
Next, you should define the CFS service, which then will form the basis of a variety of commercial products with various options and terms of supply. As an example, all five RFS services can be combined into one CFS service with options:
It is important to understand that not only the CFS service can have options, but also the RFS services as well.
All options and parameters of the service are its specification. The specification also describes dependencies, mutual exclusions, cardinality, and service management functions (usually with CRUD - create, read, update, delete). As a result, we built a full-fledged service model with certain simplifications.
Now it is worthwhile to dwell on the control functions, which are commonly called the Fulfillment Functions. For the service, each function describes, at a minimum, the rules for its design, activation on the network, saving the inventory in the system and setting it up for monitoring. For the sequence and correctness of the execution of all functions, the Service Order Management system is responsible, and the entity itself, which it manages, is a service order or Service Order. There is a basic methodology for describing control functions: design, assign, activate.
All of these functions are involved in varying degrees in the process of connecting the service, its locking, unlocking, modifying and disconnecting, and together provide a complete process for managing the life cycle of the service provided to the end user. It is important to understand that a correctly constructed service model directly affects management processes, the correctness of which provides a huge advantage for communications and telecommunications enterprises when building cloud convergent services and allows new commercial products and technologies to be brought to the market as soon as possible, which is extremely important in the era of rapid development. communication and growing needs.
In the next article, I will try, also briefly, to highlight the process of creating commercial products based on the created service model.
Probably should start with the terminology. By service we mean a commercial product (product) that is provided to the end user, has the cost and terms of service, implies the existence of a contract for its provision. You can see that there are a lot of telecommunication services on the market at various prices and under various conditions, but all of them are provided with a narrow range of telecommunication services (service). Services can be basic and additional, and all of them are provided with a stack of information systems and telecommunications equipment. To better understand the differences between product and service, you can give an example: Internet access is a service, and Internet access at a speed of 10Mbps at a price of 600r per month is a product.
Since services are the backbone of the business of communications enterprises, ensuring their lifecycle management processes is a very important function. Building PLM (product lifecycle management) processes always begins with the development of a service model. There are many methodologies, but the most common is the TMForum SID (Shared Information Data) model. I want to tell by the example of this model how services appear. We should start with the metamodel, which in a simplified form looks like this:
The model presents three classes of entities. The entity class Customer Facing Service (CFS) is a service that the end user uses directly, such as the notorious Internet access. The CFS service is the minimum atomic unit for creating a commercial product. An entity of the Resource Facing Service (RFS) class is a service that is provided by telecommunications equipment or an information system and ensures the existence of the CFS service, for example, the AAA server authorization service is one of such services for providing Internet access. As a rule, the end user knows nothing about the RFS service. An entity of the Resource class is a specification of telecommunications equipment or an information system providing RFS service. It is important to note that the structure of services can be hierarchical and have multiple nesting.
')
The management of the service model and their life cycle is carried out in the information system with an unexpected name service catalog (service catalog), also called the technological catalog. The service catalog, for good reason, occupies a central place in the stack of service level systems of enterprise information systems for TMForum TAM (Telecomm Application Map), since it is precisely the interface between technology and commerce. The service stack information systems such as Service Order Management, Service Inventory, Service Provisioning, Service Assurance and others work on the basis of the models and specifications of the services included in the catalog. It is important to understand that when I talk about systems, I mean roles. Often, one industrial information system can fulfill several roles at once. Such systems are offered by many manufacturers of solutions for telecommunications, like Oracle, Amdocs, Comptel, HP and others.
On it we will finish with the theory and we will pass to practice - we will try to build model of services. Let's imagine that we installed a new network element and published its specification. For example, I chose a SIP server, which can be either a standalone system or a part, for example, IMS. SIP server provides voice communication over IP channels. SIP telephony has huge advantages over analog or digital, because can be fully used in the clouds. In other words, we can allow the subscriber to use the service from home (having our local network), mobile phone (via the local network of the mobile operator or using GPRS / LTE), from anywhere in the world via an IP channel (for example, WiFi in Starbucks anywhere in London). In general, the service is purely cloudy and convergent.
Having received the SIP server specification, we, first of all, have to find out which RFS services it provides, most often it is:
- Subscription to voice communication (subscription) - this service is basic and all other services depend on it.
- External phone number (phone number) - additional service for receiving calls from mobile or landline numbers.
- Call forwarding is an additional service.
- Call waiting is an additional service.
- Automatic line number identification (additional service).
As a rule, SIP servers provide a huge range of various additional services, but I propose to limit ourselves to these five. I propose to draw a model of RFS services:
The model represents the resource and resource services (RFS) it provides. Four additional services (supplementary service) depend on basic service. However, this service cannot be provided to a client without an IP line, so the model can additionally specify service dependencies that describe the lines, such as mobile access, broadband access, wireless broadband access, and others.
Next, you should define the CFS service, which then will form the basis of a variety of commercial products with various options and terms of supply. As an example, all five RFS services can be combined into one CFS service with options:
It is important to understand that not only the CFS service can have options, but also the RFS services as well.
All options and parameters of the service are its specification. The specification also describes dependencies, mutual exclusions, cardinality, and service management functions (usually with CRUD - create, read, update, delete). As a result, we built a full-fledged service model with certain simplifications.
Now it is worthwhile to dwell on the control functions, which are commonly called the Fulfillment Functions. For the service, each function describes, at a minimum, the rules for its design, activation on the network, saving the inventory in the system and setting it up for monitoring. For the sequence and correctness of the execution of all functions, the Service Order Management system is responsible, and the entity itself, which it manages, is a service order or Service Order. There is a basic methodology for describing control functions: design, assign, activate.
- Design (design) implies the process of designing a service for a specific end user, reserving or building network resources. Systems such as Network Planning, Network Resource Inventory and Service Order Management directly are responsible for the design process (this is one of the functions of this system, in addition to managing the entire process).
- Subscription (assign) implies the process of saving the service in the inventory system and putting it on monitoring. Service Inventory and Service Assurance are responsible for the subscription.
- Activation (activate) involves the process of configuring network elements that provide service. For the activation of the system is responsible Service Provisioning or Service Activation.
All of these functions are involved in varying degrees in the process of connecting the service, its locking, unlocking, modifying and disconnecting, and together provide a complete process for managing the life cycle of the service provided to the end user. It is important to understand that a correctly constructed service model directly affects management processes, the correctness of which provides a huge advantage for communications and telecommunications enterprises when building cloud convergent services and allows new commercial products and technologies to be brought to the market as soon as possible, which is extremely important in the era of rapid development. communication and growing needs.
In the next article, I will try, also briefly, to highlight the process of creating commercial products based on the created service model.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/163839/
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