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Nokia Siemens Networks Portfolio

Nokia Siemens Networks has an extensive OSS/BSS product portfolio covering all telecom

domains from element management layers to service and business management. Key

products have been commercially available since 1992, and today over 1.2 billion end-users

enjoy services accessed through networks managed by our network management systems.

To address the challenges service providers are today facing on their local and global

markets, Nokia Siemens Networks is developing and renewing its product portfolio to provide

topical solutions for operator customers. Telecom business transformation shaping many

markets today calls for OSS transformation in a form of a well-designed next-generation OSS.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ new OSS/BSS products with new architecture fulfill the following

expectations:

Ability to support operators’ business processes by introducing modifiable operator process

templates out-of-the-box to enable higher level of automation in many of operators’ daily

routines.

Shared information and data model; enabling OSS/BSS level application interoperability

through Common Information Models.

Modularity of application architecture, allowing flexible building of solutions based on

customer needs. The architecture also provides the openness that allows easy

implementation of additional 3rd party applications on top of the platform.

Separation of the application architecture from network element adaptation/mediation layer.

Thus, the applications should be built as multi-vendor and multi-technology capable by

nature. In practice, this would speed up the rollout of new network elements or

functionalities, as new equipment can be implemented and integrated without major

changes to the OSS application architecture. Similarly, introducing new OSS functionality

can be done independently from managing the network element adaptations.

Common platform for converged OSS solutions, and harmonized software and hardware

assets when building these solutions. This harmonization will reduce operators’ costs on

system administration and maintenance, system integration, training and naturally, on the

initial infrastructure investments.

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What is NetAct

NetAct 6 and NetAct 7 are the Nokia Siemens Networks’ network management system

(NMS) family of products, designed for centralized management of multi-vendor and multi-

technology telecommunications networks. Its functionalities include configuring,

administering, monitoring and reporting the network and its operation.

NetAct 6 and NetAct 7 Releases are not an end products by themselves but serve as

foundation for other NSN Network Management products. Provide common functionality that

is used by other higher level products and promotes software re-use. NetAct 6 & 7 bring a

complete new architecture that changes the network and resource centric approach into an

end customer – service oriented OSS/BSS solution.

This modernized OSS architecture provides the following advantages to operators:

Consolidation: A complete view to services and resources enables efficient use of

operator’s people and systems via an unified information model for all technologies,

modular applications and central data storage, providing as well a single point of access to

all management tasks.

Harmonization: Optimize operator’s OSS investments and minimizing system integration,

maintenance and operating costs with the help of a unified OSS platform

Automation: Improve efficiency by reducing the number of human errors and lower

operational costs through increased automation.

"A service is a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the ownership of specific costs and risks" (ITIL 2007).

Service Management is a set of functions and processes for managing services over a lifecycle.

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NetAct 6 & 7 New Release Model

NetAct 6 and NetAct 7 follow a new release model that is first time introduced in NetAct 6. NetAct

Base releases will provide platform and common functionalities which can be utilized in

management of different network technology domains.

Adaptation support for different technologies such as Radio and Core are included into separate

technology releases. The new release model will be taken into use in order to achieve following

benefits:

Network element support for different technologies (Radio, Core) can be released separately

from each other (even one at a time), and separately from platform and applications.

Improved flexibility to respond to operator demands.

New system level and application features can be released separately.

This is a major change from OSS5.x releases where platform, applications and adaptations are

delivered in one release only.

NetAct 6 and NetAct 7 consist of separate NetAct Base releases and technology specific releases.

NetAct Base 6 & 7 are the main releases that provide a new platform and network management

application functionalities for the management of different network technology domains.

NetAct 6 & 7 releases are running on a new computing platform, using the same hardware types as

NetAct OSS5.x. NetAct Base 6 & 7 and EP’s provide the platform and applications for management

systems of different technologies (for example NetAct for Core and NetAct for Radio).

NetAct 6 and NetAct 7 can also be seamlessly integrated with NetAct OSS5.x with a loosely

coupled interface, bringing improved assurance capabilities for NetAct OSS5.x customers. In this

scenario extra hardware units needs to added to existing OSS5.x system.

NetAct 6 & 7 software platform provides a new desktop which is used to manage and monitor the

network. The new monitoring tools, new NetAct administrator applications, and also NetAct OSS5.x

applications can be launched from the new desktop. NetAct 6 & 7 can act as a multi-technology

network management system, or as a single technology-domain-specific management system.

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NetAct is based on open interfaces and industry standards such as the Next Generation OSS

(NGOSS), the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the TeleManagement Forum’s

eTOM model (Business Process Framework).

Within the telecommunications industry different Management Models have evolved over time. The

OSI Functional model – the Service Management Function Areas – introduced the functional areas

known as FCAPS: Fault Management, Configuration Management, Accounting Management,

Performance Management and Security Management. The ITU-T TMN introduced the concept of

the Logical Layered Architecture with the Element Management Layer, Network Management

Layer, Service Management Layer and Business Management Layer.

As investment decisions in the telecommunications industry were more and more driven by

Business rather than Technology drivers, the TeleManagement Forum developed the Enhanced

Telecom Operations Map® (eTOM) as a reference framework for classifying all business activities

The eTOM reference framework has multiple groupings for the processes that it contains:

Vertical process groupings: Focusing on end-to-end activities (for example Assurance) each vertical links together the customer, the supporting services, resources and supplier/partners. Taken together, these vertical groupings can be visualized as a ”lifecycle” view moving left to right across the Framework from the initial strategy for the products and their components, through development and delivery, and on into operations and billing.

Horizontal process groupings: Focusing on functionally-related areas, like Customer Relationship Management. These groupings can be visualized as a “layered” view of the enterprise’s processes, moving from top to bottom, with the customers and products supported by the underlying services, resources and (where relevant) interaction with suppliers and partners.

Linking eTOM to the TMN model

A mapping between the eTOM to the TMN model has been developed and included in the M.3050 Supplement 3 ITU-T Specification and is expected to help with validating and completing the eTOM process analysis work in the relevant process areas.

Since functions are what vendors are going to deliver, and processes model how service providers are going to sequence those functions, the mapping also provides a means to match the service providers requirements with the vendors capabilities.

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With more than 700 corporate members in 195 countries, the TM Forum is the world’s leading industry association focused on enabling best-in-class IT for service providers in the communications, media and cloud service markets. The Forum provides business-critical industry standards and expertise to enable the creation, delivery and monetization of digital services.

TM Forum brings together the world’s largest communications, technology and media companies, providing an innovative, industry-leading approach to collaborative R&D, along with wide range of support services including benchmarking, training and certification.

TM Forum Standards and Services

TM Forum standards and services provide the critical market tools to help service providers of all types provide innovative services on streamlined, agile, and lower cost service creation & delivery platforms. TM Forum standards are:

• Used by service providers and suppliers worldwide

• Easy to adopt, reducing the cost of integration

• Highly flexible, to support easy integration of new services and technologies

• Independent of vendor implementations

• Used to simplify RFx development, response, and support

The TM Forum Frameworx is an integrated business architecture for rationalizing operational IT, processes, and systems. It is undergoing rapid adoption in the industry, and is the reference model for design and implementation of NetAct. Frameworx standards take the form of documents, models, specifications, and software code. The Frameworx suite of standards and best practices is composed of:

Business Process Framework (eTOM) is the industry's common process architecture for both

business and functional processes . The eTOM Business Process Framework is known for the

common vocabulary it establishes for both business and functional processes. By mapping

processes in a language that all facets of an organization understand, the Framework helps to

identify and prioritize which operational areas are most critical to business objectives.

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NetAct 6 and NetAct 7 can be installed on top of NetAct OSS5.x or they can act as standalone management system for directly integrated elements together with technology specific releases, e.g. with NetAct for Core and NetAct for Radio

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The role of NetAct in managing a network can be classified into two categories: NetAct

operation system itself and NetAct Advanced products.

NetAct operation system (NetAct OS)

A NetAct system is connected to one or more Network Element(s) and / or Element

Management System(s).

• Used for online monitoring, administering, configuring and reporting of the network.

• Provides the main connection point of Network elements.

• Stores all detailed data collected from NEs. The storing time is intended to be short. (e.g for

alarms the default storing time is 2 weeks), as long term storage of information is reserved

for higher level systems (external systems or NetAct Advanced Products).

NetAct Advanced Products

The Advanced Products are an umbrella solution that provide an entire view of the network in

areas of Fault Management, Performance Management and Configuration Management.

There are two NetAct Advanced Products: NetAct Advanced Monitor and NetAct Advanced

Configurator.

Multiple NetAct instances and other Network Management Systems or other vendors (MVI)

can be connected to a single NetAct Advanced Product instance.

The Advanced products can also be integrated to the previous NetAct version OSS 5.x

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Introduction to NetAct Start

NetAct Start is a centralized launch pad for starting NetAct user interface applications. You can start

all the NetAct applications that have been configured and for which you have permission to launch

from NetAct Start.

NetAct uses Single Sign-On (SSO) for accessing applications through NetAct Start. To be able to

access applications through NetAct Start, a user must have a valid user name and password. The

user also must be granted the permissions for accessing the needed applications. Depending on

the permissions granted for the user, a list of published applications is visible to the user.

From the right-hand dropdown menu the user can select between two different views.

Folder view shows the different fragments as folders. The applications are grouped into the following functional areas:

Administration: Applications for administering adaptations.

Configuration: NetAct CM applications, License manager and Software Manager.

Monitoring: NetAct Monitor.

Reporting: NetAct Reporter.

Security: Certificate and user management applications.

User Assistance: Operating documentation library.

Clicking the Online Help icon opens the Online Help Browser. By selecting ‘Show all applications’ from the dropdown menu the user can see all the applications in one view and access them by mouse click.

All the Java applications are installed on the application server cluster when NetAct is deployed. When a Java Rich Client is accessed for the first time, it is downloaded by the JWS to user workstation and launched for the user. The next time it is accessed, the application is started from the local JWS cache. JWS checks the version of the application every time it is launched on the user workstation, and if necessary, updates the application from the application server.

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NetAct Functional Areas

Each application that you can launch from NetAct is grouped into the following categories according

to what kind of tasks it is used for:

Administration

Applications used for the administration of Mediations and Adaptations in NetAct. Provides as well

access to Element Managers.

Deployment

For AddOns Management. AddOns are enterprise applications that can be deployed to the NetAct

server.

Configuration

Set of applications used to manage and optimize the network configuration.

Monitoring

This is the group for fault management applications to monitor and troubleshoot the managed

network.

Reporting

Use these applications to start measurements and generate reports on the performance of the

managed network.

Security

Applications for User Account Management and Certification Authority (Certificates generation).

User Assistance

Applications to access User Documentation and Information Adaptation Browser.

Some applications are optional and require a license, otherwise they are not visible in NetAct GUI.

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NetAct Administration

Adaptation Manager

An adaptation is a set of fragments such as configuration management (CM), Performance Management (PM), Fault Management (FM), and other fragments. These fragments contain data that enables NetAct to communicate with any Network Element. Several releases of an adaptation can be deployed to NetAct to support multiple versions of network elements.

Adaptation Manager helps in managing adaptations. A user with adequate roles and permissions can perform the following actions with Adaptation Manager:

• Deploying adaptations, Un-deploying adaptations, Redeploying adaptations

• Viewing adaptations

Mediation Management

The FM SNMP Mediation Configuration user interface is a web application used for activation, deactivation and parameter configuration (timeout, retries, number messages handled in parallel mode) of Agent supervision, Trap Reliability and Alarm upload functions for all NEs.

With SNMP FM mediator, you can perform the following tasks:

• Configuring global parameters for agent supervision and trap reliability

• Configuring parameters for agent supervision by NE

• Configuring global parameters for alarm synchronization

The SNMP PM Mediator user interface is a web application used for activation, deactivation and parameter configuration (for example, timeout, retries and number messages handled in parallel mode) of PM mediation. It facilitates configuration of the PM mediation parameters for all network elements.

With SNMP PM mediator, you can perform the following tasks:

• Configuring global parameters

• Configuring Parameters for PM Polling by NE

• Polling Configuration for existing NEs

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Deployment

AddOn Manager

AddOns are enterprise applications that can be deployed to the NetAct server. These are plain Enterprise Archive (EAR) files which may contain Web User Interfaces (UIs) or Java Beans.

AddOn Manager is a web interface to help manage the AddOns. A user with adequate roles and permissions can perform following actions with AddOn Manager:

• Deploy AddOns

• Undeploy AddOns

• Start/Stop AddOns

• View AddOns

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NetAct Configurator

NetAct Configurator is a component in the scalable NetAct framework for operating mobile networks. Configurator gives access to real-time network configuration data and provides tools to manage network configuration. The basic functionality of NetAct Configurator is to define and manage parameter data in the network.

Network architecture can be functionally grouped into the access network and the core network.

The access network handles all radio-related functionality while the core network is responsible for

routing calls and data connections to external networks. With Configurator, the access network and

core network are managed in a centralized way.

The main functionalities of Configurator are:

• storing the network parameters in the database

• data exchange with external tools

• setting, modifying, viewing, and comparing network configuration data

• mass modifications on the network: integrating sites, extending and optimizing the network

• small scale tuning of the network configuration

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NetAct Configurator - Maintaining up-to-date picture of the network

Working with the latest data is a precondition for exploiting the full potential of any network.

Configurator not only retrieves configuration data from network elements whenever desired. It also

saves this information to allow operators create an archive of configuration stages to give them vital

insight and thus enables them to optimize their network. Built-in northbound interface capability

allows for the export of data towards third-party post-processing applications.

Configuring the network

Configurator provides offline planning capabilities to prevent any mistakes to be made on a running

network. Current and planned configurations can be compared to identify the best solution.

Plausibility checks prevent errors from the start. An Import functionality is available which enables

to process network plans which have been prepared outside of Configurator in an operator’s

planning environment.

In the configure phase all three Configurator components work hand-in-hand:

• CM Editor is used for displaying configuration data and for comfortable editing of data when creating a

network plan.

• CM Analyzer is used for use case specific running of consistency checks.

• Finally, CM Operations Manager comes into the game when externally created network plans are imported

into the Configurator application for further processing. With the Command Manager, CM Operations

Manager allows the direct execution of commands and command files (on-demand or scheduled) to network

elements.

Once a new configuration has been defined automatic delta command generation takes care of

spelling out all necessary changes in the relevant network element specific data formats. Controlled

deployment of all administration is provided by the provisioning capability.

The automation of all download tasks ensures network consistency and minimizes operational

efforts, allowing a complete transparency of all planning and with minimized margin for error. All

provisioning steps are controlled by the CM Operations Manager.

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NetAct Monitor

NetAct Monitor provides a new desktop and a new toolset for monitoring tasks. The fault

management monitoring tools in NetAct Monitor can be used to manage alarms from various network elements and types, to perform root cause analysis, to troubleshoot faults that cause disruptions in network services, and to improve the quality of the network services for subscribers. NetAct Monitor provides :

List and view based alarm monitoring

Object management tools

Rule management for automated alarm handling and correlation

Alarm filtering

Alarm forwarding to e-mail

Trouble Ticket management tools

OSS/J Trouble Ticket northbound interface

3GPP CORBA Fault Management northbound interface

Application launch for all NetAct tools, including NetAct OSS5 level applications

NetAct Monitor toolset accelerates the monitoring workflow by providing centralized monitoring tools on a single screen for different networks.

Alarm filtering and correlation rules help to automate the regular fault management actions and reduce the alarm flow to NetAct Monitor alarm tools and upper level systems integrated via 3GPP CORBA Fault Management northbound interface.

OSS/J Trouble Ticket interface together with trouble ticket tools enhances the trouble ticket handling within monitoring tools.

NetAct Monitor supports user specific customization on tool views and tool set-ups and its permission management supports user group specific tool and operation permissions.

With this integrated toolset NetAct Monitor provides excellent support for daily monitoring tasks in operations helping operator to gain OPEX savings when tools are in full use.

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NetAct Monitor: Regional network monitoring

In regional network monitoring, the emphasis is on the basic monitoring of one management

region. This covers alarm collection from the managed sub-networks via the mediation and the

monitoring tools. Northbound interfaces (available as optional functionality) support the data

forwarding to 3rd party systems.

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NetAct Reporter

NetAct Reporter is a group of tools integrated to the network management system solution of Nokia

Siemens Networks for centrally monitoring network performance.

You can use the data that NetAct collects from the network and generate various reports for

analyzing current and anticipating future trends. You can use the reports and statistics that you

generated with Reporter applications as a basis for decisions on the optimal timing of new

investments or for evaluating the utilization of resources. When the utilization of the network

resources is evaluated, both the overall performance of the network system and the performance of

individual network elements are handled. Identification of bottlenecks and optimization of the

network system is particularly important.

In NetAct Reporter you have access to the following features:

Report Editor

Report Explorer

KPI Editor

Scheduler Admin

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NetAct Reporter

Networks continuously produce an enormous amount of data on areas like traffic levels

within the PLMN, verification of the network configuration, resource availability, resource

access and Quality of Service (QoS). With NetAct Reporter operator can view and analyze

performance, fault and configuration data from multiple sources across the whole network.

Raw data is translated to meaningful information that is visualized in graphical and textual

reports.

The aim of Reporter is to collect and to filter the information to suit the needs of various

activities. Reporter is designed to help operators analyze and optimize the entire managed

network, in the presence of the latest technologies.

NetAct Reporter Basic Software (BSW)

Measurement data collection and storing

NetAct Reporter Application Software (ASW)

• Data processing

• Administration of Measurements

• Measurement Data Export

• Thresholder and Profiler and Threshold Monitoring

Reporting Tools

• Report Explorer

• Report Builder

• Caching and Scheduling

• Web Scripting Platform

• Reporting Suite

• Global Reporter

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User Assistance

Operating Documentation

NetAct operating documentation is available online in browsable format in IBM Eclipse Infocenter

browser on the NetAct user workstations. The standard NetAct operating documentation set

contains both HTML documentation, and selected documents in PDF format. The Applications

Online Help is conveniently available via NetAct Operating Documentation, in case the context

sensitive Online Help is not available via the application.

Adaptation Information Browser

Adaptation Information Browser (AIB) is an application used for browsing of alarm, measurement,

counter, and both radio and core network parameter descriptions, as well as object class

information and changes between network element releases.

AIB user interface provides following functions for utilizing the adaptation reference information:

• Search

• View

• Browse

• Compare

• Export to spreadsheet or XML

• Print

• View release changes

• Select GUI columns for browsing and export

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Security

User Management

User management is a web based management system for monitoring, managing and administering users and groups. The user management application manages user profile information, groups and password policies and ensures the security of a user.

User management is integrated with Permission Management (PEM) of the different NetAct tools for the corresponding authorizations to be assigned to users. The authentication of a user is based on user profile information stored in the system specific authentication repository.

The following operations are managed by user management :

Creating, deleting and updating user and login profile

Creating, deleting and updating a group

Importing and Exporting users and permissions

Resetting user passwords

Configuring password policy

Certification Authority

Certification Authority is the tool used to download the security server CA certificates used by the tier1 to communicate con NetAct applications (launch NetAct desktop).

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The primary aim of effective network monitoring is to prevent critical faults in the network and to

identify the problems that directly affect the quality of the service, criteria by which subscribers

judge the quality of the network. If no event reduction techniques are implemented, network

monitoring becomes a reactive process, where an enormous flow of events arrive from all parts of

the network. This reactive job includes:

Filtering the enormous amount of information that is presented by events.

Deciding which of the thousands of events that are visible in the event handling applications

are important.

Making correlations between events and trying to decide which of them are caused by the

same original fault, and grouping those events together.

Finding solutions for the problems that cause the events.

These daily activities require constant and intensive attention in network monitoring. If strategic

decisions have to be made under pressure, there is a high risk that service affecting faults remain

unnoticed or unresolved, which results in a decrease in the quality of service.

The Assurance Desktop of NetAct Advanced Monitor integrates a set of tools to perform

comprehensive event filtering and event correlation, based on rules. These rules can significantly

reduce the event flow towards the User Interface, the most obvious result is the prioritization of

events resulting in a fast fault detection and root cause analysis.

Service monitoring gathers all sorts of information from the network in a holistic way, and can model

the customer’s perception of the service. NetAct Advanced Monitor offers the following set of

functions to monitor services and manage the system:

Defining, Monitoring, Analyzing Services

Reporting on services and their problems

Once a service has been defined, NetAct Advanced Monitor continuously monitors the service.

Monitoring, visualization and analysis are carried out as a permanent process.

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NetAct Advanced Configurator (NAdC) is an optional solution on top of NetAct OSS5.x and NetAct6

& 7 to make a network level workspace for configuration management tasks. NAdC provides

network wide view of configuration management data and workflows, with features such as:

Powerful set of tools: from the smallest of changes to large network retunes, Configurator tool

allows end users to proficiently and accurately perform network configuration management tasks in

a systematic and efficient manner. This provides major OPEX savings while improving the overall

quality of the network.

Network level data storage provides a seamless view to all data from integrated systems and

typical operations and planning team tasks can be performed in one system.

Harmonized network model for the common parameters from all vendors enables working on a

single model instead of managing all the vendor specific models and parameters.

Vendor specific models are providing support for all the same adaptation content for network

elements and releases that is available in integrated OSS/EMS system.

End to end coverage of network management use cases, e.g.: Consistency check and audit of the

network and Border area adjacency management (e.g.: inter-EMS adjacency management)

In practice any user defined task sequence is a candidate for automated single operation with CM

Workflow Manager

Single standard integration point for other OSS systems:

For configuration management other OSS systems do not need to integrate each of the

vendor/technology systems anymore, instead they integrate to one single system: NetAct Advanced

Configurator

Configurator provides standard interfaces (e.g.: Bulk CM XML and CSV) for both import and export

directions. Other OSS systems do not need to care anymore about the variety of proprietary

protocols used by its different providers

Continuously developing Multi-Technology features and synchronized support also with NetAct

OSS5 and NetAct 6 & 7 systems.

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