cpg1076110308 oam convergence in wireless networks en appnote

A P P L I C A T I O N N O T E

OAM Convergence in Wireless Networks

Abstract

Introduction of new wireless devices, combined with growing demand and changing usage behavior of mobile subscribers, increases the pressure on service providers to deliver a high quality of service while maintaining a profitable business. Together with the evolution of backhaul and packet core to IP, more efficient management systems are of paramount importance to address these new challenges.

This document describes how Alcatel-Lucent’s Converged Wireless IP Management solution manages and optimizes network and subscriber experience more efficiently, end-to-end, from the subscriber device to the packet core. It also outlines why innovative monitoring and tight integration can increase the effectiveness of operational processes to significantly reduce total cost of ownership.

Table of contents

1 Increasingdemandforhigherdataspeed

2 Strategyandprinciples

2 Anintegratedmanagementsystem

4 Smallcellmanagement

5 Innovativeandwireless-specificapplications

6 Afield-provenhigh-endoptimizationsuite

6 Radio Network Planner

7 Network Performance Optimizer

8 Self-organizingnetworks

9 IP backhauling and ePC management

10 Introducingsubscriberandapplication-levelmonitoring

12 IntelligentTrafficManagement

13 Conclusion

14 Abbreviations

OAM Convergence in Wireless Networks | Application Note 1

Increasing demand for higher data speed

With the availability of new mobile applications, the telecom market is facing an increasing demand for broadband access with a high Quality of Service (QoS). A common strategy adopted by most operators consists in a) deploying 3G technology in dense urban areas that have a high demand for data throughput and b) complementing this offer with EDGE services on the 2G layer. The combination of both 2G and 3G technologies ensures a good coverage and service continuity while minimizing the total cost of ownership (TCO).

The recent introduction of high-end mobile devices has further increased subscribers’ demand and expectations for new bandwidth-hungry services, which will benefit from the implementation of advanced modulations bringing higher throughput, and the IP backhauling brought by LTE. Depending on markets and time frame, the need for a combination of several technologies will be stronger, driven by subscriber density and investment opportunities, and leading to increased complexity and operational expenses for the management of such networks.

Mobile network operators satisfying tomorrow’s multimedia networks will need to combine wireless assets with end-to-end IP networking and management. To that end, the Alcatel-Lucent High Leverage Network™ (HLN) architecture depicted in Figure 1 addresses the transformation of the backhaul and transport networking elements of a wireless network to a highly scalable and cost-effective IP and MPLS packet-switched infrastructure.

Figure 1. The High Leverage Network™ for wireless

Convergedwireline access

Multi-screen servicesWeb and Enterprise 2.0

Convergedmetro and aggregation

Convergededge

Converged service-awarenetwork management

Convergedbackbone

Converged RAN

Convergedservice control

Residential/Enterprisegateways

Radio access

VDSL/GPON/Ethernet access

Ethernet/MPLS/Optical

Mobilitymanagement

Sessioncontrol

Policymanagement

Service routers

IP/Optical

This converged infrastructure supports current 2G and 3G requirements and the transformation to LTE, while also providing the instrumentation and intelligence required by mobile network operators.

OAM Convergence in Wireless Networks | Application Note2

Strategy and principles

In such a high-demanding context, Alcatel-Lucent has dedicated extensive efforts to develop and consolidate a wide range of multi-standard solutions that will drive operators forward to a winning and cost-effective strategy, thanks to a modular approach that can build on the existing infrastructure. This approach is based on the following three principles:

• Convergence

¬ Common applications, look-and-feel and Northbound Interface standards compliance (3GPP)

¬ Common underlying software assets (components, infrastructure)

¬ Common deployment platforms – hardware, OS (e.g., Solaris, Oracle)

• Completeness

¬ Functional integration optimizing workflow and maximizing automation for lower OPEX/TCO (e.g., tight coupling with Planning, Provisioning and Performance Optimization systems)

¬ Simplified integration with upstream Operational Support Systems (OSS)

• Innovation

¬ Correlation of IP and wireless domains for a more efficient fault detection and service assurance

¬ Advanced wireless-intelligent behavior-based traffic classification and end-to-end network performance monitoring

An integrated management system

The Alcatel-Lucent portfolio comprises a consistent set of products dedicated to the management of the different wireless technologies (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Converging the network management portfolio

9253 OMC-RAN

9153 OMC

9353 WMS

9453 XMS

5620 SAM

5620 SAM

CDMA

GSM

W-CDMA

LTE

IP/ePC

W-CDMA

LTE

IP/ePC

GSM

CDMA

These products have been carefully designed in order to enable interoperation and may be combined together with the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) to constitute a multi-technology management solution, where more than one technology is deployed. It delivers the best combination of commonly shared functions without disruption with the existing management systems.


In addition to managing IP networks, the 5620 SAM is now introducing the management of LTE RAN, and will also incorporate multi-technology support, bringing significant advantages for the operation of, for example, combined LTE/CDMA and LTE/GSM networks.

It is a comprehensive and extremely scalable system that covers the whole spectrum of functions required for an efficient and cost-effective end-to-end management of multitechnology wireless networks.

The Alcatel-Lucent Ultimate Wireless Packet Core (UWPC) extends the capabilities of Alcatel-Lucent’s service-aware, high-performance LTE Evolved Packet Core (ePC) to also support the GPRS Support Node functions of the existing 2.5G/3G network, thus providing a converged packet core for all mobile broadband services.

The 5620 SAM is used to manage the UWPC, enabling end-to-end management of the IP services within the E-UTRAN, backhaul and core networks, as illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3. End-to-end Network Management

SGSN

UTRANUMTS, HSPA

Ultimate wirelesspacket coreMobile backhaul

SGW

5620 SAM

PGW/GGSN

PCRFE-UTRANLTE

GERANGPRS, EDGE

With this converged wireless IP management approach, not only significant savings can be expected for network deployments and migrations but, as well, consistently designed tools and processes can help optimize the operations by reducing training costs and duration.

The 5620 SAM does not only offer integrated management of multiple technologies. It implements a true end-to-end approach that is essential to efficiently addressing new operator challenges, while still delivering many advanced features that can make daily operations simple, secure, and more efficient, such as:

• Advanced role-based security framework and system administration

• Plug-and-play network elements, thus reducing commissioning effort

• Multiple supervision and service assurance modes, combined with the ability to define flexible work zones in order to match any organizational or operational constraints


Small cell management

The Small Cell Management Solution, based on the Alcatel-Lucent 9353 W-CDMA Management System (WMS), has been specially designed to meet the challenges of handling very large numbers of devices, with specific requirements:

• The subscriber is part of the end-to-end service delivery chain

• The number of managed devices is orders of magnitude larger (millions compared to thousands of base stations)

• W-CDMA is a complex technology that requires regular tuning

The Small cell management system combines, as described in Figure 4, the best capabilities of a rich portfolio:

• The 9353 WMS – for state-of-the-art W-CDMA management

• The Motive HDM – optimized for large numbers of home devices – is also the Alcatel-Lucent solution for the management of DSL Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)

Figure 4. The Small cells management system

WMS

W-CDMA

Small cell management

Customer care system

TR-69interface

WMSsmall cells

RANgateways

Smallcell devices

MotiveHDM

The Small cell management system is especially targeting minimum deployment and operational expenses, and can manage millions of self-installed access points, thanks to advanced self-deploying and self-optimizing concepts designed in Bell labs. It features automatic, zero-touch provisioning of small cell devices with no manual setup or installation procedures needed.

Moreover, it can interwork with other occurrences of 9353 WMS in order to keep the Macro cell and the Small cell layers synchronized from a radio configuration parameters standpoint.

Finally, dedicated interfaces allow the Small cell management system to interact with external customer care systems for help-desk support.


Innovative and wireless-specific applications

The Alcatel-Lucent Wireless Management portfolio is not limited to providing smart RAN Operation & Maintenance. It also addresses many of the issues faced by wireless service providers, thanks to a number of capabilities that can hardly be provided by combining several third-party products. This integrated approach brings key advantages over individual third-party products combined with external solutions from IT vendors:

• Fully validated products with guaranteed interoperability not only towards the RAN but as well between the different actors of the network design and optimization process

• Zero delay with the RAN release delivery, where third-party products and tools usually require a minimum six-month shift

• Wireless applications and tools are designed on the basis of direct customers requirements, and the knowledge and experience from Alcatel-Lucent experts who are continuously deploying and optimizing the corresponding RAN hardware and software

• Direct interfaces between the various parts of the system drastically increase overall efficiency via seamless information exchange instead of requiring manual inputs or work-orders, or late and expensive adaptations involving complex subcontracted projects

This tight integration of components offers a unique advantage when it comes to multi-technology networks. As an example, 2G and 3G systems are complementary technologies offering voice and data service continuity to the end user.

However, inter-system mobility implies a tailored neighboring plan declaration and a permanent synchronization between the two systems, as illustrated in Figure 5. In order to maintain an optimum quality of service and continuous mobility between 2G and 3G layers, the RAN must be synchronized with the changes made to the cellular design parameters of the other RAN (e.g., new Broadcast Control Channel [BCCH] plan on the 2G side or scrambling code plan update on the 3G side). Note that similar interfaces are used for synchronizing 2G/3G and 4G neighbor cells, in addition to the Automatic Neighbor Relationship (ANR) capability available for LTE.

Figure 5. Inter-RAT synchronization for mobility

2G RAN

Create/modify cell

3G RAN

Update RANconfigurationinformation

Border cells definitions

This improves the overall quality of service, by reducing the rate of inter-technology handover failures, while reducing the OPEX by avoiding the needs for manual housekeeping on the neighboring systems.


A field-proven high-end optimization suite

In addition to the unified management system described previously, a complete set of monitoring and optimization companion products is available to match the most stringent requirements from highly demanding operators.

RadioNetworkPlannerThe Alcatel-Lucent 9955 Radio Network Planner (RNP) offers radio network planning services for the whole range of wireless technologies (GSM, CDMA, EvDO, W-CDMA, LTE…). It supports planning tasks such as initial planning, network design, rollout and capacity planning. Direct interfaces to the Alcatel-Lucent Network Management systems drastically shorten the deployment and extension phases, as the management systems can be directly fed with the radio design data, enabling a more reliable, faster network roll-out.

In addition to a highly effective graphical user interface (illustrated by the screen capture on Figure 6), RNP can be delivered with a number of advanced modules, thereby deriving additional savings from several complex areas, such as:

• Coverage optimization

• Automated frequency planning

• Interference matrixes calculation based on field Radio Measurement Statistics

Figure 6. The Alcatel-Lucent 9955 Radio Network Planner

A comprehensive set of high value-added features are provided, including urban prediction modules based on 3D ray-tracing techniques and a highly sophisticated automatic frequency planning module.

Optional modules are also available for:

• Building Database Management and Urban Propagation Model

• Automatic coverage and capacity optimization

• Microwave link planning


NetworkPerformanceOptimizerThe Alcatel-Lucent 9959 Network Performance Optimizer (NPO), massively adopted and deployed in more than 150 networks, is now available for multiple wireless technologies (GSM/EDGE, W-CDMA/HSPA, LTE). Due to its quick adoption rate and numerous deployments, it has been used in a variety of different situations and can therefore demonstrate a high reliability and performance level, while perfectly meeting the most specific needs and requirements, from advanced diagnosis and repair to high-level executive reports. Unlike other performance monitoring systems, it has been specifically designed to meet wireless operators’ requirements since the very beginning. It is used on a daily basis to ensure the highest network QoS by such a large number of wireless operators, including some of the biggest Tier-1 operators.

Figure 7. The Alcatel-Lucent 9959 Network Performance Optimizer

The 9959 NPO features a number of innovative approaches that drastically reduce the overhead of manipulating huge amounts of data and allows users to immediately focus on the most important information, thanks to a number of advanced methods and tools, based on the combination of performance measurements, configuration information, and supervision data.

As the same product supports the different Radio Access technologies, once trained for a given RAN, users can easily use 9959 NPO for a different RAN. This allows significant savings in terms of training, while enabling users to leverage their experience when introducing a new radio technology.

The Alcatel-Lucent 9959 NPO significantly improves the efficiency of the optimization process. Thanks to the numerous features helping the operator quickly identify the main causes for degraded quality, many of the SON targets brought by LTE are already addressed in the context of the GSM and WCDMA management systems, including:

• Identification of worst cells regarding a selectable set of performance metrics

• Automated diagnosis performed on areas requiring improvements

• Assisted identification of sub-optimal adjacency relationship parameters


Tuning sessions automatically produced with recommended parameter setting changes, also called Assisted Tuning, represents a significant step towards the self-optimizing networks and is already available for GSM and W-CDMA RAN. This capability will further enhance self-optimizing processes implemented in LTE, adding open-loop optimization with an end-to-end perspective.

NPO also provides — via the optional Wireless Call Trace (WCT) and Per Call Measurement Data (PCMD) — a call-based analyzer that processes data from the WCDMA and LTE network elements, targeting call troubleshooting and handover/mobility improvement.

These features mainly offer:

• Mobility optimization and call failure analysis, allowing operators to efficiently adjust the handover parameters

• Evaluation of the self-optimization algorithms efficiency (for LTE networks), allowing operators to assess how the SON mechanisms are performing

• Statistical analysis of call failures according to different criteria (location, failure types, signal level, etc.)

• Detailed call analysis, allowing operators to identify call failure reasons

The 9959 NPO can also perform network availability analysis, allowing operators to measure and continuously monitor loss of services, providing valuable statistics in terms of overall quality of the network. Both planned and unplanned unavailability periods can be analyzed, together with the network nodes involved, helping characterize the source of such outages.

Self-organizing networks

Wireless access technologies are becoming more complex due to increasingly sophisticated radio modulations which improve the spectral efficiency or advanced antenna systems used to reduce interferences. As a result, relying on manual tuning and optimization becomes more and more expensive, and less and less efficient. Additional reasons for increasingly difficult network tuning include the following situations:

• As several radio access technologies are being deployed on the same coverage areas, subscriber equipments will move from one RAN to another as a consequence of handovers, as a result of cell overload or coverage holes. This requires a combined optimization and more coordination from the different systems.

• When new sites are deployed, a re-planning of the network is needed, resulting in parameter configuration changes, including changes for the existing sites. Such changes cannot avoid impacts on the traffic, often requiring a few days to recover the same level of quality.

• Maintenance operations often require sites to be shut down, producing negative impacts on the traffic, including for neighboring sites that become overloaded.

Figure 8. SON automates and accelerates the network lifecycle

SON

Measure

Plan

ConfigureOptimize


The Small cell product range has required a completely disruptive approach regarding deployment easiness, as it is intended for installation at subscriber premises, by the customer itself. Highly innovative self-installing and self-configuring mechanisms have been designed by Bell Labs (Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm), allowing operators to deliver early implementation of the SON concepts within the W-CDMA small cell base stations that are available today.

Thanks to that, Alcatel-Lucent has developed unmatched skills in implementing self-optimization features that were used for designing the LTE network elements with extremely efficient and reliable algorithms. Alcatel-Lucent’s comprehensive range of optimization tools represents a considerable advantage — when deploying these self-optimization features — in order to assess their benefits and check their stability. NPO provides powerful KPI processing tools that are associated to trend analyzers, helping observe the global network QoS and identify any service-affecting situations. This will be a key element to foster a wide acceptance of the SON-based innovations.

IPbackhaulingandePCmanagementOne of the key benefits of the IP transmission backbone is to bring a considerable simplification of the backhauling while drastically reducing its cost. However, when it comes to the total cost of ownership of the solution, a fully integrated management becomes a key success factor. In order to offer the best possible end-to-end solution, Alcatel-Lucent integrates its best IP/MPLS management tools with the Wireless Management solution. These tools allow the service provider to isolate faults and provision transport services quickly, with an end-to-end, service-aware perspective (as illustrated in Figure 9), rather than time-consuming connection-by-connection, element-by-element fault tracing and provisioning, which are prone to errors.

Figure 9. Multi-layer, service-aware transmission management

Transport services

Service

IP/MPLS

Physical


The 5620 SAM manages the Alcatel-Lucent Service Router portfolio, as well as Microwave Packet Radio and optical switches. It provides integrated element, network and service management, not only to the IP/MPLS network elements, but as well manages the ePC network elements (MME, S-GW, P-GW, etc.) and the RAN elements in order to offer a completely integrated service assurance thanks to a single supervision, alarm management and OSS gateway function.

The 5620 SAM Service Test Manager and the service-aware Fault Management toolset offercomprehensive service fault management, service impact analysis and service topology map features to reduce the mean time to repair (MTTR) and SLA penalties by providing:

Reliable Network & Service Assurance

• Preventing service issues before customers are affected using proactive scheduled OAM tests with threshold alerts

• Quickly identifying and resolving problems with correlated problem detection

• Visualizing real-time configuration and status using topology views for routing, MPLS, VPN services, and composites with multiple stitched services

• Leveraging extensive statistics for SLA and performance monitoring, accounting and billing, and application-level assurance

Accelerated Network & Service Provisioning

• Quickly provisioning device, network, routing protocols and services using an easy-to-use, customizable GUI

• Minimizing operator errors with the use of templates and scripts

Introducing subscriber and application-level monitoring

The expansion of data services is essential to the evolution of the wireless market. As a result, operators need to understand the complex relationship of subscribers, their applications (e-mail, social applications, multimedia, ...) and how they are performing in conjunction to the end-to-end (RAN to back haul to packet core to the internet) mobile data network and the critical mobile resources such as bandwidth, signalling and airtime.

The Alcatel-Lucent 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG) provides unique insights into the relationships among mobile data application and device traffic, network loading and performance, and end-user quality of experience (QoE). The 9900 WNG gives wireless service providers the ability to quickly identify the root causes of subscriber service issues or network performance issues, rapidly assess the impact of new applications and devices on their network, more accurately forecast future capacity needs, and improve customer-care capabilities.


The 9900 WNG integrates advanced wireless-intelligent behaviour-based traffic classification with end-to-end network performance monitoring into one system — giving wireless service providers intelligent, correlated information across both the IP and RF domains. Figure 12 shows the network topology, which is auto-discovered by the 9900 WNG.

Figure 12. 9900 WNG Network topology view

By monitoring both the IP and RF domains, the 9900 WNG is able to compile a wide range of metrics across multiple dimensions from both a network and subscriber perspective. The 9900 WNG can be used by many groups including network operations, network planning, customer care, and sales and marketing. Figure 13 shows the application view provided by the 9900 WNG.

Figure 13. 9900 WNG Network forensics application view


The 9900 WNG can also identify a wide range of performance issues associated with the subscriber’s data session, including issues such as poor cell performance, high packet loss at a RNC, inability to launch a data session, DNS failures, poor-performing device and more. Figure 14 shows the subscriber-specific flow and session level view.

Figure 14. 9900 WNG - Subscriber forensics flow and session level view

This ability to quickly analyze and correlate data spanning subscriber experience, network performance and network load, makes the 9900 WNG truly unique in the industry.

Intelligent Traffic Management

Alcatel-Lucent’s Intelligent Traffic Management (ITM) solution is a perfect example of how mobile service providers can leverage the intelligence embedded in their network to provide much more than basic congestion control. ITM ensures customer satisfaction and reduces operating costs by protecting the Quality of Experience (QoE) of subscribers while maintaining the integrity of the network. The solution combines the real-time network intelligence provided by the award- winning Alcatel-Lucent 9900 WNG with scalable policy control offered by the Alcatel-Lucent 5780 Dynamic Services Controller (DSC). See Figure 15 for an illustration of the ITM process.

Figure 15. The Intelligent Traffic Management (ITM) process

Packet core

9900 WirelessNetwork Guardian

5780 DynamicServices Controller

Anomaly notification

Processand trigger

Enforce and deliver

Monitorand analyze

Radio accessnetwork

Backhaul


Unique in its ability to understand the dynamics of wireless broadband data, the 9900 WNG correlates applications to device-specific IP packet flows and understands how every IP packet impacts wireless resources. This true end-to-end intelligence enables identification of specific network anomalies down to the specific device and application. The 5780 DSC leverages this intelligence with flexible business rules that can be dynamically triggered.

With full support of multivendor and multi-technology networks, ITM empowers wireless service providers to proactively ensure a positive customer experience while maintaining efficient use of network resources.

Conclusion

Alcatel-Lucent offers a unified management solution covering a large set of domains. Backed by a set of highly specialized analysis and optimization tools, this comprehensive portfolio is capable of meeting the highest standards in terms of efficiency, availability and ability to reduce operational costs for operators, while providing a stepwise evolution path that protects customer investment.

With a strong emphasis on an end-to-end approach, important aspects such as IP transmission backhaul management and network instrumentation (enabling a subscriber-, service- and application-oriented control) are addressed consistently with the High Leverage Networks concepts that are being orchestrated in the whole portfolio of products and solutions as summarized in Figure 16.

Figure 16. Converging Radio, IP and Core to offer a consistent, comprehensive solution

Accelerate massrollouts

Secure upgradesand migrations

Simulate propagationand traffic

Optimizecoverage

Streamlinetrace collection

Identifynetwork issues

Share expertsknowledge

Leverage experiencevia automated tools

Assess “unfriendly”applications

Identify abusivesubscribers

Improves the visibilityon network usage

Brings devicelevel statistics

Shorten networkplanning phase

Accelerate trafficincrease

Avoid expensivedrive tests

“Every vendor claims to have the best OAM solution; what we have seen from NPO, shows that the tool capabilitieswere specified by real users to match their day-to-day work requirements. This is the type of tools that we need”

– Network Manager, NA Operator

Achieve better QoS and QoE,thus retaining subscribers

Refinetraffic models

Radio networkplanning

Configurationand provisioning

Wireless traceanalysis

Performanceoptimization

5620 SAM

Networkintelligence

Per callmeasurements

LTE ePC Backhaul W-CDMA GSMCDMA


Abbreviations3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

BCCH Broadcast Control Channel

CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

CPE Customer Premises Equipment

DoS Denial of Service

DPI Deep Packet Inspection

DSC Dynamic Services Controller

EDGE Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution GSM

ePC Evolved Packet Core

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

HLN High Leverage Network

ITM Intelligent Traffic Management

LTE Long Term Evolution

MPLS Multi-Protocol Label Switchin

MTTR mean time to repair

NPO Network Performance Optimizer

OAM Operation Administration & Maintenance

OPEX Operational Expenses

OS Operating System

OSS Operation Support Systems

P2P Peer-to-Peer

PGW Packet Data Network Gateway

QoE Quality of Experience

QoS Quality of Service

RAN Radio Access Network

RAT Radio Access Technology

RNP Radio Network Planner

ROI Return On investment

TCO total cost of ownership

UE User Equipment

UWPC Ultimate Wireless Packet Core

WCT Wireless Call Trace

WNG Wireless Network Guardian

www.alcatel-lucent.com Alcatel, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and the Alcatel-Lucent logo are trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. Copyright © 2011 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved. CPG1076110308 (04)

cpg1076110308 oam convergence in wireless networks en appnote

Documents

session level

radio access

small cell

based traffic

wireless service

lte network

network design

wireless technologies