Overview

Data Networks Aren't What They Used to Be

Network evolution, new access technologies, personalized services and differentiated billing create new challenges for service providers. Today, subscriber information is scattered across a multitude of network elements and operational systems, making subscriber management and service deployment more complex for Network Administrators as well as for BSS systems such as Billing, Provisioning and Order Management.

Figure 1 – Access in 1999

Figure 2 - Access Today

Network Evolution

Not so long ago, a subscriber had one single identity (its PPP username), one service (Internet), one bandwidth and one billing method (flat rate).  Provisioning it merely required enabling the DSLAM port and setting the bandwidth at the ATM VC, and real-time control meant occasionally changing its speed, enabling or disabling it. 

But that situation is rapidly changing. The advent of triple-play introduces a “multidimensional” subscriber comprising several clients/applications and several services (data, voice and video), each with potentially separate enrollment/admission, provisioning and possibly different bandwidth, SLA and billing method (e.g., pre- or post-paid). Such multidimensional identity/service/QoS/Billing means new complexity to provisioning as well as control.

Along DSL, additional access technologies such as Ethernet, Mobile data, WiMAX and Public WLAN are added, sometimes into the same network. This requires more access elements and control systems to be provisioned and managed. Different access methods may have different subscriber identifications, different bandwidth constraints or billing models, as subscribers are used to consume different services in different ways.

To support Mobility, multi-access networks sometimes need to recognize apparently different identities as one subscriber in the network. Network elements and Back-office systems need to be provisioned and managed accordingly, to allow proper service handoff and continuity (e.g., UMA, Access Roaming). Billing systems should be provisioned as well, to enable consolidated billing.

TR-101 defined a migration path from ATM to Ethernet-Based DSL Aggregation.  In this new Access topology, where connectivity between the Access Node and the BRAS is Ethernet-based rather than ATM, control and enforcement point moves to the Edge of the network. As a result, elements such as BRAS, AAA and LDAP require to allow flexible and distributed provisioning. Bandwidth on Demand, for instance, requires Access to stay wide open while control is done by the BRAS, AAA and LDAP at the Edge.

Service providers benefit from personalized services such as Network-Based Storage, Personal Firewall and Parental Control. Such services are implemented using next-gen BRAS and Deep Packet Inspection elements (DPI). These elements provide real-time application-awareness and control that are the enablers of services such as Personal Firewall and support per-use or real-time billing. At the same time, these are sensitive and complex real-time elements that constantly require updated subscriber information to support service and billing.

The need for usage-based, pre- or post- billing is supported by AAA and DPI that provide granular usage records, Session controllers that enable real-time session management, and Billing and Mediation Agents (BMA) that support pre- or post- billing.  Such elements require up-to-date and some time real-time subscriber information.

Alongside personalized services, service providers can offer non-facility or third party services as well. Services, application or content, such as Skype, Joost, Gaming, P2P and the likes further the need for application awareness, to enable offering services such as “Get better QoS on Skype” or “Get higher bandwidth on Joost”. Such services, when offered by service providers, add more service properties to the subscriber’s profile, that need be to be maintained, provisioned, controlled and managed.

As service providers strive to offer new revenue-generating services, modern networks change to match. However the cumulative effect of such market and network transitions makes today’s network complex to install, integrate, operate and update with new services.   Next-gen network topologies, new back-office systems, advanced billing methods and personalized services calls a new, holistic approach when it comes to subscriber and service management.

NeXus by ComAbility is a subscribers and services operational platform that was designed to provide a framework to consolidate every subscriber- and service- related activity.

neXus is a new approach to subscriber and service operations, enabling service providers to overcome their current operational hurdles while helping them launch, provision, monitor and bill for every service, from the simplest to the most complex.