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c S E R V I C E A S S U R A N C E
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Cable Operators Up-the-Anti
As cable opportunity by offering wireline, wireless, - a tedious, time-consuming process
MSOs target
data and managed services including resulting in brittle integrations.
security, productivity, virtual IT, Web
the lucrative
applications and service bundles. Cable MSOs need a performance
Many customers are increasingly management solution which simplifies
SMB market,
interested in value-added services. the process of gathering and analysing
data from all network and IT resources,
they face stiff
How can MSOs maintain momentum giving them an end-to-end view of
in this ever shifting SMB market? service offerings and accommodating
competition
Those catering to the low end of the rapidly growing usage and subscribers.
SMB sector must ensure their offerings
from telcos
for commercial services provide a Automated Cross-
superior quality of service, high voice Silo Monitoring and
Amir Mahmood
quality and no delays or outages. Mid- Troubleshooting
sized and larger SMBs expect service
suggests they
providers to offer stringent service Performance management solutions
level agreements (SLAs), plus visibility automatically incorporate data from
compete by
into SLA compliance. So, MSOs need all network elements across silos and
performance management solutions business groups associated with all the
offering lower
that can ensure service quality as well components supporting a particular
as SLA compliance and reporting as service to provide a single view of the
cost service
part of their Operations Support System end-to-end service. This view should
(OSS) and service assurance systems. enable MSOs to monitor services in
bundles with
real time to proactively prevent service
Multi Vendor Environments outages and troubleshoot problems.
higher service As cable MSOs have implemented To provide this service-level view,
quality.
carrier-Ethernet networks and Next- performance management tools should
generation networking (NGN), platforms incorporate all network elements
that allow them to offer VoIP, IP VPN through support for key cable and
Service-centric performance and other services that appeal to other industry standards, including
management solutions enable MSOs the SMB market, they have added Data Over Cable Systems Interface
to meet businesses’ service quality considerable complexity to what was Specification (DOCSIS); PacketCable;
expectations. The small to medium- once an analog cable system. Networks session initiation protocol (SIP) and
sized business (SMB), market has long now include cable modem termination Metropolitan Ethernet Forum (MEF).
represented a monopoly for traditional systems (CMTSs); multiservice switches; Since today’s networks typically
telcos. Yet most have focused on Fortune cable modems; routers; firewalls; host incorporate thousands of elements,
1000 companies and residential markets, digital terminals (HDTs); transponders; the solution must automatically
leaving SMBs with a dearth of affordable application servers; accounting, discover all of these resources,
service alternatives. Consisting of authorisation and authentification (AAA) collect, normalise and present the
companies with less than 100 employees servers; IP VPNs; ELAs and wireless performance data for analysis using
and spending nearly $50 billion annually technologies from multiple vendors. the appropriate Key Quality Indicators
on wireline and wireless services, SMBs (KQIs) and Key Performance Indicators
represent an attractive opportunity for Many of these network components (KPIs). It must also automatically
cable Multi-Service Operators (MSOs). require specially designed element track ongoing system changes.
management systems. To gain an
As they have increasingly added cable end-to-end view of their network Management by exception capabilities
modem and voice over IP (VoIP), and plant health, cable MSOs have enables administrators to set
technologies to their cable plant, resorted to homegrown integrations acceptable thresholds for KPIs and
MSOs have begun to seize the SMB between these management systems alert network administrators when
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