Bull Unveils Strategic Direction to Support Service Assurance within its OSS Management Software for Telecommunication Service Providers - Product Announcement

Cambridge Telcom Report, Dec 13, 1999

Setting its sights squarely on the "Holy Grail" of OSS management -- IP service assurance -- BullSoft, the worldwide software division of Bull, announced Tuesday in the United States at TeleManagement World its intention to expand its OpenMaster for Telecom software suite to include a full IP service assurance capability.

BullSoft plans to meet this objective by adding and integrating service management functions to complement existing product strengths in managing mixed voice and IP-based services. Continuing its partnership strategy, BullSoft will work with other software specialists, to provide a complete service-oriented application portfolio, mainly in the service fulfillment area.

One such partnership already in place is with Architel Systems Corporation. At TeleManagement World, BullSoft and Architel are demonstrating interoperability of their respective automated provisioning and service assurance management software capabilities in the Catalyst Showcase Area at the conference.

OpenMaster for Telecom currently addresses the challenge of large service providers and equipment manufacturers who need to support and manage end-to-end the quality of service of multi-vendor and multi-service networks such as frame relay, ATM, IP services, voice/data, wireless and multimedia. With the rapid development of the Net Economy, telecommunication operators need to benefit from new generation management software to speed up the deployment, manage quality of service and reduce the cost of maintaining these converged network services.

"OpenMaster for Telecom provides a unique foundation for telecommunication service providers to develop IP service assurance solutions for their next generation of OSS," said Jason Stringer, regional director of BullSoft's OpenMaster business unit in the U.S. "It will fully leverage network convergence by facilitating increased integration, automation, control and flow-through provisioning to create a highly flexible, highly scalable architecture for managing complex, global, end-to-end digital networks."

BullSoft will be delivering comprehensive service assurance functions that include the measurement of Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Quality of Service (QOS) indicators, providing reports to both service providers and customers, on the actual levels of service achieved. BullSoft will extend its existing advanced problem and fault management handling software, which currently addresses problems mainly related to networks and network-elements, to include service problem resolution functions, thereby providing proactive service level assurance.

"As competition intensifies, the ability to deliver and maintain guaranteed consistent quality across the voice, video, data, and other advanced value-added service domains is a fundamental element of differentiation between service providers" Stringer said. "Telecommunications service providers who can deliver high quality services and provide a guaranteed quality of service at an acceptable price will have a strong competitive edge. OpenMaster for Telecom will help them achieve this."

OpenMaster for Telecom Meets Service Providers' Infrastructure Management Needs

The forthcoming service assurance capability will leverage existing customer-proven features of OpenMaster for Telecom. TMN-compliant, and incorporating technologies such as CORBA and Java, OpenMaster for Telecom combines integrated network and service management with the scalability, high availability and security needed in a service-oriented operations environment.

The software has acquired strong recognition in the telecommunications management market, delivering solutions to such leading service providers as Sprint, France Telecom, SITA, Intermedia Communications, Deutsche Telecom, Ericsson, Mobilstar, Navitar, Telebras, Telia, Japan Telecom and Telecom New Zealand.

OpenMaster for Telecom is an element and network management platform that enables telecom service providers, equipment manufacturers and systems integrators to meet the growing demand for integrated and automated management of networks and services. It is also designed to enable service providers to support and manage the quality of service of multi-vendor and multi-service networks, such as frame relay, ATM, IP services, voice/data, wireless and multimedia by providing end-to-end management from a single point. OpenMaster for Telecom is TMN compliant and incorporates advanced technologies such as CORBA and Java. Key components of OpenMaster for Telecom include: o Advanced Fault Management functions that are based on an expert engine with intelligent rules for event correlation and root cause analysis, which provides a single, standard alarm interface, suppresses duplicate alarms, performs temporal analysis and sophisticated filtering to identify impacts on global quality of service, and which only passes relevant information to operators. They facilitate fault recovery by automating fault/event recognition, automated problem resolution and workflow management.