Supporting Service Quality
Assurance via Trouble
Management
Dr Richard Sinnott
GMD Fokus
Berlin, Germany
MMNS 2000
Outline
 Deregulation and opening-up of telecommunications market
offers means service providers have to be more competitive
 portfolio of services, add-on services offered
 cost of access and usage of services offered
 quality of services offered
MMNS 2000
Page 2
Intentions of FlowThru and Demo
 Intention of FlowThru to develop:
 open solution
 international standards (X.790)
 make maximum use of existing technologies
 results of international projects, e.g. Susie, Prospect, P612,...
 be re-usable
 through generic trouble handling components and gateways
 Demonstrated through exchange and tracking of trouble tickets
between customers and cooperating providers and impacts of
troubles on subscribers
MMNS 2000
Page 3
Overview of System to be Demonstrated
 TINA (CORBA) based environment (Y.TSP)
 support subscription, access, usage, charging of TINA services
 Web based MusicShop service integrated into Y.TSP
 allow Musicians/Consumers to up/download Music
 Simulated international ATM network
 to support end-end connectivity requirements of MusicShop
service and its customers
 Service and connectivity level trouble ticket handling
components
 Gateways to support interworking of TMN/CMIP-CORBA
based management systems
MMNS 2000
Page 4
The Basic Idea of Trouble Tickets
 Offer a means to deal with problems that might arise, e.g.
software or hardware failures
 reporting by customers/providers of (potential?) problems
 tracking status or escalating problems
 lifecycle of troubles monitored/logged, e.g. when trouble
identified, found, when cleared/resolved, by whom, ...
 basis for determining impacts of troubles, e.g. discounts to be
given once problem resolved
 Problems might not be absolute failure, e.g. decreased
performance than what “expected”
 requires expectations of service are known and agreed upon!
 achieved through service level agreement (SLA)
MMNS 2000
Page 5
Service Level Agreemeents
 Agreed upon between subscribers and providers
 Kept as properties of service and user subscription profiles
 kept in TINA subscription components
 For demo consider small set of SLA properties
 maximum time to repair service
 minimum time between failures
 service availability over some period
 Violations of agreements result in discounts being given for
service/connectivity usage
 Ranges of discounts given, e.g. the longer the problem exists,
the more discount is given
MMNS 2000
Page 6
Architecture of TINA Environment
access
Retailer
Consumer
access
session components
Service
GUIs
Service
GUIs
access
components
Subscription
Accounting
IDS
Service
TTR
Service
MS
Service
Service
GUIs
service session
MMNS 2000
Page 7
State Diagram for a Trouble Ticket
re je c t
c re a te
c re a te
disa ble d
que ue d
op en
ope n/a c tive
d e fe r
c le a r
re le a se
re o p e n
de fe rre d
c le a re d
c a nc e l
c a nc e l
c lo se
d e le te
c a nc e l
c lose d
MMNS 2000
Page 8
Structure of MusicShop Service
 Web based music storage service integrated into Y.TSP
 registered with SLAs in TINA subscription
 interworks with TINA accounting for normal service charges
 Implemented upon Oracle database technology
 Oracle Application Server, Java/CORBA Cartridge
 Implements fault management system
 based on subset of TMF SMART Customer-Service Provider
Trouble Ticketing Interface (more later)
 Implements proxy for receiving failure notifications from ATM
connectivity
MMNS 2000
Page 9
Structure of TTRS Service
 Generic TINA trouble ticket handling component integrated
into Y.TSP
 interworks with TINA subscription and accounting
 user sessions with TTRS automatically started when user
starts access session
 services with trouble reporting/reception capabilities
 Implemented using Remedy Action Request System (ARS)
 generic help desk solution used for management of service
trouble tickets
 CORBA wrapper for ARS based on TMF SMART Group
CORBA Customer-Service Provider Trouble Administration
MMNS 2000
Page 10
CTT_Cust
CTT_Cust
TTRCreate
TTRCancel
TTRModify
TTRStatusTrack
TTRVerify
TTRView
TTRCreate
TTRCancel
TTRModify
TTRStatusTrack
TTRVerify
TTRView
CORBA
PTR_Notify
PTR_Notify
PTRCancelNotify
PTRCreationNotify
TTRModificationNotify
PTRCancelNotify
PTRCreationNotify
TTRModificationNotify
TTR_Notify
TTR_Notify
TTRCancelNotify
TTRCloseOutNotify
TTRCreationNotify
TTRDeletionNotify
TTRModificationNotify
TTRStatusUpdateNotify
TTRCancelNotify
TTRCloseOutNotify
TTRCreationNotify
TTRDeletionNotify
TTRModificationNotify
TTRStatusUpdateNotify
client
server
MMNS 2000
Page 11
Service Provider
Customer
TMF SMART Group CORBA Customer-Service
Provider Trouble Administration Specification
Example of SMART IDL
enum CustCreateType { CCALocationAccessAddress,CCALocationAccessHours,
CCALocationAccessperson,CCAlternateManagerContactPerson,
CCAuthorizationList,CCCommitmentTimeRequest, CCEscalationList,
CCCustomerRoleAssignment,CCCustomerWorkCenter,CCTspPriority,
CCCustTroubleTickNum,CCPerceivedTroubleSeverity,CCSuspectObjectList,
CCTroubleDetectionTime,CCTroubleObjectAccessFromTime,
CCTroubleObjectAccessHours,CCTroubleObjectAccessToTime};
struct CustCreateStruct{CustCreateType
any
ccType;
ccValue;};
typedef sequence <CustCreateStruct> CustCreateList;
void TTRCreate(
in TTRType::AdditionalTroubleInfoList addTroubleInfoList, //strings
in TTRType::TroubleObject troubleObject, //managed object in trouble(string)
in TTRType::TroubleType troubleType,
//reported trouble category (long)
in TTRType::CustCreateList custCreateList,
//attributes
out string tRID,
// trouble identifier
out TTRType::CustCreateOutList custCreateOutList)
//attributes
raises (CreateFailed);
Page 12
MMNS 2000
Introduction to Demo Scenarios
 Assumptions (realised by other part of FlowThru)
 Platform started and components available
 user/initial agents, subscription, accounting, trouble ticket
handling component
 MusicShop and ATM service successfully registered in
subscription
 Users have subscribed to MusicShop running over ATM service
over particular virtual path
 Appropriate SLAs have been set for subscribers of MusicShop
running over ATM service over particular virtual path
 ATM service configured with topology given previously
MMNS 2000
Page 13
User Contacts Provider and Starts MusicShop
Consumer
TTRS joined
Service Provider
log in ok
automatically
Net
scape
log
list
start
in
subscribed
MusicShop
to serviceservices
provider
service
download
music
search music
MMNS 2000
Restricted
access
MusicShop
Page 14
Service Provider Identified Trouble with Automatic
Problem Resolution, Verification and Discounting
Consumer
Service Provider
notified service
notified
MusicShop
note
send
check
create
who
trouble
time
discounts
has
whether
trouble
trouble
an
repaired,
who subscribes
needs
has
problem
tickets
SLAs
active
to
reported
accounting
repaired
violated
(queued)
(opened)
session
verification
Net
scape
user
notify
verifies
users
that
trouble
service
notify
notify
users
users
that
TTtrouble
opened
repaired
now
works
andof
needs
correctly
verify
and
ticket
being
closed
repaired
notify
users
TT creation
MMNS 2000
MusicShop
Page 15
Customer Identified Problem with MusicShop with
Verification Required and Discounting Incurred
Consumer
Service Provider
notified problem
notify
note
send
check
create
who
trouble
subscriber?
trouble
trouble
time
MusicShop
discounts
has
whether
trouble
trouble
tickets
ticket
an
resolved,
found, being
needs
tickets
SLAs
active
fault
to reported
accounting
repaired
others?
cleared
closed
manager
violated
(queued)
(opened)
session
repaired
verify
Net
scape
notify
user
notify
notify
verifies
users
users
users
that
that
trouble
trouble
trouble
service
found
user
download
reports
music
problem
notify
users
that
TTverify
created
repaired
now
ticket
works
repair
andclosed
needs
started
correctly
notify
users
that
TT
opened
(create
TT)
MMNS 2000
MusicShop
Page 16
Remote Connectivity Provider Identified Trouble
with No Verification and Discounting
Consumer
Net
scape
Service Provider
notify
users
trouble
notify
users
trouble
found
notifyrepair
usersstarted
TT created
repaired,
verify
not
needed
inform service
inform
update
trouble
TT
service
status
ticket
provider
affects?
trouble
created
TT
TT
cleared
(opened)
system
system
TT
(queued)
ticketing system
GW
Trouble
Ticketing
System
inform
inform
TT created
TT
TT
remote
remote
affects?
status
TT
TT
TT
cleared
(queued)
(opened)
system
system
system
update
X.COOP
X.790
NEM
trouble
change
troubletickets
status
ticket
active
subscribers?
TTs sessions?
cleared
created
createdTTs
(queued)
(queued)
X.790
Trouble
Ticketing fault
management
trouble
trouble
TT
inform
inform
created
TT
repaired
found,
local
TT
TT
affects?
opened
System
system informed
norepair
verify
(queued)
TT
system
cleared
system
system
started
needed
Fault Mgt
System
Fault Mgt
System
NMS
NMS
NEM
NEM
NEM
NEM
problem
monitored
NEM
Cust
MMNS 2000
Page 17
MS
Conclusions
 TINA based service provisioning environment
 Open trouble ticket exchange between autonomous
organisational domains via TMN (CMIP) and
TMF (Corba) Standards
 Seamless problem administration across CORBA and CMIP
management systems (TMN/Corba Gateway)
 Flexible integration between service delivery and
service and network management systems
 Integration with well established in-house problem handling
system (Remedy ARS)
 SLA Handling & Discounting
MMNS 2000
Page 18