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Product Whitepaper
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
2
Version Date Modified by Comment
0.1 2004.03.15 Dominik Niekowal Document created
0.2 2004.03.16 Dominik Niekowal Comments incorporated after internal review
2.0 2004.03.18 Dominik Niekowal Document revision
2.1 2004.04.14 Bartosz Domagaa Modifications based on the Functional
Description 2.2
3.0 2006.07.11 Micha Zajczkowski Template, layout and type change.
Rebranding.
3.1 2007.01.22 Micha Zajczkowski Minor corrections.
3.2 2008.01.10 Micha Zajczkowski Document update
Document identification CA/304/PMS/040315/DN/1
Version 3.2
Revised on 2008-05-28
Number of pages 13
Status Confidential
Author Comarch S.A.
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
3
2000-2008 Comarch S.A.
All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be copied, distributed, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language without the prior written permission of Comarch S.A. The manufacturer has made every effort to ensure that the instructions contained in the documents are adequate and free of errors and omissions. The manufacturer's liability for any errors in the documents is limited to the correction of the errors. The manufacturer reserves rights to change the documents without notice. Some parts of the documents may not follow the current version of the software.
The documents have been prepared to be used by professional and properly trained personnel, and the customer assumes full responsibility when using them. The manufacturer welcomes customer comments as part of the process of continual development and improvement of the documentation in the best way possible from the user's viewpoint. Please submit your comments to:
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction............................................................................................................ 5
2. Comarch Network Performance Management functional features overview......... 7
2.1. Data Models configuration ................................................................................ 8
2.2. Data collection .................................................................................................. 9
2.3. Real-time performance monitoring .................................................................10
2.4. Long-term data analyses.................................................................................12
2.5. Interoperability with other components of the Comarch OSS Suite ..............12
3. Benefits .................................................................................................................13
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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1. Introduction
Managing the performance of a telecommunication or IT network is a key strategic
activity that determines success in todays business world. From the business perspective, effective and accurate performance management leads to network investments improvements and
increasing customer satisfaction. The only way to build strong relations with customers and to
maintain high levels of customer satisfaction is to have your network and IT systems running optimally.
The goal of Comarch Network Performance Management (PM) is to provide a centralized
point of operators performance policy monitoring and network performance reporting. Performance Management requires specific tools for each technology domain, both in
terms of analytical tools for data post-processing and data collection. In most cases deployment
of performance management system which covers end-to-end operators business processes requires integration of multiple products. Because of it, Comarch PM System supports modular
architecture which allows Telco Operator to tailor system according to his network infrastructure and provides open interfaces for integration with external systems.
Comarchs solution modularity can be discussed at two levels: the whole Comarch OSS
Suite and Comarch Network Performance Management system itself. Comarch OSS Suite provides generic components which can be shared between
different Comarch OSS Suite systems (e.g., Network Performance Management, Service Level Management, Trouble Ticketing). Those modules are part of Comarch OSS Framework component
and provide general functional capabilities for all others sub-modules (e.g., User Accounts
management, System configuration management, general reporting capabilities).
Comarch Network Performance Management system provides modular design also. As mentioned, both post-processing and data collection varies between networking technologies. To
support multiple network domains within one system, Comarch Network Performance Management system provides multiple Data Models to support different technology-specific
deployment scenarios. Data Models consist of predefined Comarch PM System configuration for
the given technology domain and post-processing capabilities including Managed Objects definitions (monitored resources definitions) and its raw performance counters. Data Models
define also multiple KPI parameters that are calculated on straight device measures, define models of aggregation and report scheduling.
It should be also noted that Comarch Network Performance Management system is
integrated with Comarch Inventory Management system, which allows utilization of Inventory related attributes in post-processing activities (e.g. utilization of attributes which cannot be
provided by device itself). Moreover aggregated performance data can be used to populate Comarch Inventory Management system objects attributes. In this way performance related data
(e.g., important for network planning purposes) can be seamlessly delivered to the Inventory system users.
The idea of system modularity is presented in the following figure.
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
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Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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Figure 1 Comarch Network Performance Management system architecture
Comarch Network Performance Management system can be further decomposed into
following functional building blocks:
PM Engine, PM Manager,
PM Task Scheduler,
PM Database.
Figure 2 Comarch Network Performance Management system architecture
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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Each of the foregoing components provides functionality for supporting performance
management of telecommunication networks. Following chapters describes each of those components in more details.
PM Engine PM Engine is the core module of Comarch Network Performance Management system. It
provides the following functionality:
Data Collection. PM Engine triggers data collection in mediation platform. PM Engine receives raw performance data fetched by mediation platform and stores data in PM.
KPI Calculation. PM Engine calculates KPI according to formulas provided in PM system
configuration. Calculated KPIs are stored in PM Database. Threshold Monitoring. PM Engine monitors calculated KPIs values against threshold levels
provided in PM system configuration. PM Engine reports alarms in near-real time in case of performance policy violation (thresholds violations).
Aggregations. PM Engine aggregates KPIs according to formulas provided in PM system
configuration. Aggregated data is stored in PM Database.
PM Manager PM Manager manages all data collection tasks defined in PM system. It supervises and
updates PM Engine configuration to be consistent with configuration modifications made by
system users via GUI. Modifications are allowed according to user system privileges. PM administrator is able to define privileges for each component of the system, primarily for the
specific device group and its components and finally for counters, KPIs or alarms thresholds. PM Manager provides PM Engine configuration during startup and in case of:
Changes of KPI definitions,
Changes of aggregations definitions,
Changes of measurement process definition (e.g. measurement frequency, monitored objects).
PM Task Scheduler PM Task Scheduler is responsible for triggering data collection in PM Engine according
to measurement frequency provided in PM system configuration.
PM Database PM Database stores raw performance data collected during measurement process. It
also stores calculated KPIs values and aggregations values. All the data stored in the PM Engine is
available for future analyses and reporting.
2. Comarch Network Performance
Management functional features overview
Comarch PM System functionality can be divided into following functional areas:
PM data model configuration,
PM data collection configuration, PM real-time performance monitoring,
PM reports.
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
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Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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2.1. Data Models configuration
Comarch Network Performance Management system supports multiple data models for
performance monitoring purposes. Data Model provides PM system with meta-information concerning monitored network resources and definition of raw performance data reported by
monitored objects (e.g., supported counters names and types). It specifies if data is available on-
line or off-line and how measurement process should be performed (e.g., supported polling intervals).
PM system provides also vast management functionality. Moreover, none of the
configuration tasks require scripting or coding. All functionality is fully supported via the systems GUI. PM System provides GUI for management in scope of:
Historical data storing policy, KPIs management (create/modify/delete KPIs formulas),
Aggregations management (create/modify/delete data aggregations formulas).
Figure 3 KPI and aggregations definition GUI
Comarch Network Performance Management system supports the following
post-processing tasks configuration:
KPIs calculation formulas, Time-based data aggregations formulas,
Performance reports template definition.
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
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Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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KPIs are calculated basing on the raw performance data and provides the same data
granularity as measurement process. As mentioned before, KPI calculation formula is fully configurable for the system user.
Aggregations can be calculated both: for KPI and for other aggregated data, according to user-provided schedule. This is time-based aggregation. Aggregation granularity is definable by
the system user.
Configured KPIs, aggregations and reports can be further used during the data collection process definition as pre-defined templates.
2.2. Data collection
Comarch Network Performance Management system provides data collection
functionality. That means PM system periodically collects raw performance data from monitored
resources, called counters, stores fetched values in database and performs post-processing tasks. All post-processed data is also stored in Comarch Network Performance Management system
database.
Comarch Network Performance Management system distinguishes two types of data
collection tasks:
raw performance data collection, aggregations.
Raw performance data collection task performs data collection from network resources and KPIs calculation. KPIs are calculated based on the raw performance data and provides the
same measurement granularity. KPI parameter can be defined separately for each measured raw data, which allows defining several metrics for each counter depending on further application.
Each raw performance data collection process defines the following issues:
Which network elements should be monitored,
Which raw PM data should be collected per monitored resource, Which post-processing actions should be performed for monitored resources:
Which KPIs should be calculated, What is the frequency (granularity) of measurement and KPIs calculation.
Aggregation task performs time based data aggregation according to user-provided
aggregation rules (frequency and granularity). Aggregation granularity is definable by system user who can chose hourly, daily, monthly and yearly aggregation. Default collection frequency and
aggregation spans are defined in Data Model that depends on source specific features. Each data aggregation process defines the following issues:
Which KPIs should be aggregated per monitored resource, What is the frequency and granularity of aggregations.
Comarch OSS Suite
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Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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Figure 4 Data collection definition GUI
2.3. Real-time performance monitoring
Comarch Network Performance Management system provides mechanism for real-time
performance policy monitoring. Mechanism is based on defining thresholds for monitored performance metrics (KPIs). System supports two severity levels of alarms which can be reported:
critical and warning.
System user can adjust threshold levels for each monitored resource and its metrics,
during data collection task definition. There is a possibility to send an alarm event after each severity change of performance metrics. Alarms are compatible with Comarch Fault Management
interface where further correlations shall be performed. System allows determining number of probes after which another alarm is created to assure the severity state remaining.
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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Figure 5 Threshold definitions for PM measurement
System supports also hysteresis for each threshold level. Hysteresis allows more flexible
definition of monitoring policy and prohibits alarm storms in case of fluctuations near threshold values.
Figure 6 Threshold hysteresis mechanism examples
In addition to real-time performance policy violation reporting, Comarch Network
Performance Management allows ad-hoc reporting of performance data. System supports also
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
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Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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reports scheduling which allows short-term reports (e.g., daily reports) to be generated
automatically by the system.
2.4. Long-term data analyses
Comarch Network Performance Management system provides flexible reporting tool for
long-term data analyses. Along with aggregations supported by the system, it is comprehensive tool for long-term network performance analyses.
System supports also reports scheduling which allows long-term reports (e.g., monthly, yearly reports) to be generated automatically by the system.
Reports concerning long-term (aggregated) data can be also exported to CSV format which allows using that data in external systems for further post-processing.
Figure 7 Performance report example
2.5. Interoperability with other components of the Comarch OSS Suite
Comarch Network Performance Management is integrated with the Comarch Inventory
Management (IM) system. Such solution supports centralized storage of network
configuration data and avoids data inconsistency between different OSS systems.
Comarch OSS Suite
Network Performance Management
Product Whitepaper
Copyright 2008 Comarch S.A. Confidential
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Moreover long-term performance indicators can be used to populate Inventory objects
attributes and provide input for further network configuration evaluation and/or planning.
Integration with the Comarch Fault Management (FM) system allows registration of performance violation alarms by Performance Management system. Reported alarms can
be used for root-cause analyses along with others alarms registered in FM system.
Integration with the Comarch Service Level Management (SLM) system allows including
performance related characteristics as part of SLA contracts signed with customers.
3. Benefits
Various networking technology supported within one solution, Near real-time performance monitoring,
Time-based performance data aggregation.