Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) is likely to find a receptive audience to the announcement of enhancements to its virtualized OSS portfolio, particularly in light of the recent and ongoing storms, floods, and power failures in parts of North America and Western Europe. The solution is designed to help operators deal quickly and efficiently with unexpected situations arising from severe weather or overloaded networks.
Virtualized and automated solutions to be based on customer needs
The NetAct8 virtualized OSS can ensure uninterrupted network and service operations without the cost of permanent physical assets. NetAct was launched in October 2013, but recent enhancements to the virtualized OSS allow operators to automatically reconfigure up to 10,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs) within five minutes, seamlessly move the location of the network operations center (NOC) to the cloud, and then automatically activate all NetAct applications and content. This represents huge potential opex savings for operators in terms of the automated configuration alone.
Enhancements to NSN’s Serve atOnce Traffica product allow operators to see the number of subscribers affected by the incident in realtime, and obtain a prioritized list of activities. When used in conjunction with NSN Performance Manager (capacity utilization) and alarm prioritization, operators are able to respond based on subscriber impact, and can determine the problem area, identify the problem, and resolve the issue.
Continuity plans are increasingly important
The announcement is certainly timely; the first decades of the 21st century have seen a large number of natural and man-made disasters around the globe, and keeping communications networks up and running in those scenarios is clearly important for emergency services and recovery. However, the pervasive digital lifestyle is still notoriously difficult to predict, and spikes in network traffic can catch operators unaware.
Video and online digital services do not degrade gracefully. They are low latency services, and network and service quality need to be managed carefully because they have a very immediate impact on the customer experience. Virtualized assets, automated activities, and predefined process flows can turn potential meltdowns into a manageable continuity plan. The prioritization aspects allow operators to focus on the issues affecting either the largest number of users or the most valuable customers, so this is also a customer-centric solution designed to enhance the customer experience.