Ordering and Flow-through Provisioning in a Convergent Marketplace

The year is 2001. Among your chores for this Saturday is a trip to the supermarket. As you are browsing around the junk food isle on your way to the check-out counter, you notice a kiosk with bright lights and an announcement blaring, "Change to Cosmic Telecom and receive 25 percent off today's food purchases." Kiosk in the Supermarket.

As you begin to review the screens, you find that many exciting services* are available:
Picture Caller ID, to see who tried to call,
Giga-Data, for online data in 10 gigabit increments,
Geo Pager, to find the location of your pager via your multi-access screen at home, and CosmicNet, the latest in Internet access.

Of course Cosmic Telecom's local and long-distance services are also available. All of the components are exciting and can be purchased as bundled services. Best of all, these services are available at a guaranteed discount of 30 percent off your current rates for complementary services. To activate any or all of the aforementioned services, all you have to do is enter your current phone number and associated PIN code. A few minutes later at the checkout counter you receive your 25 percent discount on the grocery purchase and a confirmation that the new telecommunications services you ordered have been activated. Your new pager will be delivered to your home within four hours.

Impossible you say. Well ... Ok, the discount on the groceries is only 20 percent. But the technology to deliver the new state of the art services described is not vaporware. It's 1998 and most of the science and technology does exist. We are witnessing the beginning of a convergent marketplace. Today, we have digital paging, digital and analog wireless communication, enhanced SS7 supported services for caller ID and distinctive ringing, and new xDSL data overlay services to support gigabit multimedia service delivery.

Defining the Convergent Marketplace

So, how does one define the convergent marketplace? What are the ordering and provisioning processes that enable the convergent marketplace? These and other questions are at the forefront of the new telecommunications era.

The convergent marketplace begins with a mixmaster of the incumbent service providers, the competitive service providers and the numerous co-providers of services to the end user. Who are they?
The incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) owns most of the local loop infrastructure;
The interexchange Carrier (IXC) allows for connections between LATAs,
The competitive access provider (CAP)-facilities based or non-facilites based-is similar to the ILEC, but have carefully selected local loops for high profit commercial customers,
The wireless carrier provides cellular, PCS and mobile data services,
The competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) resells existing local services or purchase/lease their own facilities to deploy services, and
The internet service provider (ISP) offers internet access.

Service Providers Must Cooperate

Each of these service providers will need to connect their ordering and provisioning processes to participate in the service offerings. Simple tasks such as accurate customer orders will need interconnection for the provisioning process. For example, providing basic telecommunications services for voice and data will require the cooperation of local, long distance and internet service providers participating in the service mix in order to create the appropriate connections to provision the basic service offering.

The convergent market also includes the combination of different services and technology offerings to the end-user. How will these technology domains be crossed for the ordering and provisioning process? Some examples of service and technology offerings include:
Data services, including ISDN, Frame Relay and the full breadth of xDSL offerings;
Enhanced services such as caller ID, distinctive calling, call forwarding, and others,
User-defined bandwidth on demand, and finally
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).

To successfully fulfill customer orders and provision the appropriate services to the end-user, cross technology processes (e.g., data communications and telecommunications) will need to be implemented on open platforms using common and standard applications. In the telephony world, a customer order is processed, and an internal purchase order is almost always issued. The purchase order number (PON) becomes the focus of all activities in the ordering and provisioning process within the service provider. Primary customer information such as name, address, service type and credit are attached to the requested services, appropriate tariffs and assigned telephone number. The circuit paths are then provisioned to the customer location.

The circuit design process includes the use of Common Language Location Identifier (CLLI) codes to identify network locations. Exchange Carrier Circuit identification codes (ECCKT) are used to identify the circuits. For successful flow through provisioning, the element manager must secure the circuit designs and utilize them to process the information. Transaction Language 1 (TL1) commands, Common Management Information Protocol Commands (CMIP) or proprietary commands are issued to the appropriate network elements to fulfill the order. Likewise, in the data communication domain, element managers for routers, servers, data switches and bridges would communicate via Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) commands.

Where Are the Products?

Currently there are no standard, integrated management solutions for connecting data communications and telecommunications order and provisioning processes commercially available. For example, the provisioning of data communication services requires different network management protocols. Distinct differences are also apparent in the methods used to address the network elements and their corresponding infrastructure. Current Operational Support System (OSS) product/technology suppliers such as Lucent, Bellcore and Plano, Texas-based MetaSolv are positioned to address the area of flow-through ordering and provisioning for telephony and data services. Their success will enable the convergent market to provide complex services to the end user.

Adding to the complexity of our brave new convergent marketplace is the bundling of services to the end user. Some examples of service bundles include:
One single number for cell phone, pager, office and home with rollover to voice mail;
Combined local and long distance service,
Data communication service, and
Any combination of the above services.

Add the new emerging service requirement for local number portability (LNP) and the entanglement becomes even more complicated. LNP enables the end user of telecommunications services to retain their current telephone number even if they move to a different geographical area or Local Access Transport Area (LATA) or change service providers. Ultimately, they will be able to use this single number for all of their telecommunications needs, including home, office, wireless and pager service. One number will search for the end-user through all of their subscribed services, and could ultimately roll into personalized voice mail. Current efforts by the NMF, ECIC and other groups are actively working to define implementation guidelines that address the issues of and requirements for fulfillment, assurance and billing that will enable providers to offer services such as LNP and other bundled offerings.

Transparent Provisioning to the End User

A group of service providers, for example, (ISP, IXC and ILEC) could cooperate and provide local, long distance and data products to the end user through one "agent of record" or "primary" service provider such as the ILEC. The role of the ISP and the IXC in the provisioning process would be transparent to the end user.

What does the structure of the convergent marketplace look like? How are service providers addressing the requirements for the support of multiple protocols, multiple transmission, access and switching technologies that are needed to deliver the new services? How do service providers participate in a convergent service offering that involves multiple service providers?

Figure 2 depicts an ILEC's network with respect to transmission, switching, access and customer access. A Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) delivers the intra LATA service to a class 5 switch. The class 5 switch is connected to a channel bank that provides DS0 service to the end user. There are no specific data services are identified in this offering. The end user simply uses a modem to connect to another modem over their DS0 channel. Furthermore, there is only one service provider involved in this customer's service offering. This network is simple to operate. Flow-through ordering and provisioning is a relatively easy task to accomplish by the single service provider. There are no new complicated technology or business issues to be addressed.

Maintain Your Own OSS

As additional facilities-based and non facilities-based service providers are added to round out the service mix, the service offering to the end user becomes richer and more robust. Each new service provider maintains its own OSS infrastructure to support their own operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM&P) functionality, as well as interconnection capability to exchange critical information between their own OSSs and those of their cooperative service provider partners.

Many new requirements and issues surround the interconnection, including those of security, performance and specific management of protocol interfaces. Security is paramount considering the competitive advantage that a capable OSS infrastructure provides the controlling service provider. However, to successfully achieve automated flow-through order and provisioning, multiple service providers must "bond" to one another electronically. By utilizing Electronic Bonding (EB) capabilities described in ANSI, ITU-T and other standards and implementation guidelines, multiple service providers will be able to connect their legacy and commercial OSSs. Products based on CORBA, OSI and EDI standards will help facilitate electronic connection. The OSSs that must be interconnected include both telecommunication and data communication domain/infrastructure products. Remember, convergence includes multiple service providers and multiple technologies to enable the provisioning and delivery of wireless, data and telephony services.

The effective management of network, transport and associated protocols requires complex solution sets. Commercial products must be made available to offset economic, maintenance and life cycle support issues generally attributed to legacy/proprietary environments. Today, telecommunication networks are collages of many different proprietary and commercial approaches. Attempts of service providers to implement the international Telecommunication Network Management Network (TMN) standards have only been partially successful. The focus of standards such as the "Principles for a Telecommunications Management Network" (M.3010, from the ITU-T) have been developed to support a standard approach to layering the network elements and managers, thus creating standard interfaces between the various network components and the participating service providers. Further, standards have been developed and refined to support the integration of legacy interfaces into the TMN framework via a defined mediation function. Many service providers maintain a large base of legacy equipment, OSS infrastructure and interfaces. The investment is significant and this legacy infrastructure is expected to be in place for many more years. A hybrid approach of new standard state of the art technology and the TMN defined mediation function will help enable flow-through ordering and provisioning between competing and complementary service providers, while enabling the new diverse technologies to deliver complex services.

For example, service providers will face protocol challenges in the mediation and integration of the telecommunication domain with the data communication domain. According to the Yankee Group, by the year 2000 there couldce be as many as 60 million data access lines in use in the United States. This means that wire centers will contain thousands of data communications devices managed by various versions of SNMP. Also, the local loop and customer premise sites will support smart data communications devices for termination and distribution of the data communication services. These devices could include modems, routers, switches for ATM, Frame Relay and Ethernet, and servers for network management functions (e.g., billing performance monitoring, fault management). In order to maintain flow-through ordering and provisioning, service providers will need to support two infrastructures (e.g., the specific OSSs from telecommunication and data communication domains). Ultimately an entire new infrastructure comprised of state of the art systems could support and interoperate with the current TL1, CMIP, SNMP, and other proprietary protocols currently being used. If separate telecommunication and data communication OSSs are enabling services, mediation devices will be necessary to provide protocol translations. A realistic approach that commercial OSS suppliers such as MetaSolv and Lucent Technologies could take would include enhancements to their Ordering, Network Design, Network Inventory and Circuit Provisioning products. These enhancements would need to support inventory data communication devices and understand IP routing for the creation of new and evolving data services.

As new and exciting technologies become available to the marketplace, so will services such as those described in the Cosmic Telecom scenario. New requirements for flow-through ordering and provisioning are necessary and will need to be much more pragmatic and support an integrated framework. Advances in "Electronic Bonding," must support the interconnection of competitive service providers allowing for multiple protocol translation, reuse of application and standards, and the ability to scale as the market progresses. Further, all approaches and solutions to support flow-through order and provisioning must be economical to address all market tiers while allowing for the delivery of a full suite of new and competitive services. Finally, cooperative service providers must be able to communicate electronically in order to support customer demands in a time-efficient manner.

Closing with one final thought... as data services become more prevalent, tight integration of telecommunications' and data communications' OSSs will be required for quick and accurate ordering and provisioning. For Cosmic Telecom to be competitive and provide end-to-end flow-through order and provisioning to support their end users, a solution must be in place to integrate the telecommunication and data OSS domains.

Kim Lewis is currently Director of NMF's Service Management Program and President of SIDCOR Communications. Previously she was with GTE Telephone Operations and GTE Long Distance. Kim has been recognized worldwide for her expertise and contributions to the industry, most recently in the area of automating service management processes. She can be reached at klewis@nmf.org.