Approaches to Integrating Telecoms Management Systems

Abstract

Because of the cost and complexity of building bespoke service management systems, telecommunications management developers are moving toward the use of off-the-shelf componentware to satisfy their management requirements. However, a crucial problem with such an approach is the ability to integrate components to realise integrated management solutions. This paper identifies the technology requirements for the development of systems which support telecoms management business processes which are constructed from reusable components. It sets out requirements on component integration technologies that are expected to be key to the development of future operational support systems. The current status of relevant component integration technologies is reviewed in the context of these requirements. The paper outlines two telecommunications management case studies which are being conducted to evaluate these integration technologies. The paper draws some conclusions about the relative merits of the different technologies examined and make some suggestions for further work.