Investigation into Mobile Operator Processes: Adaptation of a New Service Quality Monitoring Tool

Thesis Work Presentation5.12.2006

Esa SahlaEsa Sahla

Supervisor: Prof. Sven-Gustav Häggman

Instructor: M.Sc. Antti Hassinen

Contents

1. Introduction to the study• Background, research problem, research methods

2. Service Quality in Mobile Networks• Motivation for QoS, network QoS management tools

3. Service Quality Manager (SQM)

4. SQM - Maintenance and Development

5. Conclusions

Background

New mobile technologies (e.g. UMTS) introduce a massive amount of new mobile services

The strain on the operator’s network increases and the probability of network and service related problems increases along with it

New service centered network management tools are a necessity if the operators wish to effectively control this development and thus provide an adequate level of service quality to their customers

TeliaSonera Finland was interested in identifying the effectiveness of their service quality management process and study the possibility of adapting a new quality monitoring tool into the process

Objectives

1. To give a comprehensive view of the current situation of network performance and fault monitoring at TeliaSonera Finland.

2. Analyze the process of adapting a new network monitoring tool, the Nokia NetAct Service Quality Manager, at TeliaSonera Finland

3. Identify the main user groups for the said tool.

Research Methods

Literature study Various specifications (ETSI, ITU, 3GPP) Related books and publications

Practical part Interviews with personnel at TeliaSonera and with

equipment vendor representatives Study of in-house and equipment vendor documents Attending meetings within TeliaSonera on service

quality management and SQM related issues

Contents

1. Introduction to the study• Background, research problem, research methods

2. Service Quality in Mobile Networks• Motivation for QoS, network QoS management tools

3. Service Quality Manager (SQM)

4. SQM - Maintenance and Development

5. Conclusions

Motivation for QoS mechanisms New mobile communication technologies (e.g. UMTS) have strict

QoS requirements For example, real-time services (such as video telephony) need

performance guarantees Customer satisfaction is closely related to the service quality

provided by the network Along with e.g. pricing and network availability

With good QoS mechanisms, scarce radio resources can be utilized more efficiently Increased cost efficiency through resource optimization based on

services’ QoS requirements Increase in ROI Ultimately, effective QoS mechanisms ensure a competitive

advantage

Performance requirements

• 3G QoS traffic classes:

Traffic class Characteristics Example application

Conversational Conversational pattern (stringent and low delay)

SpeechVideo calls

Streaming Preserve time relation between information entities of the stream.

Real-time streaming video

Interactive Request-response pattern.

Preserve payload content.

Web browsing

Background Destination is not expecting the data within a certain time.

Preserve payload content.

E-mailFile downloading

Demanding• Delay• Jitter

Demanding• Bit rate• Jitter

Tolerant• Delay and bit rate

may vary• Integrity

Easiest• Delay and bit rate

may vary• Integrity

Operator’s PoV

Data sources for Service Quality Management Customer complaints

Only large numbers signify a clear fault The fault has already affected the customer

Field measurements Used to establish end-to-end service quality experienced by the end-user Stationary hot-spot tests and drive tests Competitor benchmarking

Network elements Main source of data for network monitoring tools

Network optimization

Customer complaints

Field measurements

Network performance monitoring

Network elements: counters and

interfaces

Network Management Tools

New mobile network management tools should: be able to identify possible error conditions and

according corrective actions pro-actively take preventive measures on impairments

that could reduce customer satisfaction reduce mobile operators operational expenses

The network management tools employed at TeliaSonera were analyzed to determine how well they fulfill the above criteria

Network Management Tools

The analysis found that the network management process clearly lacked an efficient tool for efficient, real-time network service quality monitoring Especially for 3G RAN

The full scale implementation of a new service quality monitoring tool was thus justified Nokia NetActTM Service Quality Manager (SQM)

Contents

1. Introduction to the study• Background, research problem, research methods

2. Service Quality in Mobile Networks• Motivation for QoS, network QoS management tools

3. Service Quality Manager (SQM)

4. SQM - Maintenance and Development

5. Conclusions

SQM

The Nokia NetActTM Service Quality Manager is a service quality monitoring platform Designed to work with both 2G and 3G systems Multi-vendor support Real-time monitoring Enables operators to monitor the state of the services

provided by their network (rather than only element status) Correlates measurement data from various data sources

for more accurate fault determination Pre-emptive fault detection Fault impact calculation based on end-user perspective

SQM: Creating a new level for monitoring network performance

Real-time trafficmeasurements

Fault management

sQoS Management•Counters•KPIs

Other measurements

Other systems

Network and service infrastructureNetwork and service infrastructure

Service QualityManager

Service Service levellevel

Integration of information received from the network for detailed service quality analysis

Multi-vendor integration

NetworNetworkk

levellevel

Traffic monitoring

system

Alarm and fault

systemsDC5000

User Groups at TeliaSonera Finland A part of the thesis focused on identifying the main user

groups for the SQM solution

The main users can be roughly divided into: Network maintenance System planning

User Group: Network maintenance

Lacking an efficient, real-time service monitoring tool for 3G systems

Swamped with too many systems and tools which to monitor No tool for sleeping cell monitoring

With SQM: Possibility for real-time service quality monitoring and automatic fault

analysis for effective root-cause analysis Simplify the management of complex 3G network Automatic correlation of element data and fault information Dead cell detection Overall streamlining of the network maintenance process (see: figure)

Streamlined network maintenance with SQM

SQM

Testing equipment

Network element data

Traffic analyzer

Reporting

Fault Monitoring

History

Monitor

Relevant alarms

Traffic data

Performance dataElement alarms

Test results

Relevant reports

Service Quality trends

DC5000(Trend analysis)

Trouble ticket systemCreation

of a trouble ticket

Network measurement data sources

User group: System planning

Benefits gained with SQM: More effective monitoring of element updates

Especially, correlating network measurements with element update status

Easier determination of network problems when fault effecting a larger part of network

And the benefits explained previously

Contents

1. Introduction to the study• Background, research problem, research methods

2. Service Quality in Mobile Networks• Motivation for QoS, network QoS management tools

3. Service Quality Manager (SQM)

4. SQM - Maintenance and Development

5. Conclusions

Background

SQM wasn’t ready “out-of-the-box” Need for customization

SQM should be available for all areas of mobile network management Different access methods contemplated Web-access for ease of use and with limited functionality Direct connection to the system for advanced users

Custom measurements needed to be implemented Various threshold values and performance indicator formulas Dead cell monitoring

SQM steering group formed to oversee future development on the system

SQM Maintenance Process at TeliaSonera

Nokia NetAct SQM

System maintenance

RAM team

Quality team

Parameter team

Steering groups

Specifications for new KPI or KQI values

Gives feedback on the systems’ state to

Supervises

Sends performance data

New featuresNew features to existing systems

New specification work required

Network element software upgrade

projects, etc.

Need for new performance

indicators

Nokia

Provides new alarm monitoring implementation instructions

Help request in trouble cases. Specifications for new alarm monitoring rules

Training and instructions

Maintenance and new feature implementation

New feature testing

Process evaluation

The SQM integration and development process itself was analyzed in this thesis using the following criteria:

Trial period analysis Software vendor reliability Total cost Tailoring possibilities Integration possibilities Training possibilities Multiplatform support

Results of this analysis mainly used to measure the successfulness of the adaptation process This, in turn, would be used to decide whether changes in similar

projects are needed in the future

Contents

1. Introduction to the study• Background, research problem, research methods

2. Service Quality in Mobile Networks• Motivation for QoS, network QoS management tools

3. Service Quality Manager (SQM)

4. SQM Integration

5. Conclusions

Conclusions

Next generation mobile networks require the operators to have more versatile tools to manage the various services provided by the network The system should also make the operation and management of the

network and its resources efficient and effective

Analysis of TeliaSonera’s mobile network management processes concluded that there was a clear need for such a tool Service Quality Manager fills this need The analysis was also done to establish a regular practice within the

company to analyze their network management practices in terms of service quality management

Conclusions

The analysis identified two main user groups In light of some issues identified in the analysis, procurement of an additional

performance monitoring tool was proposed

Adaptation process evaluation revealed defects in the process: For example, end-user needs should be identified sooner in the process so as to

speed up the development process

As the field of study presented in this thesis is constantly under change, it is evident that some process descriptions presented will not be topical for long Especially from the operator’s stand-point

All things considered, the objectives of the thesis were reached No further study on the subject needed as such What remains is the final steps of integrating the system into the operator’s

processes

Thank you