Lead Analysis: Examples of How Software Holds a System Together

"Everything over IP" is the utopia of the moment, so it seems appropriateto begin a series of issues devoted to specific products with a look at the Internet Protocol (IP) level. TeleGea, Inc. and Atreus Systems offer products that exemplify the migration to fully automated provisioning
of IP services:

• TeleGea's Emporium is the customer-facing Web portal and "Accelerator Platform" (TGAP) coordinates operations within the Service Provider (SP). Data sheets in PDF format are available at http://www.telegea.com/en/index.asp?nav=solutions&subnav=ap;
• Atreus has xAuthority, a product that deals with "services" on an IP "network."

• direct command line input to routers and switches,
• higher level commands to network management interfaces such as CORBA and SNMP, and
• back office systems such as billing and inventory. The developers tool kit includes these adapters, and graphical applications to create new adapters.

xAuthority on IP
A "service fulfillment OSS" is what Atreus calls its software. Functionally, Atreus portrays xAuthority in the middle of the SP's activities (see figure at http://www.flanagan-consulting.com/vl4atreus.html). xA can provide a full web portal, but Atreus prefers that SPs build the tool kit and its components into a custom web site. The tool kit gives subscribers
self-service access to configure and administer the services provided by xA. A web developer would add on the presentation layer in an SP's unique style, or fit the service activation function into an existing web site.

xA addresses OSS auto-provisioning functions at the "service" level of the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model. On an IP network, those functions include configuration of IP connectivity (DHCP to assign IP addresses, RADIUS servers for authentication of users, local DNS entries, and activation of IP connectivity over a DSL link) to tiered services with variable bandwidth, managed VPNs, firewalls, and hosted mail and collaboration services. xA does not specifically address lower layers such as frame relay, ATM, or TDM circuits, but can interwork with other systems to complete the provisioning.

Atreus started in VPNs for hotels and multi-tenant units (MTUs) by providing the customer premises equipment (CPE) as well. Now they concentrate on the OSS to automate IP service activation at the network edge. xA supports auto-provisioning via a Graphical User Interface
(GUI), starting with the creation of new service offerings in the Service Description Module. The SP defines business and configuration attributes of a service just once, with the activation process that instructs the Service Drivers how to communicate with the element managers that configure the hardware in the network. The combination of a service portal and these pre-defined services can create a fully automated provisioning and fulfillment process--a new experience for most subscribers.

In the future they have plans to expand the configuration capabilities to put new users on additional services such as unified messaging, packet voice (voice over IP, VoIP), video, and what ever else comes along.

Three Cheers for GUI
TGAP includes an important feature that will be (if it isn't already) essential to automating the provisioning process: easy-to-use graphical user interfaces (GUIs). A GUI replaces the command line interface (CLI) found on almost all networking devices. Many network engineers express a preference for the CLI, saying it gives them more, and more direct, control of the device. This is true, today, because most hardware vendors develop the GUI after the CLI. This means that a fast-changing product will be shipped with some features that only the CLI can reach.

This is a problem, in our opinion, for many reasons. Delaying the GUI:

• perpetuates the need for the CLI, and the expensive training needed to master it;
• prevents universal deployment of procedures based on the simpler GUI;
• prolongs the era in which SPs need to configure each device separately; and
• slows the provisioning process.

Doesn't have to be that way. Recently heard from FatPipe Networks (www.fatpipeinc.com) about their devices that create faster, more reliable connections by inverse multiplexing and load balancing over a mix of Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) or IP connections. This company develops and ships the GUI at the same time as the CLI. Any function at the CLI is also accessible from the GUI, which means its customers never have to learn the CLI at all.

Simplifications can be dramatic: one of their slides shows the 20 lines of Border Gateway Protocol programming at the CLI compared checking three boxes on the GUI. A walk-through demonstration of this GUI showed that other aspects were equally simple, because the screen offered options where possible (in pull down lists) or at least organized the configuration process by presenting an entry field labeled with the required content for each item.

TeleGea and FatPipe follow a path 3Com has traveled for years. A toast to everyone who joins them.

LINKS

• Visit our web site for information about our consulting and analyst services, speaking engagements, and updates on other activities.
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• Links for this issue:
  www.atreus-systems.com
  www.fatpipeinc.com
  www.telegea.com/en/index.asp?nav=solutions&subnav=ap