OPTIMA 5 2 1 Technical Overview

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Technical Overview

OPTIMA Technical OverviewRelease 5.2.1

Author: Dominic KirstenDate: 23 October 2006Ref: I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004Version: 1Status: ApprovedSec. Class: Commercial in Confidence

Copyright 2006 AIRCOM International - All rights reserved. No part of this work,which is protected by copyright, may be reproduced inany form or by any means - graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or storage in an informationretrieval system without the written permission of the copyright owner.


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Commercial in Confidence

Contents

1 Document Control............................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Revision History............................................................................................................ 31.2 Reviewers..................................................................................................................... 32 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 43 Product Positioning ............................................................................................................ 54 Benefits of OPTIMA............................................................................................................ 75 Technical Solution ..............................................................................................................85.1 System Architecture ..................................................................................................... 8

5.1.1 Physical Architecture ........................................................................................... 85.1.2 OPTIMA Logical Architecture............................................................................. 115.1.3 Architecture Key Features ................................................................................. 125.2 Vendor Interfaces ....................................................................................................... 135.3 User Functions............................................................................................................ 135.3.1 OPTIMA Inspector ............................................................................................. 145.3.2 Reporter .................................................................

............................................ 165.3.3 OPTIMA Work Area .........................................................

.................................. 165.3.4 Database Explorer and Query Builder............................................................... 175.3.5 Administration .................................................................................................... 195.3.6 Summary and Busy Hour Calculations.............................................................. 195.3.7 KPI/KQI Mapping ............................................................................................... 205.3.8 Archiving ............................................................................................................ 20

5.3.9 Profiling .............................................................................................................. 205.3.10 Service Management......................................................................................... 215.3.11 Performance Alarm Management...................................................................... 236 Technical Specifications................................................................................................... 266.1 Server and Data Loading Platforms ........................................................................... 26


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6.2 Client.......................................................................................................................... 266.3 Supported Data........................................................................................................... 266.4 Data Storage............................................................................................................... 266.5 Report Output Formats............................................................................................... 276.6 Report Output Types .................................................................................................. 276.7 Report Scheduling ...................................................................................................... 276.8 Graph Types............................................................................................................... 276.9 Graph Output Formats................................................................................................ 28Author: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 2 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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1 Document Control

1.1 Revision HistoryRevisionNumberDate Name Revision1 23 Oct 06 D. Kirsten

1.2 ReviewersReviewer Date Feedback

Author: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 3 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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2 Introduction

OPTIMA is an advanced network performance and service monitoring tool,developed for mobile operators who require a fully integrated application with theability to manage data from multi vendor and multi technology networks. Optimaperformance and service management solution provides an integratedenvironment allowing an operator to proactively ensure that customers receivegood quality service over the networks. The solution supports the analysis andreporting requirements for all functions within the organisation including:

Day-to-day operational monitoring and problem identificationNetwork System Optimisation (network planning and development)Network benchmarkingNetwork Performance Management Reporting KPI and key data

Network Service Management Reporting KPI/KQI and key data.Performance data management and network correlation across differentnetwork technologies and elements e.g. BSS, NSS, RAN, PS-CORE,VAS, IN, CDR.Generation and management of performance related alarmsOPTIMAs unprecedented flexibility, powerful functionality and ease of use makeit the ultimate tool for any operator looking to improve or enhance theperformance of its network.

OPTIMA is perfectly suited to mobile operators progressing to the next generation

of mobile technologies. OPTIMA fully supports 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks andthe solutions open and configurable architecture means that it is readilyconfigured for new technologies..

The success of an operators organisation depends on Quality of Service targetsbeing met. OPTIMA provides the tool to ensure that this is done. It is a truly costeffective, valuable enhancement to an operators information system.



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3 Product Positioning

OPTIMAs product position is represented on the Tele Management Forum(http://www.tmforum.org), Telecoms Operations Map (TOM) model in the diagrambelow. The green coloured portion shows where OPTIMA sits with typicaloutputs servicing wider business functions indicated via the yellow arrows andorange boxes.

Figure 1: OPTIMA Positioning

In an increasingly competitive telecommunications market, it is vital that youprovide superior levels of service and quality to end subscribers, therebyattracting new customers, reducing churn, and simultaneously minimisingcosts. You can only effectively manage and introduce change into theoperational network if you have a complete understanding of the current andpast performance of your system.

OPTIMAs network performance management & monitoring software logs andstores network performance information, enabling any employee, with

permissions, to gain a complete understanding of the current and pastperformance of your network.

For example, knowing the past three months dropped call statistics for a clusterof cell sites in a particular city can help you benchmark engineeringmodifications. You can use daily and weekly dropped call completion afteroperational changes (for example change of frequency plan) to the same cellsites to understand the improvements, or other, within the city.

By easily accessing and analysing invaluable performance data, you can:

Author: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 5 of 28

Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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Identify poor network performance before this becomes customeraffectingIdentify and respond quickly to changePinpoint accurately extra capacity requirementsDeploy network enhancements in a timely and cost effective mannerPredict future trends in the network or at any part of the networkSome typical uses of OPTIMA for network operation and performancemanagement are:

Daily reporting of network performance across all network elementsincluding the radio and switching networks, transmission, IN, VAS andservice platforms.Daily reporting of any cluster of cell sites or network elements covering

particular cities, roads or other geographical regionsDrill down to determine root cause analysis for network degradation orperformance problemsIdentification of performance anomalies across network regionsOverall monitoring of performance and generation of alarms whenthresholds are exceededIdentification and strategic reporting of traffic hotspots and networklocations generating high traffic and revenuesNot only can you access information across the whole network, but also

regional staff can access all data appropriate to them and can monitor networkelements within a region and fine tune localised performance.

Integrated Service and Network Management

OPTIMAs service management & monitoring module allows the operator tounderstand and improve customers perceived quality of experience and tothen optimise the network to offer better service performance.

This module delivers competitive advantage by allowing the Engineeringdepartments to access critical, real-time, customer centric information usingBilling CDR and/or Probe XDR sources. By fully integrating this information with

performance information from the network elements a complete picture of thenetwork and service performance can be determined. It therefore ensurescustomers receive high quality of service by enabling network operators toidentify degradations in the network and services offered. Near Real-timemonitoring of the entire network provides end-to-end visibility of serviceperformance and enables the OSS engineer to rapidly spot network andservice degradations and perform Root-cause analysis.

By easily accessing and analysing invaluable Service related data, you can:


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Manage your customers, then your networkManage new and existing network servicesMonitor new handset performance on your networkAnalyze engineering issues before they affect your customersAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 6 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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4 Benefits of OPTIMA

Key Technical Features of OPTIMA include:

A powerful ORACLE data warehouse which is able to maintain andretrieve network system performance counter data and trends for thelargest networks over many yearsRobust and scaleable IT platform architecture with a choice of PC orUNIX servers to suit IT policy and existing IT investmentsWindows PC based client application requires minimal specialist usertrainingTrue client/server architecture with the ability to support thick client andthin (web based) multi concurrent user accessFull Integration with AIRCOMs market leading PC-based ENTERPRISEtools suite allowing performance data to be seamlessly integrated with

design and configuration information.Complete flexibility to mix counter and KPI/KQI information with coverageand planning data, including geographical mappingAbility to query and retrieve PM and SM statistics by selecting networkelements on a geographical mapAbility to combine configuration parameter values with performance dataOut of the box functionality with interfaces and report and modulelibraries available for 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks.

Ability to interface to a wide range of equipment types of differentvendors and technologies eg. BSS, NSS, RAN, PS-CORE, VAS, IN,CDR etcHighly configurable vendor interface architecture allows rapidconfiguration to specific customer requirements.In-built KPI mapping across vendors allows quality on different vendornetworks to be compared easilyComplete flexibility for the user to create new KPIs, report templates andmodules via very flexible report and module designers.

Ability to define and generate Performance Alarms. Alarm events caneither be forwarded to Fault management systems or engineers alertedvia e-mail or SMS using the Optima alarm handling moduleFull user security with the ability to manage which reports and modulesusers or groups of users have the ability to accessIntuitive data explorer with the ability to define database queries via auser friendly drag and drop interfaceAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 7 of 28


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5 Technical Solution

5.1 System Architecture5.1.1 Physical ArchitectureFigure 2: Physical Architecture of an OPTIMA implementation

An overview of the typical physical architecture of an OPTIMA installation is shownin Figure 2. Data is generally exported in a file format from the network ElementManagers or OMCs and stored on a local server. When a new file is detected thenthis is transferred to an OPTIMA Mediation workstation where it is parsed andloaded into a central OPTIMA Oracle datastore and is immediately available forend-user clients.

For some vendor systems, PM or SM data may be available in a network or OMCdatabase. In this case, a special OPTIMA database parser is deployed, whichregularly accesses the network database to retrieve data. In this case there isnorequirement to transfer files.

There may also be links configured from the OPTIMA datastore to otherdatabases. This allows end users to access and combine data from multiplesources in reports. This mechanism may also be used to enrich the PM or SMdata loaded for example a link to a planning or configuration database (asillustrated by ENTERPRISE in Figure 2) may be used to retrieve network topologyor planning information.

There are a number of physical elements in the OPTIMA solution as described inthe following sections.



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Central database server

This is the critical component for the operation of OPTIMA as it has a directimpact on data load, storage and retrieval performance of the system.

Any type of workstation that supports Oracle 9i or above can be used. AIRCOMprovides a number of recommended hardware solutions with both Windows andUnix (HP and Sun) options supported depending on operator preference and thesize of system required. Solutions are always proposed that provide cost effectiveupgrade options to accommodate future expansion of the system.

For large installations or where system availability is particularly critical, aclustered server solution can be deployed.

The server would be dimensioned as part of the solution development dependingon the number of network elements, data storage requirements and expected useof the system. Memory requirements for the server are calculated based on thenumber of users and data loading processes that need to be supported, plus an

overhead for Oracle and the OS. Disk storage requirements will depend on thefollowing factors:

Number and type of performance counters to be storedGranularity of counter measurementSize of networkArchiving requirementsSummary tables and Indexes

AIRCOM provides tools that calculate database growth based on the actualdatabase schema to provide specific and exact predictions for a specificcustomer on the disk space requirements. Generally RAID disk arrays or externalSAN solutions are deployed to provide resilience in the case of hard disk failure.

Parsing/Loading Mediation Devices

Although it is technically possible to have the database loaders and parsersrunning on the central server, this is generally not recommended and within thetypical OPTIMA architecture, these processes are run on separateloading/parsing machines (or mediation devices). This architecture has a numberof important advantages:

Performance: separating the parsing and loading processing from theserver ensures that these activities do not significantly impact the enduser performance.Scalability: if required low cost workstations can be used for themediation devices. This provides a very cost effective scalable solution.For example the addition of new interfaces can be added withoutsignificant server upgrade requirements.


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Reliability: this architecture ensures that any problems that may occurwhen parsing or loading files do not impact the end user. Alsoadditional mediation devices can be provided as standby purposes. Forexample it is possible to split a particular interface across twomediation devices. In the case of a hardware problem with onemachine then the other can continue to load (perhaps with reducedperformance) whilst the failed device is repaired.Flexibility: for example a temporary mediation device can be deployedto load backlogged dataAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 9 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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Maintenance: it is possible to perform maintenance and upgrade of theloading processes and interface components without impacting thecentral server and hence end usersBoth Windows and UNIX (HP and SUN) workstations can be used formediation devices. Rack mounted units are recommended wherespace is a premium.The required specification and number of mediation devices will be determinedduring customer specific solution design.

Web Server (Optional)

The web server provides the ability to support on-line access to OPTIMA. Therecommended solution is to use CitrixTM that provides the full OPTIMA clientfunctionality to end users within a standard Web browser.

AIRCOM also provides a full web based solution, Web Wizard, that allows accessto key data and reports on-line over the company intranet. This also allows theability to display performance statistics geographically over a map.

All reports within OPTIMA can be scheduled to run at future or regular intervalintervals via a customisable report scheduler. This may be run on any client,however for regular reporting would tend to be hosted on a dedicated machine orthe Web Server. Reports can be exported to HTML and automatically publishedvia Web Wizard.

OPTIMA Clients

Three client options are available for OPTIMA:

Integrated with ENTERPRISE: In this case the OPTIMA application appears asa toolbar within the ENTERPRISE tool suite. This option allows performance

analysis to be integrated with planning functions. For example, performance datacan be replayed on the geographical map overlaying coverage information.

OPTIMA Standalone: In this area, the OPTIMA client can be run independentlyfrom the ENTERPRISE tool suite. For example this may be the preferred accessmethod for Operational Engineers who do not need the full planning integration.

OPTIMA online: This allows access to the application via a browser over thecompany intranet (or internet if enabled). Two options are available:

Access to the full client application can be supported using CitrixTM.

This is suitable for users who require full access to all OPTIMAfunctionality.AIRCOMs Web Wizard application can be deployed to provideaccess to key data and reports. This also allows the ability to displayperformance statistics geographically over a map. This is useful formore casual users who only need access to specific data or reportsAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 10 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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5.1.2 OPTIMA Logical ArchitectureNETWORKDATA SUMMARYDATA QUALITYARCHIVE &MAINTENANCEJOB SCHEDULARMONITORSCHEDULECONFIGUREMAINTAINSYSTEMLOGGINGFILE ARCHIVEOPTIMAMediation / ETLCONFIGURATION RAW COUNTERS SYSTEM LOGSDATALayerKPIsSUMMARY FILTERSDATA

DICTIONARYABSTRACTION DATABASE PROCESSESOPTIMA Data WarehouseWindows ClientsOPTIMA Client ENTERPRISE ClientOPTIMA ApplicationWindows Clients(Administration)OPTIMA Client ENTERPRISE ClientWeb ServerREPORTSCHEDULINGApplication

ServerFault ManagementApplicationOn-line ClientsAlarm MonitorPERFORMANCEMONITORSYSTEM MONITORALARMINTERFACEAlarm HandlerHANDLERExternal Data

RepositoriesENTERPRISEDatabaseEXTERNAL DATAPLANNINGAND CMDATALOADVALIDATEINTERACE


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SPECIFIC PARSERTRANSFERFigure 3: Logical Architecture of an OPTIMA implementation

The diagram above shows the logical architecture of an OPTIMA installation. Thevendor equipment or OMC is configured to output performance data at regularreporting intervals and the parsers will automatically process this data when itismade available.

The typical process for loading data is illustrated in the figure below and is asfollows:

1The network logs PM data and regularly outputs data in file into a defineddirectory on the OMC or Element Manager device. For most networkequipment the file creation interval is user configurable and would typically be15 minutes or an hour. Each file may typically contain data for a number ofdifferent network elements and different types of measurement classes. SMdata is collected from Network generated Call Detail Records (CDRs) or probeoutputs (XDRs).

2 An OPTIMA Transfer component will regularly pole the OMC directory. Whena new file is detected it will be automatically transferred to the parser inputdirectory on a mediation device. The original file on the OMC may (optionally)be deleted.

3 An OPTIMA Parser component monitors the parser input directory and parsesany files that are detected. Specific parsers are developed to match the fileformat for a particular interface. The parser converts the PM or SM data in theinput file into a common OPTIMA file format; comma separated variable (csv).



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Where the input file contains a number of different measurement classes, acsv file may be produced for each class.

4

If the input file is successfully parsed then it is (optionally) moved to an archivedirectory or deleted. If there is a problem in the file (for example it is corrupted)then it is moved to an Error directory and the Error details logged.

5

For PM data, An OPTIMA Loader component monitors the parser outputdirectory. When a new csv file is detected this is loaded into the appropriatedatabase table. The loader component may also combine or apply formulas toindividual counters if required during the loading process.

6If the csv file is successfully loaded then it is deleted or archived. Otherwise

, itis moved to an Error directory and the Error details logged.

7For SM data, as the volume of data being parsed ie CDRs or XDRs canaffect performance, a specific SM summarisation module can be deployed thatwill summarize the data before loading. The result of the summary is thenstored in the Oracle database. A number of SM Summarisation modules maybe run in parallel to provide the required throughput.

In order to effectively manage the volume of data in the OPTIMA database, thereare programs that regularly summarise and delete old data, calculate busy hoursand perform other database housekeeping activities. These are provided in an

administrator configurable summary subsystem. A Data Quality subsystem alsoregularly monitors the completeness of data loaded providing user friendly reportsto system administrators. This also handles re-summarisation when data arriveslate.

All OPTIMA data collection programs are scheduled and monitored by an OPTIMAscheduler program. This not only allows programs to be scheduled at regularintervals or overnight but also monitors all services and restarts these if necessaryin the case of a failure.

5.1.3 Architecture Key Features

The OPTIMA architecture and system components are designed to support theexacting system requirements for a PM and SM data collection, storage andanalysis system:

The system is designed to load data continuously 24 hours a day,365 days a year.Data is loaded as soon as it is available in the network.


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Data is made available to all users as soon as it is in the database.The system is scalable to cost effectively accommodate increases innetwork size and the introduction of new interfaces.The system is designed for very high reliability and is able to operatein an unsupervised mode. A process monitor is deployed thatmonitors all components via heartbeat function and automaticallyrestarts any failed process.The system is able to store very large volumes of data withoutdegradation of loading or end-user performance.The data loading architecture minimises overheads on the databaseserver, ensuring that the maximum resources are available for end-user queries and access.Author: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 12 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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The system automatically handles late arriving and out of sequencedata and provides user friendly system reports on the completenessof data statistics from the monitored network elements.5.2 Vendor InterfacesOPTIMA supports multi-vendor, multi-technology networks and AIRCOM canprovide interfaces for each vendor in an operators network. Depending on theoperator set-up, the data may either be made available from the vendor in datafiles or in an OMC database. AIRCOM can provide a vendor specific parser foreither arrangement.

Each interface is provided with a comprehensive library of KPIs, reports andmodules which allows out of the box analysis and reporting functionality.

Figure 4: The Siemens specific OPTIMA Parser

5.3 User FunctionsThe following figure illustrates the main components of the OPTIMA system. RawPM or SM counters and configuration data is loaded from the network and stored

within the data layer. From this Summary Information and KPIs are derived withinthe Abstraction layer. Data from both of these layers is made available to the userwithin the Client and Administrator functions.



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Client

Abstraction

Data

Raw Counters ConfigurationSummary KPIsDataDictionary FiltersData ExplorerBrowser Query BuilderInspectorReporterWork Area / FavouritesReportSchedulerCustomCountersFilterManagerUserManagement

AdministrationAlarmManagerAlarmHandlerFigure 5: OPTIMA Software Architecture

The key user modules illustrated in the above Figure are described in the followingsections.

5.3.1 OPTIMA InspectorOPTIMA Inspector enables users to select data modules from a module library

and combine these, as required, to display specific information. Modules are usedin the same way that you would use a template, to customise the information youwant to display. Using this user friendly method it is possible for users to build upcomplex specific analysis functions and easily correlate data from differentnetwork elements.

With OPTIMA Inspector you can:

Manage modules and module combinations

Define your own modules and module combinations to display anynetwork dataRetrieve, filter and chart large volumes of dataUse filters to select data for specific network elements. For exampledefine filters to show only problem cells or select a set of cellsgeographically on a map.Define counter thresholds, e.g. display all MSCs with processor load


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over 90%Display data from any ORACLE databaseLoad data from other ENTERPRISE tools, e.g. ASSET, DATASAFE,RANOPTShare data modules with other users or groups of usersAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 14 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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Figure 6: A typical OPTIMA Module

The powerful functionality provided by OPTIMA Inspector within the modularapproach ensures that users can be confident in their ability to correctly displayand view information in a way that will improve problem solving, which willultimately enhance the performance of the network.

Data is displayed both within a data grid or graphically on a number of userspecified chart types. Standard Excel-like features are provided for sorting,filtering, grouping and summarising data. In addition you can link modules toprovide powerful drill down functions. In this way for example you can click onaproblem cell and immediately display the key KPIs for that cell for the time periodin question.

Figure 7: Example of Grid functions in Inspector



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5.3.2 ReporterOPTIMA Reporter provides a flexible and user friendly environment for creating,organising and managing the distribution of reports. User friendly wizards andtemplates are provided to simplify ad-hoc report creation. Advanced features suchas sub-reports and cross-tabs provide the functions to accommodate even themost complex reporting requirements.

All report templates can be stored within the datastore for ease of distributionandaccess. Users can view or modify (if granted rights to do so) a report by selectingfrom an explorer based folder structure.

Figure 8: OPTIMA Reporter

OPTIMA Report Designer allows users full flexibility to specify the network datatobe included in a report. With OPTIMA Reporter, users in an organisation have the

ability to decide what information will be viewed and in the desired format, apowerful tool for any organisation.

Users can always rely on having the latest relevant information, knowing that theyare saving time and money by automating the complex process of generatingquality reports.

A key area of OPTIMA Reporter is the scheduling functionality, which allows forflexible automatic report distribution to any type of output device, e.g. PC, printer,e-mail, web site. An advanced feature allows the user to provide a condition to

thereport generation. For example a condition could be set to generate a report whichis triggered when, for example Congestion by Cell on a particular BSC indicatesdropped calls over 4%. The scheduler allows users to set up reports for their areasof interest, then to schedule these reports to run at a convenient time.

5.3.3 OPTIMA Work AreaOPTIMA Work Area gives users the flexibility to organise their user environmenttomatch the particular activity being undertaken. Inspector combinations, reportsand

even external web pages can be docked into a common working area and are



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available as tabbed pages. This means that all relevant information for a particulartask can be quickly accessed and correlated greatly increasing working efficiency.Key modules and reports can also be added to a favourites toolbar for instantaccess.

OPTIMA Work Area can also be used to identify and display information about keyaspects of your network that are under performing. It can monitor the values ofspecified performance counters, such as dropped call rates, call set-up failures,high congestion, etc. Options are provided to automatically update the informationso that the latest recorded state of the network is always displayed.

Figure 9: OPTIMA Work area.

5.3.4 Database Explorer and Query BuilderThe database explorer provides a user friendly overview of all data within the

OPTIMA data warehouse and allows both advanced and occasional users toquickly retrieve any set of information. The module supports the following features:

The ability to browse all data in the database using a simple treestructure. Data is organised into Raw Counters, KPIs, ConfigurationInformation, System information or User Defined categories allconfigurable by the system administrator. A search facility is providedto allow the user to quickly find a counter or KPI. Counter values canbe displayed in a grid or exported to Excel etc.Author: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 17 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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The ability to define a database query via a user friendly drag and dropinterface without the need for SQL entry. This provides the followingfeatures:oDrag and drop tables from the Data ExploreroDefine table joins by graphically linking fieldsoDefine data fields to be extracted, filter criteria, functions andgrouping via user friendly input screensoPreview and edit SQL createdoPreview data returnedoDefine filter fields for OPTIMA date-time selector andnetwork selection filtersThe data explorer can be run standalone for ad-hoc data queries. It is also usedto

define modules within Inspector.

Figure 10: Data Explorer

A drag and drop expression builder is provided to simplify the addition of complexexpressions in queries and to simplify the definition of custom counters or KPIs.The expression builder provides the following features:

Add counters from a context sensitive lists by dragging onto the

design area.Select available functions from categorised listsPrompts for function argumentsSimple entry of mathematical and date functionsAbility for administrators to add custom functionsAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 18 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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Figure 11: Expression Builder

5.3.5 AdministrationAdministration functions are provided in the tool to allow system administratorstoconfigure the application to match the specific customer requirements. Thefollowing functions are supported:

Add and edit custom counters or KPIs that apply specific formula(e) tocollected performance dataDefine common KPIs that map across different vendors. For example acommon user KPI such as Call Drop can be defined that utilisesdifferent vendor counters for each vendor within OPTIMA.Define and edit thresholds for counters to enable performance dataexceeding such thresholds to be highlighted in OPTIMA or exported asan alarm event.

Specify country specific holidaysAdd and administer users and groups of usersConfigure which groups of users have access to which reports andmodules through a user friendly security system.Configure links to external database5.3.6 Summary and Busy Hour CalculationsThe data generated by the Network and parsed and loaded into the OPTIMAdatabase is likely to be of a high granularity (ie. short intervals between samples).OPTIMA is designed to store this information for any period of time but this can

lead to significant storage requirements for the database. For this reason manyoperators elect to archive old data and store a summary only. For example theoperator may be interested in a granularity of 15 minutes for data up to a monthold but any data older, they would like to see summarised to an hour and any dataolder than a year they would like to see summarised to a day, week, month and soon.



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AIRCOM provides a fully configurable summary program that achieves this andcan be scheduled to run at user specified times. When the data has beensummarised to a table with a lower time resolution it can then be archived fromthehigher resolution table. Processes are also provided that handle late arriving data

updating summaries if required.Network planning and performance engineers are usually mostly interested in thebehaviour of the network when it is experiencing its greatest load. This is termedthe busy hour and operators will be interested in keeping a copy of theperformance data during this hour longer than the other hours of the day. Tablescan also be generated that hold data for the busiest hours of the week, month andkept for longer periods than daily busy hour data. Multiple busy hours can alsobedefined.

5.3.7 KPI/KQI MappingOPTIMA stores all raw performance counters generated by the network. Howeverfor reporting purposes it may be more useful to aggregate the raw counters intohigher level KPIs eg call drop, connection rate etc. OPTIMA provides flexiblesolutions that allow an administrator to define KPIs that are then available forallusers.

The performance counters and what they measure are different across differentvendors therefore the formula for a KPI for one network may look very differenttothat on another. In addition, a KPI formula may be composed of a very largenumber of counters and sub counters. It is for this reason that AIRCOM provide a

KPI mapping facility between vendors. With this option users can use a single KPI(eg call drop) for all cells within a multi-vendor network. This can greatly simplifythe creation of reports and modules.

5.3.8 ArchivingAn operator may want to keep a copy of the data longer than they want to store itin the OPTIMA database. This could be for the purpose of re-investigatingprevious anomalous behaviour on the network that has re-occurred. This may beachieved by writing the relevant datafiles to a tape or separate disk.

5.3.9 ProfilingIt is important for an operator to efficiently dimension a network for current andforecast use. This enables cost effective deployment of expensive vendorequipment and helps to minimise lost revenue due to traffic rejected due tounavailable channels.

In order to predict the future traffic on network a forecasting algorithm is required


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that uses as inputs the current and historical trend values of offered traffic and theErlangB formula. In order to achieve this AIRCOM have developed the CellProfiler program. Using this program the operator can forecast future traffic growthbased on historical data and therefore identify which cells will possibly requireupgrade in the near future.

The following shows a screen print of the Cell Profiler program. The interfaceenables the user to choose the process parameters such as the number of pastweeks used, minimum available data threshold, number of future weeks to beforecast and in this example a scaling factor for the TCH and SDCCH channels ofan operators GSM network.



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Figure 12: Illustrates a Cell Profiler screen

5.3.10 Service ManagementThe Service management module collects data from 2G, 2.5G or 3G Networkgenerated Call Detail Records (CDRs) or probe outputs (XDRs). and calculatesper-call or per-event analysis to measure QoS in the network. The module iscapable of carrying out time based correlation of Indicators, KPIs and KQIstaken from different network elements or their signalling interfaces, Billing, orXDR sources and summarise them into consolidated, analytical readablereports.

Some typical uses of OPTIMA for network operation and service managementare:

Optimise the service delivered to customers from their perspectiveDirect OSS engineers to the areas which are most affecting thecustomers service

Monitor and analyse individual service performance across yournetwork, including SMS, MMS, WWW, WAP etcDevelop a clear picture of how the network performs over time, basedupon the most important metric - customer perception as the data issourced from call data recordsIntegrated with Optimas Performance Management systems to gain acomplete picture of how customers are being servedCorrelate network element downtime with customer-experiencedquality degradations



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Figure 13: 3G Indicator report- Transfer Delay

The Optima SM module is fully integrated within the Optima solution providingthe full power or Optimas advanced analysis and reporting capabilities to beutilised on both SM and PM data. Key performance and marketing indicatorreports that would be supported by the SM modules as standard are:

Best performing or worst performing cells for each serviceLocations with the heaviest data transactionsLocations most called fromLocations with the longest call durationLocations with the highest number of callsLocations with the lowest data transactions

Locations least called fromLocations with shortest call durationLocations with the least number of callsSubscribers with the heaviest data transactionsSubscribers with the highest MoUSubscriber with highest number of callsCustomers with the lowest data transactions

Subscriber with least number of callsSubscribers with the least MoUMost accessed servicesLeast accessed servicesAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 22 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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Best performing or worst performing APNs for each QoS indicatorBest/Worst performing handset for each service5.3.11 Performance Alarm ManagementThe OPTIMA Alarm module provides the ability to define thresholds andconditions on performance data that can generate alarm events into a faultmanagement system. This provides significant user benefits:

It allows an operator to be pro-active rather than re-active to networkalarms. For example an alarm can be generated based on a trend inaverage traffic before hard capacity thresholds are triggered on anetwork element.By immediately alerting engineers to problems it provides theopportunity for faster response to potential service affectingperformance issues, increasing network quality and customersatisfaction.

It provides the ability to automatically monitor many performanceKPIs for the whole network and only respond the critical issues. Thiscan provide significant cost savings in optimisation and OSSengineers.It allows an operator to have common procedures for performancerelated and network related alerts, for example in out-of-hourssupport and trouble-ticketing, resulting in improved efficiency andcost reduction.It gives the operator the ability to monitor abnormal behavior in thenetwork. For example alarms can be generated when theperformance of a KPI on a cell changes significantly from the normal

behavior even though the performance may remain withinoperational thresholds.It provides the ability to correlate performance related alarms withnetwork generated alarms to aid in root cause analysis. For exampleif traffic increases on one cell this may be due to a failure in aneighboring cell.Provides the operator with the potential to supplement the standardnetwork alarms that a vendor supports and potentially overcomesany limitations in these.Technical Implementation

The implementation of the OPTIMA Alarm module is illustrated in the followingfigure.



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Figure 14: Optima Alarm Module

A user friendly Alarm GUI allows an administrator to define and administer alarms.All alarm definitions are stored within the OPTIMA datastore. A separate alarmservice poles the database at user defined intervals and tests all active alarmdefinitions against data that has been loaded from the network. All alarm set andclear events are stored in the OPTIMA data warehouse and made available to FMsystems via a defined interface.

Figure 15: Alarm Explorer

Key Features

User friendly GUI for an administrator to specify and manage alarmdefinitionsAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 24 of 28



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Complete flexibility for an administrator to define trigger thresholdsincluding:oMultiple thresholds per counteroThe ability to define thresholds on any raw counters, KPIs orcombinations of counters including formulasoComplex thresholds e.g. deviation from averageoThreshold on summary data including busy houroThe ability to define different thresholds for different timeperiods e.g. weekends, out-of-hours etc.The ability to define different thresholds for set and clear, allowing theability to provide hysteresis on alarm thresholds.The ability to define a ripple count for each alarm definition. This

means that the alarm is not triggered until the threshold has beencrossed for the specified number of samples, or time period. Thenetwork element may remain alarmed until the performance falls backinside user defined clear thresholds for a user defined period of time.Ability to set thresholds for any granularity of source data with a userdefined poling interval per alarm definition.A fully scalable architecture with separation of the alarm definition fromthe alarm processing. For the most demanding requirements there isalso the ability to distribute the alarm processing across multipleworkstations.

A full audit log for alarm definition records all changes to alarmdefinitions, when and by whomFull flexibility to define which network elements are monitored foreach alarm definition the administrator can select all, groups, orindividual network elements (e.g. cells) to be included.Full flexibility to define the alarm description including user definedoptions for:oAlarm severityoVendor description

oElement typeoTechnology TypeoAlarm DescriptionAn advanced feature is that the alarm description can also includeany counter value or formula. This allows dynamic messages to becreated based on real counter values derived when the alarm is


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triggered. This allows for very informative alarm messages.All alarm events are stored in the OPTIMA database for reportingand analysis. Optima provides a configurable and flexible alarmhandler that allows users or groups of users to be alerted to specifiedalarms via e-mail or SMS. Alternatively an interface can be providedto third party fault management systems.Author: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 25 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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6 Technical Specifications

6.1 Server and Data Loading PlatformsOracle 9i or 10g with Partitioning OptionWindows: 2000 or 2003 ServerUnix:Sun Solaris 9,10 HP-UX 11Full hardware and software redundancy options supportedSupport for SAN and RAID disk configurations6.2 ClientPentium III or higherWindows 2000, XP ProIntegrates with Microsoft Office 97 or higher

6.3 Supported DataAny counter type:

PegGaugeAccumulatorScannerDiscrete distributed measurements

PDF measurementsCustomGeneric Data interfaces:ASCIICSVXMLASN.1

ODBCSNMPDirect Oracle LinkVendors Supported:Ericsson


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NokiaSiemensMotorolaNortelAlcatelLucentHuaweiInterwave6.4 Data StorageUnlimited raw counter storage (dependent only on disk allocation)Any data granularity supportedAdministrator defined data storage and archiving periodsAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 26 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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Administrator defined summary options including daily, weekly, monthly,busy hour.Complete flexibility to define summary and rollup functions per counterincluding sum, average, max, min, user definedUser defined busy hours including multiple busy hours per element6.5 Report Output FormatsReport Archiving Format (*.RAF)Comma Separated Values (*.CSV)Acrobat Reader File (*.PDF)XHMLRich Text Format (*.RTF)

Hyper Text Markup Format (*.HTML)Excel File (*.XLS)Bitmap File (*.BMP)JPEG File Interchange Format (*.JPEG)Tagged Image File Format (*.TIFF)6.6 Report Output TypesPrinter

Filezipped-filee-mail6.7 Report SchedulingAbility to schedule any report by date and timeAll output options supportedConditional scheduling6.8 Graph Types

Over 100 standard chart types including:

LineAreaBarPoint


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PieBubbleArrowGanttShapeAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 27 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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6.9 Graph Output FormatsMetafileEnhanced MetafileBitmapJPEGPNGGIFPCXAuthor: Dominic Kirsten OPTIMA Technical Overview Page 28 of 28Date: 23 October 2006 I-SM-SR-EM-OP-004 Commercial in Confidence


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OPTIMA 5 2 1 Technical Overview

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