Investigation into Mobile Operator Processes: Adaptation of a New Service Quality Monitoring Tool Thesis Work Presentation Esa 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 classCharacteristicsExample application ConversationalConversational pattern (stringent and low delay) Speech Video calls StreamingPreserve time relation between information entities of the stream. Real-time streaming video InteractiveRequest-response pattern. Preserve payload content. Web browsing BackgroundDestination is not expecting the data within a certain time. Preserve payload content. File 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 NetAct TM 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 NetAct TM 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 traffic measurements Fault managements QoS Management Counters KPIs Other measurements Other systems Network and service infrastructure Service Quality Manager Service level Integration of information received from the network for detailed service quality analysis Multi-vendor integration Networklevel Traffic monitoring system Alarm and fault systems DC5000

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 system Creation 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 features New 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

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