Talking about NGOSS

The “Next Generation Operational Support Systems” (NGOSS) NGOSS is a TeleManagement Forum (TMF) initiative. Basically aimed at the telecom sector, it provides a framework for building the Next Generation OSS / BSS systems. It focuses on getting the key elements of software development into developing the OSS/BSS systems for the telecom domain. To its core, the framework talks about lesser time to market, reusability & open systems.

The TMF is also coming up with a technology neutral architecture that would pose itself as a common reference for all the NGOSS solutions. This helps in making NGOSS a standard that is independent of the technology being used to implement it. As a part of the NGOSS program, the TMF also offers a set of criteria or a test suite that can help certify any solution as NGOSS compliant.

The NGOSS comprises of several elements that help form the complete framework. Even though these elements constitute the NGOSS solution architecture, they may be used independently to solve specific business pains. Here, we go on to explaining some basics of these elements.

The Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) provides guidelines for telecom specific processes that would be required to develop a solution. These guidelines lay the foundation of how the processes are going to behave and interact within a telecom solution. As a blueprint for each of the processes, it mandates some functions and their parameters to ensure the compatibility. The entire eTOM framework is defined as generically as possible so as to eliminate any technological dependency.

The Shared Information/Data Model (SID) provides the data schemas or entities that can be used by the solution to ensure smooth integration between the various providers. In effect, the SID provides a “protocol” for all the telecom systems to communicate in. The SID defines the various entities, their properties and relationships again in a technology independent manner. The obvious benefit of implementing the SID is of course reduced efforts when interacting with other modules or systems.

The Technology Neutral Architecture is another element of NGOSS that defines how all the eTOM processes and the SID models are put together to form a complete architecture. It defines not the actual architecture, but a set of guidelines or principles that the architecture should follow in order to be NGOSS complaint. The architecture ensures that the OSS components can work in tandem with each other even in a distributed environment. To enable this, it defines the Contract Interfaces that specify the interfaces between these components.

Apart from the above elements, the NGOSS initiative provides test suites to ensure compatibility of the developed solutions with the NGOSS standard.

The standards ensure that the NGOSS based systems are highly interoperable with the legacy systems while providing faster Time to Market and better maintainability. Obviously NGOSS is a recommended standard where the systems need to highly interoperable.

More information about the NGOSS can be obtained from the TMF web site @ - https://www.tmforum.org/

--Sanket