IP RAN O&M Solution

With the development of IP RAN networks, IP RAN O&M plays an increasingly important role. As traditional O&M can't satisfy the demands of existing IP RAN networks, operators are paying much attention to optimize O&M.

The challenges of IP RAN O&M

IP RAN O&M faces the following challenges.
● A large number of access devices caused inconvenience to remote debugging. In the IP RAN, a lot of access devices require fast commissioning. They are located on the base station (BS) side in a distributed manner, so the O&M personnel are technically demanding and the manual O&M is costly.
● Weak management of end-to-end services. The end-to-end O&M capability of traditional IP networks is poor, and services at the Layer 2 and Layer 3 can't be fast provisioned.  When protection switching occurs, the topology change cannot be displayed in real time.
● Difficult to monitor and locate. Actual network paths are unknown and faults can't be located for lack of visible O&M measures. It is difficult to diagnose a mass of network and service alarms, and monitor key services in real time.
● Limited methods to evaluate network. There are few visual performance evaluation methods in the IP RAN. The performance monitoring of routine network management software can't meet the comprehensive evaluation requirements, so IP RAN needs to provide quality monitoring software that monitors networks in real time and for a long term and to display complete evalution results through visual and multidimensional views.
● Lack of automatic traffic analysis. The IP RAN carries mobile BS services, VIP services, and other high-value services, which set high requirements for network QoS and guarantee as well as resource coordination and planning. Therefore, an O&M solution with automatic monitoring and analysis capability is required in the IP RAN.

The Introduction of IP RAN O&M

To overcome O&M challenges in the IP RAN, ZTE proposed an integrated solution based on its  rich O&M experience.

 
As shown in Fig. 1,  ZTE's IP RAN O&M includes NetNumenTM U31, ZXDNA, TIM400, and Easymanager. They interconnect with the IP RAN through southbound interface (SBI). Meanwhile, the northbound interface (NBI) can be interconnected to the upper-layer OSS.
● NetNumen U31. As a network management system, it has multi-functions on the EML and NML layers. It also supports NE monitoring management, network commissioning planning, and end-to-end O&M.
● ZXDNA. As a deep network analysis system, it not only monitors and analyzes traffic of the IP RAN, but also detects and evaluates network quality of the RFC 2544/TWAMP-based IP RAN.
● TIM400. As an end-to-end network evaluation system, it monitors end-to-end operational status and evaluates health condition of services.
● EasyManager. As an NE maintenance tool, it evaluates NE operation health and upgrades NE in batch. 

The Highlights of IP RAN O&M

ZTE's IP RAN O&M has five core values. 

Plannable Commissioning and Deployment

To enhance the deployment and implement DCN auto discovery, the remote access NEs are plug and play. NEs are pre-deployed offline. Once these NEs go online, configurations are automatically distributed after inspections. This ensures security and reliability.
During the commissioning and planning stage, the basic data of NEs can be automatically configured in batch through a self-defined commissioning template without configuring ports VLANs or basic routes. The scripts of the commissioning template are readable and user-defined, which is conducive  to implementing flexible on-site customization and improving data configuration efficiency.  

Manageable Service O&M

A unified service management view can be used to configure services.
● The end-to-end deployment is supported at three layers: basic configuration, tunnel configuration, and service path configuration. During the service path deployment, the protection, O&M detection, and QoS can be deployed at the same time.
● The GUI related to VLANs, IP addresses, interfaces, and dynamic protocols is applied in the device interface/dynamic protocol configuration, and batch configurations are supported.
● The tunnel end-to-end configuration is applied to dynamic and static tunnels and the explicit path configuration is applied to PWs. For any-to-any MPLS tunnels, the tunnel paths can be displayed, the LSP protection can be supported, and the BFD detection can be conducted for tunnels and PWS.
● The MPLS L2VPN, L3VPN, and H-L3VPN can be end-to-end deployed. In addition, VPN FRR, IP FRR and VRRP services can be protected, and the MPLS O&M and service QoS can be deployed at the same time.

Traceable Network Monitoring

An advanced graphical algorithm is used to display network paths. The physical network topology view, service path topology view, clock source view, optical power view, and resource view are provided.
● The physical network topology view displays physical connections and network topology, and supports layered topologies.
● The service path topology view displays a complete topology of each service and supports service-related O&M. It can monitor the operational status of key services and detect service connectivity.
● The clock source view displays transmission paths of synchronous Ethernet and 1588 clock.
● The optical power view displays the optical power status of networks, and the current optical power of links in the topology. Moreover, it supports the thresholds monitoring.
● The resource view counts and displays network resources. It displays network bandwidth resources, CPU and memory usage, and monitors the network status in real time.  

Evaluable Network Status

The ZXDNA service quality management (SQM) module is deployed together with built-in and external probes in ZTE's IP RAN network. ZXDNA can initiate TWAMP and RFC 2544
(measurement protocols) as needed, and monitor time delay, jitter, packet loss ratio, and link throughput in real time, so that network deterioration and faults can be discovered timely.
What's more, ZXDNA can initiate a long-time online measurement for TWAMP to monitor and analyze network quality. Therefore, services can be transmitted rapidly in the IP RAN, deterioration risks can be perceived in advance, and user experience can be improved.

Analyzable Service Traffic

With the automatic network traffic analysis, ZXDNA enables operators to understand the current status and development trends in multiple dimensions and from multiple perspectives. By monitoring and analyzing network traffic, ZXDNA helps operators optimize, plan and construct IP RAN networks.
In view of instantaneity and burstiness of hot network events, ZXDNA is equipped with the real-time traffic monitoring function, so operators can deal with hot events in real time and ensure a stable and reliable network performance.
Moreover, ZXDNA constructs network traffic operation archives to analyze network traffic models and resource load features, which provide data supports for formulating O&M solutions. 

Conclusion

ZTE's IP RAN O&M is a customized resolution to address actual O&M difficulties in IP RAN networks. It supports network commissioning, deployment, O&M and monitoring, and provides effective means to network performance evaluation and traffic analysis.