Manage and monitor LTE with IBM Tivoli Netcool solutions

IBM Tivoli Netcool solutions

Contents

2 Introduction

2 LTE complexities pose big questions for providers

4 A new paradigm for data in an LTE world

6 IBM Tivoli OMNIbus and Network Manager

7 IBM Tivoli Netcool Performance Manager

7 IBM Tivoli Netcool Configuration Manager

7 IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager

7 Meet the LTE challenges of today—and tomorrow— with IBM

7 For more information

7 About Tivoli software from IBM

Introduction

Around the world, communication service providers (CSPs) are answering the call from data-hungry consumers and upgrading their 3G networks to a new wireless standard called 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE). The benefits of this emerging technol-ogy are well-known. LTE offers far more bandwidth, reduced latency and a better overall customer experience while opening up lucrative new growth opportunities for service providers. This transition comes as the exploding popularity of smart phones, tablets and other devices transforms how consumers use digital media and communicate with each other. Meanwhile, revenues for cellular voice services are declining. Gone are the days where people use their phones solely for talking or texting. Instead, consumers are watching television, playing online games and using other media-rich functions that consume large amounts of network bandwidth.

LTE is well-suited to fill this demand because it is both flat and distributed with an all-IP architecture where there is no longer a circuit switch domain for dedicated voice bearer support. LTE transmission speeds, meanwhile, are orders of magnitude faster, with theoretical download speeds of 100 megabits per second and uploads of 50 megabits per second.

The number of users for these services is expected to continue growing as innovative new applications and services arise from the inherent advantages of LTE networks—with an estimated 136 million LTE subscribers anticipated worldwide by 2014.* The massive uptick in bandwidth consumption is a major reason why CSPs are upgrading their networks from older 2G/3G systems to LTE.

LTE complexities pose big questions for

providers

The transition from 3G to LTE creates some serious challenges for CSPs. Because of the relatively fixed, static nature of 3G, diagnosing and fixing network problems was a fairly determinis-tic process. That’s not the case with LTE, where connections are not derived based on hierarchy, but defined based on net-work requirements. The dynamic nature of LTE means CSP operators have a much more complicated time of visualizing network topologies and finding the problems that really matter. In an LTE world, it’s far less clear if a network problem will actually affect service, and it’s harder to tell where the problem is actually occurring. Outages in LTE networks often result in a large number of events from the many devices on the network. But it’s hard for CSPs to know what these events mean, if any-thing, in the context of their overall quality of service.

LTE represents a new era in data management, where complex service value chains and the multi-domain infrastructure over-burden data management systems and require much more scala-bility and flexiscala-bility in order to shorten data process cycles. The greater flexibility of LTE networks makes them inherently more complicated. LTE networks generate far more fault events than 3G networks.

What if there was a way to separate the truly critical information from the cacophony of meaningless data noise? What if you could quickly scan and visualize your LTE network topologies in order to rapidly identify and fix problems? What if you had tools that could accommodate the rapid speed, accessibility and service availability that CSPs and their customers expect today?

IBM®Tivoli®Netcool®4G LTE solutions can help. With these leading software offerings for the monitoring and manage-ment of critical services, applications and network-based systems, you can:

● Understand and gain control of service health with solutions

designed specifically for communications service providers.

● Avoid connectivity issues, manage network performance end to

end and better maintain service level agreements (SLAs).

● Provide the visualization necessary to understand the service

quality that is being delivered to consumers and enterprises.

A new paradigm for data in an LTE world

Data storage and management are already major concerns for CSPs using 3G networks, which generate terabytes of event data that must be captured, stored and analyzed. Because the amount of event data generated over LTE networks is potentially greater, this has to change before it becomes unmanageable. Tivoli Netcool solutions provide a new, smarter model for event data collection that gathers and analyzes only relevant data streams instead of collecting everything.

Because IBM solutions understand the topology of LTE net-works, you can diagnose and reduce the flood of messages to aid in troubleshooting. IBM solutions can see the dependencies and relationships among the myriad devices in an LTE environment, enabling you to discern which details from this complex web really need to be tracked—and which can be ignored. The result is an authoritative picture of your LTE network.

IBM solutions take the management and monitoring of your LTE network a step further with predictive analytics. This automated capability reduces effort and costs by continuously collecting and analyzing metrics about your network—including the cause-and-effect relationships between devices on the network—for rapid fault detection and remediation of the root cause of performance problems.

Let’s examine some of the most significant operational chal-lenges CSPs face with LTE networks.

Constant connectivity. More than any other challenge, communications providers have made it clear that avoiding con-nectivity issues is their biggest priority in preventing customer churn, lost revenues and a damaged reputation. With features such as trend analysis, root-cause analysis (RCA), retainability, accessibility and connection monitoring to better understand connection failure conditions, Tivoli Netcool solutions can help CSPs maintain reliable connectivity.

Maximized throughput. As networks diversify and consumers increasingly move toward data-intensive, web-based applications, the possible points of failure become more numerous.

Maintaining a high peak rate and low latency is essential in reducing service drops and delays. To accomplish this, network operators must be able to manage network performance end to end. You can use Tivoli Netcool solutions to monitor for bottle-necks at each node and run capacity planning reports to enable you to adjust network capacity as needed, helping you to better maintain SLAs.

Backward compatibility. Just as important as high network performance for LTE technology is the ability to ensure a trans-parent user experience across 2G/3G technologies and LTE. Inter-radio access technology (RAT) will be a key part of LTE rollout to ensure success for service providers in this key area. Tivoli Netcool solutions can help CSPs optimize network coverage, capacity and quality by providing seamless mobility and interdomain performance validation to manage service performance and the customer experience across the service infrastructure, helping to ensure that all systems are operating as expected

Node health. Consistent, reliable network performance is criti-cal in reducing customer churn. Tivoli Netcool solutions enable you to monitor node metrics and even drill down to understand how each node is affecting network performance, helping to speed problem determination and resolution. In a diverse com-munications network, performance degradations sometimes originate within third-party nodes. Tivoli Netcool solutions help network operators ensure they are meeting SLAs, produce reports on third-party nodes and use eNodeB sharing to opti-mize network capacity and performance.

Performance monitoring. Understanding and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical as service providers con-tinually strive to meet internal and external service-level com-mitments and goals. Yet the challenge here is to ensure overall network health and quality in a multivendor and multitechnol-ogy environment. Tivoli Netcool solutions deliver the ability to track vendor-specific KPIs, so network operators can more easily pinpoint—and more quickly repair—the source of service performance issues.

An LTE solution to meet every need

More than 1,000 service providers have selected Tivoli Netcool to ensure that their most critical services are performing to the highest standards. In fact, IBM is the worldwide leader in the

communications service provider software market, including being the leader in fault and event management and perform-ance monitoring.

IBM has made a substantial investment in understanding LTE in order to model the service. The results are solutions that are more than just a bag of collected metrics–they convey a deep understanding of how those metrics depend on and relate to one another in making up the service. This helps CSPs to collect key quality indicators more often for clear and quick indications of overall service.

LTE/SAE Monitoring Scope

LTE/eUTRAN

Backhaul/Backbone

System Architecture Evolution Evolved Packet Core

IP channel

eNode B

3G – UTRAN 3G – Backhaul

Cell Site Aggregation

Microwave

Fiber

Copper

Internet

S/PGW

All-IP Evolved Packet Core

MME PCRF

2G/3G

End to End

Tivoli Netcool solutions manage the performance of the service provider communications network, including the LTE/eUTRAN, the IP backhaul/backbone, SAE/EPC and end to end.

Here is a look at some of the IBM Tivoli Netcool solutions available for the management of 4G LTE networks:

IBM Tivoli OMNIbus and Network

Manager

This offering provides real-time network discovery, network monitoring and event management for LTE network environ-ments. It increases availability and performance of critical

business services and infrastructure by providing a single consoli-dated operations management solution for a wide range of complex environments. The software can reduce the time typically required to resolve network problems through enhanced network visualization and root-cause analysis— improving network availability and lowering operational costs.

IBM Tivoli Netcool Performance Manager

This bundled performance management offering enables CSPs to address the needs and challenges of both fixed and mobile networks. With this solution, you can obtain the network performance visibility needed to help minimize service degrada-tions, disruptions and trouble-shooting time, as well as reducing operational costs and boosting operational efficiencies by consolidating performance management systems and enabling proactive problem identification.

IBM Tivoli Netcool Configuration Manager

With this solution, you can automate network configuration management tasks, control network device access and help ensure network policy compliance. Network operators and administrators can automate routine network configuration management tasks, enhance network security by controlling access by users, devices and commands, and maintain reliable access to the real-time state of the network.

IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality

Manager

This offering combines service quality management (SQM) and SLA management to optimize telecommunications service quality. The solution’s real-time, end-to-end view of a service helps CSPs understand service quality from the customer’s per-spective. It includes comprehensive data collection capabilities and extensive preestablished service models with full KQI/KPI mapping and reporting.

Meet the LTE challenges of today—and

tomorrow—with IBM

To remain successful in today’s marketplace, communication service providers must maintain service performance while anticipating the next generation of communications technology. Through an all-IP network, LTE enables you to leverage better capacity and performance, faster deployment of service offerings and scalability to enable a world of opportunities for increased revenues.

CSPs that are in early trials and testing for LTE technology can look to IBM for the broadest portfolio of service assurance solu-tions available and for depth of experience based on thousands of customer engagements around the globe. LTE can open the door to increased performance, additional revenue streams and a foothold in the highly competitive and ever-evolving communi-cations landscape.

For more information

To learn more about IBM Tivoli Netcool solutions, contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/netcool-LTE

About Tivoli software from IBM

Tivoli software from IBM helps organizations efficiently and effectively manage IT resources, tasks and processes to meet ever-shifting business requirements and deliver flexible and responsive IT service management, while helping to reduce costs. The Tivoli portfolio spans software for security, compli-ance, storage, performcompli-ance, availability, configuration, operations and IT lifecycle management, and is backed by world-class IBM services, support and research.

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*_{“LTE to Reach 100 Million Subscriptions Faster than Any Previous Mobile} Standard, finds Pyramid Research,” Pyramid Research, May 18, 2009.

http://www.pyr.com/pr_prlist/PR051809_ING1.1.htm