Greater automation and standardisation are two of the main goals in the drive to improve operational costs and agility
A contract between Comarch and du covers resource inventory and catalogue, OSS auto-discovery and reconciliation, and OSS mediation. du is part of the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) and says the system is now operational, acting as its network’s core inventory.
The partnership aims to modernise the OSS to gain more agility and flexibility, incorporating infrastructure automation, asset management, and dynamic topology stitching of infrastructure and refresh in near real-time.
The Comarch solution consists of commercial off-the-shelf modules from Comarch’s OSS portfolio, part of its Resource Management designed to manage all kinds of logical and physical resources in the network environment.
Multi-vendor, multi-tech
Comarch’s multi-vendor, multi-technology inventory for du covers the RAN for 5G, 4G, 3G, and 2G, plus transport (SDM, WDM, IP), mobile and fixed core, fixed access (GPON, Ethernet) and passive components. Comarch recently added data centre management and virtualisation to the products.
The Resource Management is intended to improve operations by providing an overview of all the network elements and their configuration, the use of wizards, and the data collected during the migration and reconciliation process.
All this is enabled by reliable, dynamic datafrom live network elements and vendor-specific network management systems. The system will stay up to date because of annual improvements, Comarch says, to ensure the most recent vendor releases in the du ecosystem are supported and usable.
Expected benefits from the OSS overhaul include: saving money in network inventory and operation; synergy in tracking new assets; simplified planning processes and tools; shorter time to market; automating new network technology; better use of network resources; and streamlining the IT environment.
Power of data
However, according to Comarch, the main advantage is the reporting and analytical Business Intelligence (BI) Point. It enables the use of network resources, site development, and data quality to be measured and monitored, and past data from these areas to be reviewed,
“The successful implementation of this solution brings us closer to achieving du’s strategic vision of digital agility, reduces our time to market, and empowers us to deploy emerging technologies faster than ever before,” said Saleem Alblooshi, CTO at du.
Paweł Workiewicz, Head of Business Development Division APAC & MEA, commented, “Our comprehensive OSS portfolio allows us to provide du with modules that enable increased automation and standardization, and will support the customer in rolling out new technologies such as 5G and NFV, enhance their data synchronization and integrity, and reduce the costs of creating and operating the transport network.”