The TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) has released the first specification from the members of its Co-operative OSS Project (CO-OP), designed to streamline mobile network operation through the simplified integration of multiple vendor network management systems (NMS).
The initial nine members of the CO-OP — Alcatel, Ericsson, Huawei, Lucent, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel and Siemens — are collaborating to attempt to reduce the complexity of provisioning NMS by defining a common approach with the goal of reducing time-to-market and operational costs for service providers.
The CO-OP specification details recommendations following two laboratory trials to illustrate two Phase One CO-OP work areas in practice — network cell border alignment known as “Cell Adjacency Management” and the definition of and correlation of underlying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from these networks.
The TMF wants the specification to be adopted as a standard for, in the first instance, the optimisation of the hand-off of subscribers between adjacent network cells and, secondly, the set of metrics that will promote best practice in this activity.
“We have made very rapid and constructive progress during the first six months of this project, which will improve the ease of operation and integration of the multiple vendor networks of service providers,” said Juha Lipiäinen, Chairman of the CO-OP Steering Council. “The CO-OP is also enabling service providers to maximise the value of their existing investment in network management systems as our concepts are implemented,” he continued.
In the Cell Adjacency Management demonstration, neighbouring cell data, such as handover parameters from Ericsson and Nokia radio networks, is extracted; this data is compared, and corrective actions to parameter settings is proposed to optimise network performance.
Similarly, in the KPI demonstration, the common metrics from Motorola and Siemens 3G networks, and Nokia 2G networks are extracted and harmonised, and a common and comprehensive report is then produced showing the network status to the service provider.Â
 Shira Levine, Senior Research Analyst with Stratecast Partners’ OSS Competitive Strategies practice, said “As wireless operators face the implementation of multi-vendor networks, increased network traffic, operator consolidation and next-generation services, reducing the integration tax between OSSs has become a priority.”
