Generation nextwork

As companies solidify their plans for Supercomm '99 in Atlanta, three themes become readily apparent among software manufacturers: the next generation network, operations support system interconnection and customer care.

The next generation network-that oft-used marketing phrase-will once again take a front seat. Most of the software demonstrations on display will show either how to create the next generation network by connecting the public switched network with the Internet, or how to manage that same network.

On the OSS front, many of the developers will be announcing strategic partnerships and new products that extend their current interconnection abilities. There's also speculation that a number of Supercomm announcements will reveal increased cooperation among the incumbents and competitive local exchange carriers.

Finally, customer care will be a hot topic spreading across a number of categories as software manufacturers line up to help carriers attract new customers or keep current customers. Billing companies, data warehousing manufacturers and new Web-based software packages are all angling to help carriers differentiate themselves from their competitors through customer relationship management.

Advancing the AIN Like last year, Sun Microsystem Inc. will use Supercomm as a stage to announce initiatives for Java in Advanced Intelligent Networks. The company plans to demonstrate new applications to customers and additional service providers that are working with JAIN. Prior to the show, Sun will release its TCAP 1.0 specification for JAIN on its Web site.

"We've seen lots of progress from last year. This year, we will be demonstrating the complex combination of [Internet protocol] and [intelligent network] services," said Paul Tempell-Mitchell, manager of solutions architecture worldwide telecommunications computer systems at Sun.

Sun is also developing a new telco platform based on its Compaq PCI and Netra family of products. The company plans to demonstrate the platform's network management capabilities during the show.

Alcatel will demonstrate its Intelligent Networks Domain Name Server, which enables companies to rapidly add services such as charging premiums for preferred service. "The idea for the application is to allow carriers to charge more for prime time hits," said Stuart Rosenfield, senior director of product marketing and business development intelligent networks at Alcatel.

Lucent Technologies will demonstrate three new services: TelePortal, Internet Call Control Management and NextGen NetPortal. TelePortal allows service providers to offer personalized interactive voice response services. Internet Call Control Management enables business users to manage features such as call screening/redirect, call log and directory dialing using Lucent software that interfaces with a Web browser. NextGen NetPortal enables subscribers to log onto IP networks and gain access to services regardless of their location or what computer or phone they are using.

"We're taking the bread-and-butter [intelligent network] services and bridging them into the IP network," said Jack Kozik, intelligent network architecture director at Lucent. "Bridging the [intelligent network] services we have written has lots of value for next generation operators. We're looking forward to the day when wireline, wireless and Internet are connected, and we're looking to develop services for that next generation network."

An eye on the customer A number of start-up companies will be breaking into the customer care arena with Web-based applications and data warehousing tools. One of the better known exhibitors, NCR, will demonstrate a suite of four applications for defining and maintaining marketing campaigns.

The underpin for these applications is NCR's Teradata Warehouse and logical data model for the communication industry, both of which are tuned to help sales and marketing staff retain, develop and acquire customers.

"We will also have materials on InteractionPlus, which is channel integration and personalization software that enables a business to connect the call center to the intelligence enabled by a teradata warehouse," said Yancy Oshita, director of communications industry marketing at NCR.

Another well-known company showcasing customer care software is Microsoft, which will demonstrate solutions for delivering and managing the next generation of network services, including IP communications, broadband services, wireless data services, and a range of commercial hosting services. The booth will feature more than a dozen solutions from its partners for these and other high-growth areas.

Microsoft will also demo customer self-service capabilities, enabled by Microsoft's Active OSS architecture, in which end users are given the ability to directly provision and control existing telecommunications services on a live network, access new service capabilities, and get real-time billing and customer service updates.

Within the local number portability realm, telecom technologies inc. will demonstrate its suite of local number portability products and services that includes the NPLink Local Service Management System, NPLink Service Order Administrator and e.Mediate.

The NPLink LSMS receives downloads from the Number Portability Administration Center and communicates them to network elements. It can communicate with any CORBA-compliant application, and its architecture enables rapid deployment of number pooling and wireless portability.

The NPLink SOA allows carriers to manage subscription version data, network data and service provider data. The SOA interface can be used to set filters and request reports and audits from the NPAC.

e.Mediate is a Web-based service bureau that enables ported number requests to be communicated instantly between local service providers. It automates the complex process of accepting a new customer order, notifying the customer's former carrier and completing the transaction with a firm order commitment.

When telecom technologies' tools are used together, the process of number portability becomes fully automated and reduces the opportunity for clerical error.

Network management and OSS solutions Clear Communications will demonstrate its Clearview CircuitView, which is designed for fault isolation. They will also feature its EarlyWarning solution for predictive analysis and problem identification, and its ReportCard for collecting network performance information.

Clear will have a remote access device connection on display to show how end users can access network management information from their service providers anytime, anywhere. Finally, Clear will offer a graphic look at its strategy on total service assurance through Clearview NetworkWindow. This tool is designed to help service providers prevent telco outages and enable them to meet or exceed the terms of their service level agreements.

Other service-level software will be on display at Micromuse's booth. Micromuse and Applied Innovation Inc., a supplier of mediation products, will announce the successful integration of its Micromuse's Netcool software suite with Applied Innovations' AIspy contact and analog alarm monitoring system. The integration will help carriers reduce costs and improve service levels by streamlining the process of managing diverse network elements and OSSs under a single graphical user interface.

TCSI Corp. will demonstrate its new, yet unnamed network management software designed for next generation networks. The prepackaged software includes an integrated set of frameworks and services that allows carriers to rapidly deploy element management system and network management system solutions.

Eftia will showcase its Master.Scribe Suite of telecom OSS products, including the new OSS gateway product, Trans.Scribe InterConnect Gateway. Master.Scribe is designed to deliver zero time to market.

InConcert Inc. will emphasize compatibility and partnerships by demonstrating its OSS solution in Sun's and BEA Systems' booths. InConcert's Teoss 2000 enables business applications to be integrated into an operational infrastructure that can synchronize with existing systems and adapt to changing market or organizational conditions.

"We're illustrating the value proposition of InConcert in relation to the other pieces of the OSS puzzle such as BEA's middleware capabilities," said Jeremy Davis, president and CEO of InConcert.

InConcert's process management solutions enable users to capture, execute, manage and monitor their complex business processes. Features include the ability to integrate legacy systems and business applications.

Inconcert will also participate in BEA Systems' eLink demo. eLink is an integration solution that lets enterprise applications communicate seamlessly. It includes BEA Tuxedo and TSI Inc.'s Soft Mercator. "BEA is selling e.link and also entering an agreement with Hewlett-Packard, who will help sell eLink. We specifically chose to go with partners that show linkages between us and other applications," Davis said.

MetaSolv Software Inc. will host an Alliance Pavilion that features 10 alliance partners. The pavilion is designed to provide a venue for alliances to demonstrate and discuss the benefits of best-of-breed integrated solutions. In addition, MetaSolv will showcase its Telecom Business Solution, which is expected to be released during the third quarter of 1999. The new version will feature enhancements to the service provisioning subsystem.

PulsePoint will make announcements regarding new enhanced services for its platform and its relationship with Microsoft. PulsePoint's Enhanced Applications Platform, based on Windows NT, allows for rapid development of hardware and applications. The company will demonstrate its RACE (Rapid Application Creation Environment) development tools and Web-based operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning in Microsoft's booth.

Castle Networks will announce an element management system for the C2100 Services Mediation Platform, the CastleSentry. The product's software mediates between traditional and emerging network management and back office systems, including billing, provisioning, traffic engineering and fault management.

Quintessent will announce two or three new products during Supercomm. "These announcements will complete our suite of applications that are critical for OSS interconnection automation," said Dale Quick, chief operating officer at Quintessent. "We'll also be announcing new interfaces to different [incumbent local exchange carriers] for different functionalities and one major business partner-an integration services partner that will be doing a lot of the implementation of our product. Attendees will be able to see for the first time all of the core applications necessary for integration to external trading partners included in a single platform."

Another OSS manufacturer, Turnstone Systems, will highlight its Copper CrossConnect CX100, a comprehensive platform for managing copper local loop facilities designed to accommodate the needs of digital subscriber line (DSL) service providers. The system features remote DSL loop qualification and testing, automated cross-connecting of copper facilities, and tools to aid installation.

In addition, Turnstone will demonstrate new software products that work with service providers' back office systems to further automate provisioning, installation and maintenance of DSL services. These new products complement Turnstone's CrossView Web-based management software and its CrossScope spectral analysis software.

SS7 and TMN Within the SS7 software realm, Alcatel will demonstrate its INfusion STP platform, which offers SS7 signaling over IP to connect to other network devices for quick call completion service implementation.

"We're excited about the application because there are lots of proprietary solutions out there, but we're deploying a standards-based, flexible solution," said Paul Nevill, director of STP marketing at Alcatel.

Bridgewater Systems Corp. is launching a carrier-class intelligent software system optimized for the convergence of public switched and IP networks. The SS7-IP Service Point combines SS7, Radius, policy management, dynamic profiling and virtual nodes. Its policy management system uses customer profiles, service logic and dynamic network information to intelligently handle and route Internet traffic. The SS7-IP Service Point technology functions similarly to service control points in voice networks but in the Internet space.

In TMN news, Vertel will demonstrate its mediation solutions, which are built on a mediation infrastructure using Vertel tools and platforms. Vertel's mediation solutions use a modular component-based architecture, built on Vertel's TMNTelecore platform, extended into a generic mediation framework.

The framework is designed to maximize reusability and expedite deployment. OSS interfaces-those that manage and those that are being managed-are all mediated into a lightweight, normalized form that is easily distributed around the mediation framework core. This allows work invested in integrating an OSS or network element to be reusable. The solution can be extended to new OSS or network element components with only incremental work.

Planning and modeling tools ILOG will exhibit its new visualization components, ILOG TGO (Telecom Graphic Objects) and ILOG JTGO (TGO for Java), which let developers create advanced interfaces.

ILOG will also demonstrate its ILOG Views and ILOG JViews-graphic components of rich, sophisticated visualization capabilities. In addition, they will present optimization and control components such as ILOG Rules and ILOG JRules that are widely used for alarm filtering and correlation as well as service operations and customer care.

SAP America Inc. will roll out its Telecommunication Solution Map Edition '99 that delivers detailed information about current and planned functionality in SAP R/3, SAP New Dimension products and SAP partner products. This planning tool can help companies visualize, plan and implement comprehensive, integrated solutions with actual product plans to help them make enterprise IT investment decisions.

SAP will also highlight its network element logistics, which enables companies to improve the return on their network investment, and mass contract accounting, which automates the processing of large volumes of documents and transactions.