GTE gets a guardian angel

What Hewlett-Packard Co. started to develop four years ago as a way for carriers to get a better idea of what was happening in their networks has evolved into a multifaceted network management system called acceSS7. New features and uses are being added regularly.

How interested are carriers in such a tool? GTE recently announced that it would deploy the system across 14 regional sites- about one-third of its network. "In the limited time since we installed it, we've seen tremendous improvement in the way we see our network," said Rod Overlander, director of billing operations for GTE wholesale markets.

The hardware and software system that HP refers to as a "guardian angel" is made up of probing devices connected to every SS7 link in a network. Specific call and traffic information is extracted and then can be used in a variety of monitoring applications developed by HP.

"It has a broad base of capabilities," said Andy Belcher, general manager of HP's telecom systems division, based in Queensferry, Scotland. "In real time you can look at traffic throughout your network and see where the hot spots are."

The things acceSS7 allows a network operator to "see" in a network include fraud as it happens; information about network health independent of switches; and real-time problems, which operators can then correct before outages occur. The system also uses the extracted network information to provide applications such as a link status monitor, a traffic monitor, call tracing, protocol analysis, an alarm manager and data and statistics storing. An additional application collects message and call-based data that operators can use to bill other service providers for interconnection and use of their networks.

"Now they can bill for things they weren't able to before," Belcher said.

The system's newest application, Business Intelligence, was introduced in June. This feature allows operators to actually interpret and analyze the information extracted from the SS7 links to configure and plan their networks.

"The real driver was to make even more use of the SS7 data-to use the same data in new ways," said Paul Gowans, product manager for Business Intelligence.

With the growth of the Internet and with deregulation, it is particularly important to see specific traffic information, he said. "If you look at the network and see a large amount of Internet congestion, and you can see where it is and by whom, you can move traffic to a different band and put the necessary trunks in place," he said.

And because carriers can now see where calls are being terminated, they will be able to generate additional revenue, he added.

GTE's Overlander agreed: "We can use the acceSS7 information for a number of enhanced services. We can get local number portability information. It also gives you the ability to move from a flat rate to usage-based charges."

Several things attracted GTE to the system, he said. "Because of the sheer size of our SS7 network, we wanted a more diverse tool for monitoring."

The ability to see fraud as it happens is very powerful, and the Business Intelligence feature was also attractive, he added. "We will attempt to use it as a cost management tool," he said. "We'll attempt to use the data for interconnection negotiations and to speed up the time it takes to validate [competitive local exchange carrier] access bills."

Although neither company would disclose the cost of the deployment, Belcher said it was a multimillion-dollar deal. Other carriers-including Bell Atlantic, Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and U S West-use acceSS7 in places, although GTE's is one of the more substantial deployments, he said.

Ameritech will announce today that it also will deploy acceSS7 to perform network surveillance and SS7 usage measurements for billing, and to ensure successful deployment of its intelligent network services.