Internal issues take priority

Software vendors will use Supercomm to showcase their latest attempts to hit the moving target of a constantly changing market.

Some goals-high performance, ease of use and simplicity of management-don't change much from year to year. But the software vendors hope to relieve the pressures of an emerging competitive marketplace with unique approaches.

Microsoft Corp. won't be introducing any of its own products in Atlanta, but it will try to show how its Windows NT operating system is gaining a greater foothold in the telecommunications environment.

"We'll be there at the booths of several of our customers," says Jonathan Usher, telecommunications marketing manager at Microsoft. "NT is making continued inroads, and the presence of these customers at the show speaks to that fact."

Sun Microsystems will announce a new server, the Netra t 1120, designed to address the computing platform needs of the telco industry while meeting the packaging and environmental requirements of the central office. Telcos need to develop and deploy applications on the same computing platform without software modifications, and Sun will address this issue with the Netra server, which is Bellcore Level 3 NEBS-certified.

Issues concerning local number portability (LNP) will also be addressed at Supercomm. Ericsson will showcase its advanced database services products, including products for LNP, calling name delivery and 800 service. The LNP solution will be built around the NI/Node, a unit that combines the database function of the service control point with the routing availability of the signal transfer point into a single platform. This unified approach will give the system a flexible service logic that simplifies deployment, management and database updates.

Intelligent management IMCI Technologies will tackle automated facility management with a system designed to monitor and administer communications facilities such as COs, cable installations and security systems. The implementation, called Open-i AFM, wraps a system of total remote visibility around existing network elements and allows these devices to be controlled remotely on a single terminal in the network operations center (Figure 1).

The system lets managers remotely monitor and control network devices, as well as other CO hardware such as air-conditioning units, lighting and generators.

IMCI's solution is based on three components: the Open-i System device that resides in the field, a configuration tool and the network management system. The network management system is based on a graphical user interface designed to run on top of Hewlett-Packard's OpenView.

Oracom will introduce another type of monitoring device. Its Element Manager products are low-cost network management nodes and proxy agents that connect to communications equipment for out-of-band network management. The devices poll local serial and local area network connections, compare values and contact the network's operation support system (OSS) when thresholds are exceeded.

The managers also can perform as site management hosts, providing detailed graphical displays of device conditions, pass-through serial port access of the equipment and a Web browser interface for remote troubleshooting of connected devices. Once installed in the field, the managers can be configured remotely through the OSS.

ONE plans to release Foundation 303, which will enable carriers to develop CMIP/GDMO management applications for remote digital terminal equipment in digital loop carrier networks, as outlined in Bellcore's TR-303 specification.

The benefit of TR-303 implementation is that it concentrates subscriber traffic over a few digital lines to a CO switch. The specification permits some management functions, including subscriber port status monitoring, subscriber loop testing and special service provisioning, to be transferred to remote digital terminals that are closer to the subscriber.

ONE's development toolkit will be similar to its Foundation RAD toolkit, which was aimed at developing embedded CMIP/ GDMO agents for real-time environments.

General DataComm is introducing a slate of asynchronous transfer mode and frame relay access devices and termination products for broadband networks.

Chief among the company's announcements will be the AT-1000 ATM network terminating unit, which will let network providers and their customers control and monitor end-to-end ATM network connections.

The units will help service providers meet quality-of-service guarantees and provide improved diagnostic capabilities and service stability to end users.

General DataComm also plans to unveil the MAC-100, -200 and -300 multiservice access concentrators at the show. The MAC-100 is a low-speed ATM access concentrator for applications such as Internet access. The MAC-200 and MAC-300 are multiservice access devices designed to concentrate LAN, IP, voice, frame relay and other protocols from branch offices onto a frame relay backbone.

Sequel Systems will offer service providers OSS support with the Wizard System, a flow-through software suite (Figure 2).

The system is an object-oriented, three-tiered client/server solution comprising seven modular subsystems: customer care, administration, inventory assignment, service activation, dispatch of technicians, work management and billing data. The modules can be used independently as integrated parts of existing systems or as a whole system for start-to-finish management of the customer/carrier relationship.

The system's three-tier, thin-client model is more extendable than a two-tier architecture because of the loose coupling between the system's database and interface. Business rules and logic can be changed at the server layer without requiring significant maintenance of the system's client components, and the architecture provides improved flexibility for upgrading the system as a carrier's needs grow.

Focus on customer care Vendors also will be flocking to Atlanta to tout their billing and customer care wares. Kenan Systems will be showing its customer care, billing, order management and customer analysis software in EDS's booth. Kenan is broadening its scope to include the wireless market, broadband services and the Internet, and it will highlight the results of its February partnership with EDS.

Solect Technology Group will demonstrate its latest version of the Internet Administration Framework, an integrated customer care, service management and billing application. The system lets service providers view and manage account information through a Web browser, and the system's auto-registration feature lets customers activate services at their own request and use services immediately.

Sage Instruments will release a number of new test and measurement devices for new telecom technology. An automated digital echo test system for its 930 and 930A test sets will be useful to interexchange carriers that use digital echo cancelers in their trunked lines. The tool also can help a number of other technologies that suffer from echo problems.

The company will premiere its Automated Loop Test System, which carriers can use to determine if newly installed lines are ready for service. The system tests the lines' theoretical baud rate for fax, data and Internet traffic, making sure they can handle new technology.

For carriers that have written their own protocols, Sage is unveiling the protocol development tool, a programmable system that allows carriers to create protocol testing software to meet their unique needs. Sage also plans to release a channel rate predictor device and the 930I International test set.

Trillium Digital Systems Inc. will focus on component software. The company will demonstrate a Java Beans interface it developed for its SS7 software. As the popularity of Java increases, the ability to integrate Java applications with underlying technologies will be crucial in communications networks.

Trillium also will demonstrate its enhanced High-Performance ATM Signaling software, which the company announced last April and that has achieved the highest call rates in the industry-7200 calls per second. In addition, Trillium will announce its Intelligent Network Application Part software-which enables the intelligent network to work with underlying technologies-its Windows NT System Services Interface for porting applications into the Windows NT environment.