Monitoring the monitors, Tollgrade, Encompass systems ensure true network view

In the evolving competitive telecommunications environment, quality of service is taking on new status as a carrier tool to retain existing customers and entice new ones. As a result, a new generation of advanced remote testing devices are being installed throughout the nation's networks.

While these remote devices give managers a view of their networks that is unprecedented in its detail and timeliness, one weak link still remains: What happens when the problem is not with the network but with the testing device? A pair of companies with complementary products is attempting to strengthen this link by providing tools to monitor testing systems. Tollgrade Communications, a hardware vendor based in Cheswick, Pa., and Encompass Software, headquartered in Buford, Ga., are trying to address this issue with products that ensure the accuracy of remote monitoring equipment.

Tollgrade's TestDesk suite, which uses Encompass software, provides comprehensive support for screening test systems and allows testing results to be shared efficiently for customer service and training functions. The product suite includes WireChief, which verifies test system performance, performs database updates and recommends corrective actions automatically.

"WireChief lets service providers verify that alarms coming from network test equipment are real problems with the network and not failures in the test equipment," said Bob Collinson, principal of Encompass. "Those alarms may account for only 2% of the total number of alarms, but at $120 to $200 for each trip by the technicians in the trucks, that 2% adds up quickly.

The system conducts a series of transactions with the test system components and customer line record inventory systems such as the Loop Maintenance Operations System. This data enables the system to update test system databases continuously, automatically sample subscriber line testing at wire centers and isolate testing failures quickly. The system can automatically sort failures into appropriate "dispatch in," "dispatch out" and "further analysis" categories.

"The need for the telcos to guarantee service is greater than it's ever been, and they are relying on remote monitoring devices to give them a picture of what's going on at all times," said Chris Allison, chief executive officer of Tollgrade. "Should one of these devices fail, or should the copper pair that's delivering the data fail, or should a power outage affect a site, [the carrier] is blinded. In the past, with a monopoly or duopoly, that wasn't a problem. Now, it's a chance for a customer's service to be impaired, and that will lead to a lost customer. So now, there's a real economic driver for these systems.

Carriers that are reselling service are part of a different testing scenario. Testing unbundled loops is virtually impossible for competitive local exchange carriers, but their customers still demand predetermined levels of service.

To address this, Tollgrade introduced the Pathfinder test access system, which allows incumbents and CLECs alike to access the same customer lines.

"Pathfinder lets the incumbent telco utilize its existing test platform to remotely test unbundled lines, so the cost of specialized testing will be reduced," said Allison. "At the same time, Pathfinder will enable the co-located CLEC to use its own test system to access its leased lines.

By giving the CLECs a better view of the network, "they can make sure the network provider is giving them exactly what they're paying for and make sure their customers are getting what they're paying for," Allison said.

The Pathfinder system, which will be available at the end of the third quarter of 1997, can support multiple CLECs on a single system. It also supports testing local number portability applications.

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