Network with a view, Newbridge, Siemens broaden customer control

A new series of products from Newbridge Networks and Siemens AG will allow carrier customers to manage their frame relay and asynchronous transfer mode virtual networks using an approach that will mirror their "virtual" nature.

This family of products enables the customer to view specific networks instead of the overall network view that current customer network management platforms offer.

"It's a much more focused view of the customer's network, and it's a view that doesn't require the [network manager] to have to combine views," said Paul Langmayer, associate vice president of product marketing at Newbridge. "The idea is to present a view of the network that's put together the same way the customer's network is put together.

The new products - the MainStreetXpress Customer Service Management suite for Web and simple network management protocol (SNMP)-based customer network management, and the MainStreetXpress 48020 MultiNetwork Service Controller for end-to-end provisioning across multiple network and service provider boundaries - are targeted at extending the view of customer networks across private-line, ATM and frame relay networks.

The series uses the virtual service network capabilities of the MainStreetXpress 46020 Network Manager to provide a secure, manageable view of customers' entire networks, "regardless of where they may intersect the clouds of any one individual carrier," said John Shaw, associate vice president of product marketing at Newbridge. "It's a much more realistic way of visualizing the network from the customer's point of view.

Instead of overloading customers with network information, the MainStreetXpress uses virtual service network technology to partition the customer's view of the network, providing a simplified view of only the elements that concern the customer's operations.

"Most management environments today focus on a collection strategy," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., Voorhees, N.J. "This system is based on a digestion strategy, where the information that's presented to the user is really about what he's concerned with - his business."

This emphasis on the customer will be crucial if customer management is going to be successful, Nolle said. "It's important that vendors disconnect themselves from the idea of 'box' management, or device management, when it comes to customer network management," said Nolle. "Boxes mean nothing to the customer who's using a virtual network.

The strength of the Newbridge/Siemens solution is that it provides a view not of "the entire network infrastructure but of just the portion of the network the customer has purchased," said Nolle.

The system will also allow customers to view virtual networks as they cross the boundaries between carriers, a capability that will increase as competition expands.

"Globalization and the wholesale-retail model for telecommunications service has made the old view of services as a service from a single carrier obsolete," said Langmayer. "The customer service management suite for the Web will open up the view of these virtual networks to provide a true end-to-end view rather than views of parts of a virtual network as they're contained within each carrier's cloud.

Although this capability is not critically important now, regional carriers that want to provide long-haul services for virtual network services currently must partner with other carriers for regulatory reasons. "For customers with broad geographic bases, that makes a seamless management interface an important tool," said Nolle.

The new products include a Web-based software suite for SNMP-based customer network management and a multinetwork service coordinator for end-to-end provisioning across multiple network boundaries.