The view from above: Everyone's looking to power management as monitoring software and other management advances gain recognition

The power segment of the telecommunications industry lies well within the path of the vast domino effect triggered by the rise of competition. Nearly every element and function of carrier networks is stamped with some degree of competitive value and differentiation. Benchmarks for cost-effectiveness, performance and reliability are held up to every piece of network equipment, and anything that does not make the grade hampers carriers' ability to compete.

Consequently, carriers need to do more than merely deploy power equipment. Power outages and other events can disrupt network efficiency and, more importantly, can disrupt customer service. If that happens, carriers' reputations for reliability, which hold significant competitive value, can be wounded.

These reputations for reliability are no fluke. Over the years, the industry has become adept at planning for network power needs, deploying the right power systems for various network facilities and balancing power loads throughout networks. As networks have become larger, more complex and more distributed, previous standards have become more difficult to meet.

"The central office used to be one big entity with one big switch," says Barry Papermaster, vice president of strategic marketing at Best Power. "Today you've got cross-connects and all kinds of connectivity and test equipment in there. Some of it uses DC power, some of it uses AC power. There are more than 20,000 central offices in the U.S., and the top issue in all of them is maintaining reliability."

The industry has kept pace with some fairly recent power technology developments, such as line-interactive uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), off-line UPSs and other backup equipment. In fact, different kinds of UPSs have become very common in networks as distributed data networking, Internet routing and local area networks have shaped the access realm of the public network with an increased population of workstations, personal computers and peripherals.

The inherent intelligence of line-interactive UPSs has kept networks up and running even in dire circumstances. Recently, vendors have begun to develop pervasive and intelligent remote monitoring solutions, management software and broad power equipment management programs that help carriers raise the reliability bar to gain a competitive edge. "Monitoring of UPSs to provide important power quality data has become critical," says Wally O'Dell, president of Liebert Corp.

The move to software It was too easy in the past for carriers to shrug off powering problems if they wanted to. After all, power efficiency was only as consistent as the performance of the local power company's electrical power grid. Disruptions were bound to happen. Carriers were at the mercy of the non-discriminatory grid and simply looked like victims to their own customers.

Although outages and other problems have come to be accepted as part of the utility industry, ongoing changes in that industry are further eroding the confidence of telecommunications carriers and their customers. Utility industry deregulation has led to heavy operational cost-cutting, corporate takeovers and-in the minds of many-decreasing power quality.

"Power quality is going down dramatically at the utilities," says Papermaster. "In many cities, there is no longer excess capacity on the grid, and customers are seeing brown-outs and black-outs with increasing frequency."

Telecom carriers are among the victims of such events, but they should not accept them quietly. In fact, as the telecom industry moves through its own deregulation, carriers may be able to learn from the problems that power utilities have encountered. The main lesson may be one of taking responsibility and managing change-both expected and unexpected-in a way that does not adversely affect users. Whether or not carriers ultimately have control over every power surge or dip in their networks, they have to manage networks as if they do.

Because speed and intelligence have become key requirements, software-driven solutions have come to the fore. Current solutions include CD-ROM based software packages that monitor UPS functions and alarms, simple network management protocol (SNMP) interfaces that communicate management information over a standard protocol, and even Internet-based monitoring for power equipment.

"As power equipment vendors, we are not necessarily going to be driving management technology, but we must be able to support management of these products," says Ron Pitt, vice president of software development at Exide Electronics.

Indeed, developments in power management coincide with the growing recognition of the importance of management solutions in general.

The pyramid-like Telecommunications Management Network framework has become a popular icon in the industry, if not a fully adopted standard. In particular, competition has developed service management solutions, and network complexity has stirred new development in element management and the role of element managers in a broader network management plan. Solutions in power equipment management are part of the latter trend.

"Central offices and remote offices are very sophisticated now, with a lot of alarms and monitoring features on these different elements," says Papermaster.

CD-ROM based power management products were the first automated solutions to enter this realm. They can log ongoing power quality measurements to create a history of equipment performance. This can help carriers pinpoint problems more quickly and predict larger events before they happen. The CD-ROM based solutions also can display simple diagrams that rate active equipment status and intuitive function menus in a variety of languages for international carriers.

The most recent CD-ROM-based power management products are formatted for Windows 95, Windows NT, Unix, OS/2 and DOS. Most solutions also feature an automatic shut down function and interface cables for a wide variety of servers, workstations and routers that a UPS might power. "We still need to provide Internet access during power failures," says John Amaya, assistant manager of client services at Network Architects, an Internet service provider. "We rely on software to provide backup power management for nearly all our network equipment."

Network Architects uses Best Power's CheckUPS II power management suite on CD-ROM to manage all types of servers, routers and personal computers. In addition, it is important to consider cross-platform management, now that carriers have begun to deploy multiple vendors' UPS configurations. Multivendor management solutions are a direct response to carriers' desire to move away from deploying proprietary software and network hardware to open systems.

Open systems are also fueling interest in power management via SNMP, which was originally developed during the 1980s to provide comprehensive management communications for small network server configurations and computer networks.

SNMP adapters attach easily to power equipment to manage multiple pieces of equipment within a single office or distribute management throughout several offices. SNMP is widely accepted and can manage almost any type of equipment in nearly any type of network-hence the "simple" moniker. SNMP already prevails in many small networks and LANs, and SNMP-compliant systems have been deployed mostly in carriers' remote offices.

"Central offices and remote offices were traditionally voice centers, but things like frame relay boxes and [asynchronous transfer mode] boxes will bring in SNMP," says Best Power's Papermaster.

Stepping into the Web The general concept behind SNMP-managing distributed elements remotely-is an appealing idea that becomes even more viable when applied to an entire network of various power systems in various offices.

Operational staff downsizing is yet another residual effect of growing competition, and it creates a need among carriers for increased reliance on remote management capabilities.

No matter where a power problem might occur, technicians need to be able to tap into power systems from remote sites to control or repair them. A technician should be able to monitor equipment or analyze performance from a laptop at home, an operations center many miles away from a remote office, or a remote office that might be affected by a problem originating at a central office.

The Internet provides the perfect vehicle for all these scenarios. "Power management has always been a dedicated application," says Exide's Pitt. "Software had to be installed in the system or in a central computer managing the CO. Web-based network management can fundamentally change all that."

Internet-based power management solutions use commonly available Web browsers in any access device to query real-time statistics from network equipment connected to the Internet. Power supplies supporting Web servers are the most obvious candidates for this management, but any type of power supply could be monitored in the same fashion, according to Pitt.

Real-time information on the Internet can make power management an easier and more active responsibility. Network managers can respond to trends much more quickly if given real-time reports than if forced to comb through many pages of monthly reports. Once the potential for a disruption is apparent, the manager can take action to avoid the problem from almost any office at any time.

The Internet can cut the cost of managing power systems significantly, says Darrick Finan, director of marketing at Exide Electronics. Carriers can reduce the operating costs for their central offices and remote offices because these sites need less management software and hardware and less frequent visits by technicians to investigate problems.

"The primary advantage is access," says Exide's Pitt. "People can dial in on a notebook computer to figure things out, if they need to."

While the benefits of Internet-based management seem obvious, the idea is still more of a novelty than a common practice throughout the industry.

"Telcos aren't doing a lot of Web-based monitoring of anything yet," says Best Power's Papermaster.

Although carriers have acknowledged they want to move in that direction and often have asked vendors to develop Web-based management tools, many are still learning how best to use the Internet. Industry programs such as the Web-based Enterprise Management initiative may help change that. The program has been heavily promoted by major software and management system developers such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Co. It focuses on encouraging industry movement toward Internet-based network management and helping the industry create worthwhile management applications to run over the Internet.

With a variety of power management options available, carriers have the tools to manage their distributed power systems effectively. Vendors such as Best Power, Exide Electronics, Eldec Corp., Liebert, MGE UPS Systems, American Power Conversion, S.L. Waber, Power and Data Technology and many others have seen to that.

"These software solutions are a definite feel-good for carriers," says Brian Crowe, director of marketing and international sales of specialty batteries at Johnson Controls. "There will be more value as more solutions allow them to monitor across several different units."

New carriers will need these same management solutions, even though most of them consider power system deployment a low priority and power management an even lower one.

Neither incumbents nor new players have a wealth of labor, money and expertise to devote to power management issues. However, taking advantage of the inherent intelligence and economy of software-based management can reduce the cost and complexity of operating their offices, and it can minimize potential power problems for their customers.

A simple reminder can help carriers see how important power management is, Exide's Finan says. "Whether a major power outage occurs or just a spike, keeping power systems running smoothly is critical in making sure the entire network stays up and running."

The National Power Laboratory conducted a five-year power quality study between 1990 and 1995 to examine the most likely causes of power disruptions in local area networks and wide area networks.

Surprisingly, out of almost 300 power disturbances the average computer may experience each year, less than 12% are caused by blackouts and lightning strikes, seemingly the most obvious potential disturbance. Actually, more than 80% of the disruptions are caused by undervoltage, overvoltage and surges-disturbances that are nearly undetectable to the naked eye.

These occurrences can cause premature wear and tear on important, expensive equipment. As a result, carrier personnel must remain ever watchful. A number of common symptoms may indicate power problems:

Flickering lights. This usually indicates the occurrence of split-second outages or voltage sags. Often dismissed as inconsequential, split-second power breaks can eventually cause servers to lock up.

Data transmission errors. Interference in communications between nodes can be caused by two things. Ground loops between two devices linked by a data cable can experience scrambled data transmission. Or electromagnetic interference generated by devices such as radio transmitters, fluorescent lights and computer power supplies can create noise on data cables.

Unexplained system lockup. Servers or workstations randomly freeze up when low-voltage sags or subcycle power failures have sapped the logic circuits of the voltage they require to operate. This starves the computer's power supply and leads to a system crash.

Premature component failure. High-voltage spikes can cause chip damage, which can result in a sudden failure of power supplies and other vital components. If they do not fail immediately, affected chips can be weakened enough so that they fail weeks or months later.

Hard drive crashes. Sudden power loss during a read/write operation of the drive can cause damage to the delicate magnetic medium, resulting in disk boot failures.

Chip corruption. High-voltage impulses can scramble the data stored on Pentium chips, forcing users to perform system set-up from scratch. Some chips also can be wiped clean by electrostatic discharge. Erratic system device behavior. As more workstations on a shared circuit are powered up to support a network, combined harmonic content can build, resulting in unstable device performance.

Frequently aborted modem transfers. When high-frequency spikes or impulses traveling on the power line couple into unprotected phone lines, the signals can be interpreted by the receiving modems as bad blocks.

Wavering monitor screens. Voltage sags can make monitoring displays shrink. A wavering display can also indicate the presence of strong electromagnetic fields near the monitor. Both can also cause RAM errors, scrambled data and component failure.

Disk drive write errors. Proper drive access depends on the proper rotation speed of the disks themselves. Undervoltage can cause the drive to read or write in the wrong sector, resulting in lost or garbled data, or actual drive failure.