5.8 Operational design

Previous sections have looked at the network elements of broadband. This section looks at the way the network is managed on a day to day basis. The operational design is split into a number of areas reflecting the key business process requirements of broadband: plan and build, service fulfilment, service assurance, billing, etc. These areas are not, however, independent and there are considerable interconnections between the process areas, e.g. the successful addition of a new user needs to be reflected in the billing process such that the service provider can be billed for the user. There are also a number of common themes including the need to interface to the service provider, the need to interface to the network elements, and the need to maintain accurate information on the status of builds, orders, faults, etc.

This section introduces the main process areas and gives an insight to some of the functions covered. It also introduces the supporting OSS architecture (operational support systems).