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WO2019234297A1 - Gestion de systèmes de communication - Google Patents

Gestion de systèmes de communication Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2019234297A1
WO2019234297A1 PCT/FI2019/050428 FI2019050428W WO2019234297A1 WO 2019234297 A1 WO2019234297 A1 WO 2019234297A1 FI 2019050428 W FI2019050428 W FI 2019050428W WO 2019234297 A1 WO2019234297 A1 WO 2019234297A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
requests
service
communication system
network
service requests
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/FI2019/050428
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Joni Petteri LEHTINEN
Original Assignee
Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Nokia Technologies Oy filed Critical Nokia Technologies Oy
Publication of WO2019234297A1 publication Critical patent/WO2019234297A1/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/50—Service provisioning or reconfiguring
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/50—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
    • H04L41/5003—Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
    • H04L41/5019—Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/01—Protocols
    • H04L67/10—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50—Network services
    • H04L67/56—Provisioning of proxy services
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W16/00—Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
    • H04W16/18—Network planning tools
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
    • H04W24/02—Arrangements for optimising operational condition
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
    • H04W24/08—Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/50—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
    • H04L41/5003—Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
    • H04L41/5009—Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W76/00—Connection management
    • H04W76/20—Manipulation of established connections
    • H04W76/22—Manipulation of transport tunnels

Definitions

  • the exemplary and non-limiting embodiments relate to management of communication systems. Background
  • Wireless telecommunication systems are large and complex systems comprising hundreds and thousands of components each having a multitude of operation parameters. There is a constant need for monitoring performance, configuration management and fault detection. As the present systems are large and future systems will be even more complex, careful design of the management of the network is of upmost importance so that network downtime and costs related to maintenance can be kept at minimum level.
  • Figure 1 illustrates an example of a communication system where some embodiments of the invention may be applied
  • Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating an example of an embodiment
  • Figure 3 illustrates an example of an embodiment
  • Figures 4 to 35 are tables illustrating some embodiments.
  • Figure 36 illustrates a simplified example of an apparatus in which some embodiments of the invention may be applied.
  • UMTS universal mobile telecommunications system
  • UTRAN radio access network
  • LTE long term evolution
  • WLAN wireless local area network
  • WiFi worldwide interoperability for microwave access
  • Bluetooth® personal communications services
  • PCS personal communications services
  • WCDMA wideband code division multiple access
  • UWB ultra-wideband
  • sensor networks sensor networks
  • MANETs mobile ad-hoc networks
  • IMS Internet Protocol multimedia subsystems
  • Fig. 1 shows a part of an exemplifying radio access network.
  • Fig. 1 depicts examples of simplified system architectures only showing some elements and functional entities, all being logical units, whose implementation may differ from what is shown.
  • the connections shown in Fig. 1 are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the system typically comprises also other functions and structures than those shown in Fig. 1.
  • Fig. 1 shows user terminals or user devices 100 and 102 configured to be in a wireless connection on one or more communication channels in a cell with an access node (such as (e/g)NodeB) 104 providing the cell.
  • the physical link from a user device to a (e/g)NodeB is called uplink or reverse link and the physical link from the (e/g)NodeB to the user terminal is called downlink or forward link.
  • (e/g)NodeBs or their functionalities may be implemented by using any node, host, server or access point etc. entity suitable for such a usage.
  • a communications system typically comprises more than one
  • the (e/g)NodeB in which case the (e/g)NodeBs may also be configured to communicate with one another over links, wired or wireless, designed for the purpose. These links may be used for data and signalling purposes.
  • the (e/g)NodeB is a computing device configured to control the radio resources of communication system it is coupled to.
  • the NodeB may also be referred to as a base station, an access point or any other type of interfacing device including a relay station capable of operating in a wireless environment.
  • the (e/g)NodeB includes or is coupled to transceivers. From the transceivers of the (e/g)NodeB, a connection is provided to an antenna unit that establishes bi-directional radio links to user devices.
  • the antenna unit may comprise a plurality of antennas or antenna elements.
  • the (e/g)NodeB is further connected to core network 106 (CN or next generation core NGC).
  • core network 106 CN or next generation core NGC.
  • the counterpart on the CN side can be a serving gateway (S-GW, routing and forwarding user data packets), packet data network gateway (P-GW), for providing connectivity of user devices (UEs) to external packet data networks, or mobile management entity (MME), etc.
  • S-GW serving gateway
  • P-GW packet data network gateway
  • MME mobile management entity
  • the user terminal UT (also called UE, user equipment, user device, terminal device, etc.) illustrates one type of an apparatus to which resources on the air interface are allocated and assigned, and thus any feature described herein with a user terminal may be implemented with a corresponding apparatus, such as a relay node.
  • a relay node is a layer 3 relay (self-backhauling relay) towards the base station.
  • the user terminal typically refers to a portable computing device that includes wireless mobile communication devices operating with or without a subscriber identification module (SIM), including, but not limited to, the following types of devices: a mobile station (mobile phone), smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), handset, device using a wireless modem (alarm or measurement device, etc.), laptop and/or touch screen computer, tablet, game console, notebook, and multimedia device.
  • SIM subscriber identification module
  • a user terminal may also be a nearly exclusive uplink only device, of which an example is a camera or video camera loading images or video clips to a network.
  • a user terminal may also be a device having capability to operate in Internet of Things (loT) network which is a scenario in which objects are provided with the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to- computer interaction.
  • the user terminal may also utilize cloud.
  • a user terminal may comprise a small portable device with radio parts (such as a watch, earphones or eyeglasses) and the computation is carried out in the cloud.
  • the user terminal (or in some embodiments a layer 3 relay node) is configured to perform one or more of user equipment functionalities.
  • the user terminal may also be called a subscriber unit, mobile station, remote terminal, access terminal, or user equipment (UE) just to mention but a few names or apparatuses.
  • CPS cyber- physical system
  • ICT devices sensors, actuators, processors microcontrollers, etc.
  • Mobile cyber physical systems in which the physical system in question has inherent mobility, are a subcategory of cyber-physical systems. Examples of mobile physical systems include mobile robotics and electronics transported by humans or animals.
  • apparatuses have been depicted as single entities, different units, processors and/or memory units (not all shown in Fig. 1 ) may be implemented.
  • 5G enables using multiple input - multiple output (MIMO) antennas, many more base stations or nodes than the LTE (a so-called small cell concept), including macro sites operating in co-operation with smaller stations and employing a variety of radio technologies depending on service needs, use cases and/or spectrum available.
  • 5G mobile communications supports a wide range of use cases and related applications including video streaming, augmented reality, different ways of data sharing and various forms of machine type applications (such as (massive) machine-type communications (mMTC), including vehicular safety, different sensors and real-time control.
  • 5G is expected to have multiple radio interfaces, namely below 6GHz, cmWave and mmWave, and also being integradable with existing legacy radio access technologies, such as the LTE.
  • Integration with the LTE may be implemented, at least in the early phase, as a system, where macro coverage is provided by the LTE and 5G radio interface access comes from small cells by aggregation to the LTE.
  • 5G is planned to support both inter-RAT operability (such as LTE-5G) and inter-RI operability (inter-radio interface operability, such as below 6GHz - cmWave, below 6GHz - cmWave - mmWave).
  • inter-RAT operability such as LTE-5G
  • inter-RI operability inter-radio interface operability, such as below 6GHz - cmWave, below 6GHz - cmWave - mmWave.
  • One of the concepts considered to be used in 5G networks is network slicing in which multiple independent and dedicated virtual sub-networks (network instances) may be created within the same infrastructure to run services that have different requirements on latency, reliability, throughput and mobility.
  • the current architecture in LTE networks is fully distributed in the radio and fully centralized in the core network.
  • the low latency applications and services in 5G require to bring the content close to the radio which leads to local break out and multi-access edge computing (MEC).
  • MEC multi-access edge computing
  • 5G enables analytics and knowledge generation to occur at the source of the data. This approach requires leveraging resources that may not be continuously connected to a network such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and sensors.
  • MEC provides a distributed computing environment for application and service hosting. It also has the ability to store and process content in close proximity to cellular subscribers for faster response time.
  • Edge computing covers a wide range of technologies such as wireless sensor networks, mobile data acquisition, mobile signature analysis, cooperative distributed peer-to-peer ad hoc networking and processing also classifiable as local cloud/fog computing and grid/mesh computing, dew computing, mobile edge computing, cloudlet, distributed data storage and retrieval, autonomic self-healing networks, remote cloud services, augmented and virtual reality, data caching, Internet of Things (massive connectivity and/or latency critical), critical communications (autonomous vehicles, traffic safety, real-time analytics, time-critical control, healthcare applications).
  • the communication system is also able to communicate with other networks, such as a public switched telephone network or the Internet 112, or utilise services provided by them.
  • the communication network may also be able to support the usage of cloud services, for example at least part of core network operations may be carried out as a cloud service (this is depicted in Fig. 1 by “cloud” 114).
  • the communication system may also comprise a central control entity, or a like, providing facilities for networks of different operators to cooperate for example in spectrum sharing.
  • Edge cloud may be brought into radio access network (RAN) by utilizing network function virtualization (NVF) and software defined networking (SDN).
  • RAN radio access network
  • NVF network function virtualization
  • SDN software defined networking
  • Using edge cloud may mean access node operations to be carried out, at least partly, in a server, host or node operationally coupled to a remote radio head or base station comprising radio parts. It is also possible that node operations will be distributed among a plurality of servers, nodes or hosts.
  • Application of cloudRAN architecture enables RAN real time functions being carried out at the RAN side (in a distributed unit, DU 104) and non-real time functions being carried out in a centralized manner (in a centralized unit, CU 108).
  • 5G may also utilize satellite communication to enhance or complement the coverage of 5G service, for example by providing backhauling.
  • Possible use cases are providing service continuity for machine- to-machine (M2M) or Internet of Things (loT) devices or for passengers on board of vehicles, or ensuring service availability for critical communications, and future railway/maritime/aeronautical communications.
  • Satellite communication may utilize geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite systems, but also low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems, in particular mega-constellations (systems in which hundreds of (nano)satellites are deployed).
  • GEO geostationary earth orbit
  • LEO low earth orbit
  • Each satellite 110 in the mega- constellation may cover several satellite-enabled network entities that create on- ground cells.
  • the on-ground cells may be created through an on-ground relay node 104 or by a gNB located on-ground or in a satellite.
  • the depicted system is only an example of a part of a radio access system and in practice, the system may comprise a plurality of (e/g)NodeBs, the user device may have an access to a plurality of radio cells and the system may comprise also other apparatuses, such as physical layer relay nodes or other network elements, etc. At least one of the (e/g)NodeBs or may be a Home(e/g)nodeB. Additionally, in a geographical area of a radio communication system a plurality of different kinds of radio cells as well as a plurality of radio cells may be provided.
  • Radio cells may be macro cells (or umbrella cells) which are large cells, usually having a diameter of up to tens of kilometers, or smaller cells such as micro-, femto- or picocells.
  • the (e/g)NodeBs of Figure 1 may provide any kind of these cells.
  • a cellular radio system may be implemented as a multilayer network including several kinds of cells. Typically, in multilayer networks, one access node provides one kind of a cell or cells, and thus a plurality of (e/g)NodeBs are required to provide such a network structure.
  • a network which is able to use“plug-and-play” (e/g)Node Bs includes, in addition to Flome (e/g)NodeBs (FI(e/g)nodeBs), a home node B gateway, or FINB-GW (not shown in Figure 1 ).
  • a HNB Gateway (HNB-GW) which is typically installed within an operator’s network may aggregate traffic from a large number of HNBs back to a core network.
  • Network services availability and quality are important measures in customer experience management.
  • Service providers of communication networks and systems are investing to network development and maintenance so that subscribers are enabled for the purchased services with high quality, and without disruptions to services availability. Any failures in that will increase negative subscriber experience and lead to monetary loss and weakened position compared to competing service providers (including benchmarking).
  • Each change implemented to network has a cost via operating expenses, and also because of network outage at the time of change.
  • Operating expenses are personnel costs and other investments, which are necessary to perform the task in question.
  • Network outages may be necessary at the time of change, and during this period related elements are not serving subscribers, but are reserved for operator maintenance task in question.
  • Communication systems and networks typically comprise a network management system, which enable the service provider to develop and maintain network element infrastructure. It is the target for service providers to obtain optimum balance in costs and effort targeting to maximize value for subscribers and service provider is a continuous project for the network operator.
  • the input data and pre-requisites may be in the volume of millions of records. This is a complex problem and cannot be solved in timely manner by operations team personnel. This multivariate problem containing high volume of data requires computing and innovative approach.
  • the joint problem of finding optimum scope and time for changes is usually managed in the art by operator processes utilizing a maintenance window (i.e. brute force method).
  • Service impacting changes are implemented only at time of a given maintenance window, which is a time reserved for network maintenance, usually night time when there is lower traffic in the network.
  • Other changes not having direct impact to service may be implemented day time during office hours, or scheduled for maintenance window.
  • the maintenance window approach has many drawbacks. Operating expenses are high for night time work. Troubleshooting is limited due to other personnel being out of office. There may be limitations to the amount of changes which can be enabled in maintenance window. Further, disruption to service can be high in impacted areas.
  • the communication network of Fig .1 comprises an intelligent provisioning gateway 118 connected to the network 114.
  • the intelligent provisioning gateway may be configured to be responsible for monitoring performance, services availability, configuration management and fault management for the network.
  • the intelligent provisioning gateway is configured to utilize service impact related information as input in the process of finding optimum scope and time for planned changes in network. By utilizing stored network element data and provided change requests the gateway may provide a new set of changes. These changes are different from the input changes, as the content of each change is having ideal implementation time, and the estimated cost of operation is visible for operator personnel in work shift.
  • the gateway may continuously process queue of traditional change requests, and create new grouping and content based on stored data related to network elements and operation data. Operator personnel in work shift can then implement or schedule changes to network with utility of having minimum cost and impact to service.
  • the gateway may provide a way to minimize the cost of network operations, and enable more operations being completed resulting to a higher service availability and quality in network.
  • Fig. 2 and the flowchart of Fig. 3 illustrate an example of an embodiment of the operation of the apparatus 118.
  • the apparatus may be an intelligent provisioning gateway of a communication system, for example.
  • the apparatus is configured to communicate with the communication system 114.
  • the apparatus is configured to receive 300 a first set of communication system service requests 302.
  • Each request may be related to one or more network elements of the communication system 114 and comprise one or more parameters to be changed.
  • the apparatus is configured to obtain information on utilization, allowed service times, revenue, available provisioning methods and estimated cost per service type for the network elements defined in the service requests.
  • the apparatus may be connected to one or more databases 304, comprising service impact related information.
  • network elements serving subscribers may have having different utilization rate and serve in different geographical areas. Independent on the type of change and expected outcome, the related elements may have different priority from subscribers’ and service provider’s viewpoint. Network elements carrying less traffic and serving lower number of customers may have a smaller priority than high traffic and subscriber density areas.
  • Network elements serving subscribers may also have different utilization rate as a function of time. Thus, for any network element there may be different volume of traffic and subscribers depending on the time of the day.
  • the database 304 may comprise information about network element utilization over the calendar week (such as an hourly table). Information about network element permissions for change on other time than maintenance window (i.e. are changes allowed only during maintenance window) may be stored. The database 304 may store information about the network element ARPU (average revenue per user) over the calendar week. Information about the provisioning methods available for a given network element may be stored. Examples of provisioning methods comprise background data downloading possibility, possibility to swap and support for operational configuration, for example. The database 304 may further comprise information about the estimated cost of change as per network element type and available provisioning method (such as a table of elements and estimated cost as per provisioning method).
  • the apparatus is configured to obtain information on parameters of the service requests and mutual dependencies of the parameters.
  • Information about each planned change stored in system in terms of configuration and parameter changes may be obtained.
  • explicitly defined content for each operation may be defined.
  • information about dependencies among the configuration data stored in system may be obtained.
  • defined relationships between data may be obtained.
  • Any change to the communication system will have a direct and an indirect content, which is explicitly defined in terms of element configuration and parameter changes.
  • Direct change is applied to network element data only, and is straightforward to evaluate from impact viewpoint.
  • Indirect changes are applied in dependent network elements, which are interworking to provide services in question. The impact of indirect changes is more difficult to evaluate, as the impact is dependent on the level and type of interworking.
  • the apparatus is configured to, based on the obtained information, replace at least part of the service requests 302 with another set of service requests 306 by determining optimal time for each parameter change with minimum cost and impact on network utilization.
  • the apparatus may be configured to output a set of changes 306 to the communication system which may
  • the apparatus may split the original requests into smaller units, and recompile a new set of requests which are optimised in relation to costs and quality.
  • the new set of changes 306 include a proposed execution time and an estimate of the cost of the change.
  • the new set of changes 306 is sent to provisioning services 308 of the communications system which is responsible for executing 310 the changes.
  • a given received request of the set 302 may indicate that it is not breakable to a set of changes and should be implemented in initial form. This can be taken into account in the process. Further, a given request may indicate that it requires faster response than other requests. It may be labelled as urgent or that it should be executed as soon as possible. Such requests may be taken directly forward and not handled by the proposed process.
  • given received request of the set 302 may indicate that it requires faster response than other requests. This can be taken into account in the process and it may be handled without merging with other requests.
  • two or more consolidated service requests may be combined into one or more items, each item comprising mutually dependent changes to one or more network elements, and implementation time for each item may be selected by minimizing the cost of each item.
  • two or more service requests may be combined into one consolidated service request on the basis of whether the requests require interruptions in communication system service or not.
  • the proposed process is not limited to any technology or vendor data, but is applicable as such for all changes implemented by service provider. Multiple change requests may be grouped to new and more optimum set of changes trying to minimize the service impact on hourly basis.
  • the proposed process enables joint use of existing assets in network management system and network elements (i.e. vendor and technology specific sub-optimized solutions in data provisioning). The dependencies in change data are processed jointly for more optimum results.
  • the proposed process enables the use of daily office hours more efficiently, and this way increases task throughput and decrease operating expenses. Further, the estimated cost of operation is visible for operator.
  • the new set of changes may be forwarded to management crew 308 for execution 310.
  • the gateway may be connected to one or more databases 304, which may store various data related to the operation of the communication system.
  • databases 304 may store various data related to the operation of the communication system.
  • various requests are received at given time instants T and gateway actions are described at different time instants Tn.
  • data is available for network elements and processes of the system in overall.
  • network elements may be possible to use aggregated values, which are average values calculated based on real measurements. For example, average values may be determined over period applied for each element, which are typically available in every service provider as key performance indicator.
  • Fig. 4 is a table illustrating an example of recording values of network elements in a table, which indicates the value of operational network element NE for each hour.
  • network element NE1 has a value of 50 between hours 00 - 02, but a value of 150 between hours 03-04, for example.
  • timetables such as smaller units than hours, and weekly or daily tables to manage seasonal differences.
  • Fig.5 is a table illustrating an example of recording cost of change.
  • the table indicates the associated cost of operating expenses as per network element type and time of the day. Again, it is possible to have more detailed timetables with different time units.
  • the cost of change for a network element type may vary during the day. For some types it may be cheaper to perform a change during night time, and for some types during day time, for example. One factor affecting the cost may be whether operator staff is required in performing change or whether it may be performed automatically.
  • all network elements are of some type defined in the list of Fig. 5, and multiple network elements can be of same type.
  • the table of Fig. 5 comprises information about the overall provisioning related costs, which may be all different depending the technology and features applied for change management. For example, two different types of network elements can have different provisioning logic, where first one is applying changes on-line without major disturbance to service, but the second one has to be restarted in the context of change, thus having more service impact in general. It is also evident that two network elements of same type can have different overall cost, because the overall cost at this phase may be defined as ⁇ network elements specific downtime cost> + ⁇ type specific provisioning method cost>.
  • the intelligent provisioning gateway receives communication system service requests, each request being related to a change in one or more network elements of the communication system.
  • the gateway may be configured to store the requests.
  • Fig. 6 illustrates and example, where the gateway has received requests C1 , C2, C3, C4, C5, ..., Cn between time instants TO and T1.
  • the requests are stored in system data repository in terms of configuration and parameter changes.
  • the requests may comprise indication such as if it urgent (implement: ASAP) and whether it can be split into parts or performed as one change (Breakable: No).
  • Each service request or change request may contain information about the changed network element and type of change with possible new values, as illustrated in the example of Fig. 7.
  • Fig.7 illustrates affected network elements, type of change to be performed on the network element, parameter and value for the parameter. For example, for network element NE1 a new parameter A is created with a value 1.
  • the gateway may be configured to exclude from further processing change requests having status for immediate implementation.
  • request C1 has implement: ASAP tag, and thus it is excluded from change request processing.
  • the gateway may be configured to update change requests C2, C3, C4, C5, ..., Cn for dependent data, which means indirect changes as a result of direct change in network element data.
  • the gateway communicates with the database 304 and determines data relationship information.
  • the table in Fig. 8 illustrates an example of the result of dependency analysis. The analysis reveals that“Update” operation for “Parameter D” has a dependency between network elements NE 3 and NE 4. As a result the gateway is configured to add 800 an“Update” operation for “Parameter D” for the network element NE 4 as illustrated with highlight in Fig. 8.
  • the gateway may be configured to merge requests C2, C3, C4, C5, ..., Cn to a new consolidated change CC1 , which has all changes combined from C2, C3, C4, C5, ..., Cn, unless a restriction exist to implement change without breaking it to set of changes.
  • change request C2 has a restriction to be implemented as such (Breakable: No in Fig. 6), and thus it is not merged to CC1 together with C3, C4, C5, ..., Cn.
  • Fig.9 illustrates the pending requests after merge operation. There now three requests pending: C1 , which has urgent tag; C2 which had non-breakable tag and consolidated request CC1.
  • the gateway may be configured to analyze the new consolidated change request CC1 for service impacting content.
  • all configuration and parameter changes which do not have defined service impact or restriction to network elements with a tag“change implementation during maintenance window only” are transferred to a new change request CC2.
  • the remaining changes in CC1 are service impacting and subject to further processing.
  • Fig. 10 is an example of network element related information and what operations and parameter modifications are service impacting.
  • Fig. 10 is an example of showing additional information about the“service impact” for the types of network elements, and this information can be used to split plan to“not service impacting” and“service impacting” parts.
  • Fig 10 table is defining service impact as per modification action, which can be network element data deletion, network element data creation, or network element parameter modification.
  • Fig. 11 shows an example list of network elements and types with restriction“changes allowed only during maintenance window”.“Type 6” and “Type 8” have restriction for all elements, but“Type 7” only for two network element instances, for instance.
  • Fig. 12 illustrates original change request CC1 and the rows in bold in change request CC1 contain service impacting changes (see table in Fig. 10).
  • the“NE 1” of“Type 2” has service impacting parameter“Parameter A” changed, for instance.
  • Fig. 13 illustrates the new request CC2, which comprises those rows of original request CC1 that do not have any service impacting changes, or limitations with maintenance window.
  • Fig. 14 illustrates the change request CC1 , which after transferring part of rows to CC2 is now having only data, which is service impacting and will require continued processing for minimizing the cost.
  • the new change request CC2 is available and ready to be implemented with schedule of opportunity.
  • the gateway is configured to propose a time of implementation with lowest Operation &Maintenance Cost.
  • the actual time of implementation is up to the operator of the network.
  • Figure 15 illustrates an example where the first time with lowest operations cost is visible in table, i.e Implement: 22-23.
  • the estimated cost for the operation is 50, partly based on information in the table of Fig. 5, where the two“Type 1” elements in the change request had a cost of change 25, total being 50 at the select time. In comparison, the maximum cost for the same operation would be 100.
  • the gateway may be configured to process the service impacting consolidated change request CC1 to a list of network elements so that also dependent elements are taken into account. Based on dependencies which require dependent changes to be executed at the same time, the gateway may form group of changes denoted as L1 , L2, L3,...,Ly, as illustrated in Fig. 16. For example, network element NE3 is in the list with changes together with dependent network element NE4 and its changes, and together they form group L3. The list may be updated also for the change requests excluded earlier because of requirement“not to break changes to smaller groups”. Such change requests form own list items keeping the initial change request integrity. Thus for example earlier excluded change request C2 is now listed as own item like L4.
  • the gateway is configured to search each listed group of changes L1 , L2, L3,...,Ly for a minimum sum value in timetable presenting the level of network utilization. Changes from L1 , L2, L3,...,Ly are merged to new set of change requests CT1 , CT2, CT3,..., CTx each having an ideal time of implementation as a group. The minimum value is searched for the impact to service, which is defined in terms of traffic or other value.
  • Figs. 17, 18 and 19 illustrate an example.
  • L1 (marked in bold in Fig. 17) is analysed first for optimum time of implementation.
  • Figs. 18 and 19 show that the network element NE 1 of“Type 2” has minimum cost of change 150 at time interval 22-23. This is formed from the sum of service cost and O&M costs. In comparison, the maximum cost would be 300 at time interval 03-04.
  • a new change request CT1 is pending with updated costs and other information, as Fig. 20 illustrates.
  • Figs. 21 , 22 and 23 illustrate another example.
  • L2 (marked in bold in Fig. 21 ) is analysed next and minimum cost is searched for.
  • Figs. 22 and 23 show that the network element NE 2 of“Type 1” has minimum cost of change 250 at time interval 22-23. This is formed from the sum of service cost and O&M costs. In comparison, the maximum cost would be 100 at time interval 03-04.
  • the change request CT1 is updated, comprising now changes from L2 as well as from L1 , as Fig. 24 illustrates.
  • Figs. 25, 26 and 27 illustrate another example.
  • L3 (marked in bold in Fig. 25) is analysed next and minimum cost is searched for.
  • Figs. 26 and 27 show that the network element NE 2 and the network element NE 3 of“Type 1” have minimum cost of change 450 at time interval 00-01. This is formed from the sum of service cost and O&M costs. In comparison, the maximum cost would be 750 at time interval 23-24.
  • a new change request CT2 is pending with updated costs and other information, as Fig. 28 illustrates.
  • Figs. 29, 30 and 31 illustrate another example.
  • L4 (marked in bold in Fig. 29) is analysed next and minimum cost is searched for.
  • Figs. 30 and 31 show that the network elements NE 5, NE 6 and NE 7 of“Type 1” have minimum cost of change 410 at time interval 00-01. This is formed from the sum of service cost and O&M costs. In comparison, the maximum cost would be 850 at time interval 23-24.
  • the change request CT2 is updated, comprising now changes from L4 as well as from L3, as Fig. 32 illustrates.
  • CT 1 is formed of L1 and L3.
  • network elements in lists L1 , L2, L3,...,Ly have restrictions about“changes implemented only during maintenance window”. In such a case the search of optimum time is limited to period of maintenance window.
  • CT2, CT3,..., CTx is available and made visible by the gateway for the operator personnel in work shift as illustrated in Fig. 33.
  • the rejected change requests are returned to a queue of new change requests Cn+1 , Cn+2,....,Cr and status of plan is changed to“Retry” for a repeated processing in the gateway.
  • CT2 may be calculated new cost estimates together with other coming changes. As a default the cost will not be any smaller at different time, but it may be necessary to have approval for such change (i.e. according to operator process).
  • Fig. 35 illustrates an example where a new time is searched for the previously rejected change request CT2, and together with other change requests received and stored in system.
  • Cn+2,....,Cr may be processed beginning from Fig. 6.
  • the process may be continuous and repeated over time according to service provider’s needs.
  • the provisioning gateway 118 processed initial change requests, and proposed new groups and activation times based on minimum cost.
  • the estimated minimum cost produced by provisioning gateway was 1085, while the maximum cost was 2125. This means approximately 51 % savings compared to worst situation. Any other example might result to more or less savings, and only in case the original change requests already have the optimum time and grouping the same minimum cost is possible (i.e. no changes due to processing). This is possible but a very rare and unlikely event.
  • Figure 36 illustrates an embodiment.
  • the figure illustrates a simplified example of an apparatus 118 in which embodiments of the invention may be applied.
  • the apparatus may be a provisioning gateway or a network element of a communication system, or a part of a network element, for example.
  • the apparatus is depicted herein as an example illustrating some embodiments. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the apparatus may also comprise other functions and/or structures and not all described functions and structures are required. Although the apparatus has been depicted as one entity, different modules and memory may be implemented in one or more physical or logical entities. For example, the apparatus may be realized using cloud computing or distributed computing with several physical entities located in different places but connected with each other.
  • the apparatus of the example includes a control circuitry 900 configured to control at least part of the operation of the apparatus.
  • the apparatus may comprise a memory 902 for storing data. Furthermore the memory may store software or applications 904 executable by the control circuitry 900. The memory may be integrated in the control circuitry.
  • the control circuitry 900 is configured to execute one or more applications.
  • the applications may be stored in the memory 902.
  • the apparatus may further comprise one or more interfaces 906, 908 operationally connected to the control circuitry 900.
  • the interfaces may be connect the apparatus to one or more other network elements of the communication system, to database 304, for example, and provide an interface with which personnel of network operators or service providers may interact with the apparatus.
  • the apparatus may further comprise one or more interfaces 912 operationally connected to the control circuitry 900.
  • the interfaces may connect the apparatus to one or more network elements of a communication network or system or to the Internet.
  • the applications 904 stored in the memory 902 executable by the control circuitry 900 may cause the apparatus to perform the embodiments described above.
  • the apparatuses or controllers able to perform the above-described steps may be implemented as an electronic digital computer, or a circuitry which may comprise a working memory (RAM), a central processing unit (CPU), and a system clock.
  • the CPU may comprise a set of registers, an arithmetic logic unit, and a controller.
  • the controller or the circuitry is controlled by a sequence of program instructions transferred to the CPU from the RAM.
  • the controller may contain a number of microinstructions for basic operations. The implementation of microinstructions may vary depending on the CPU design.
  • the program instructions may be coded by a programming language, which may be a high-level programming language, such as C, Java, etc., or a low-level programming language, such as a machine language, or an assembler.
  • the electronic digital computer may also have an operating system, which may provide system services to a computer program written with the program instructions.
  • circuitry refers to all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations, such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry, and (b) combinations of circuits and software (and/or firmware), such as (as applicable): (i) a combination of processor(s) or (ii) portions of processor(s)/software including digital signal processor(s), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus to perform various functions, and (c) circuits, such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that require software or firmware for operation, even if the software or firmware is not physically present.
  • circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application.
  • circuitry would also cover an implementation of merely a processor (or multiple processors) or a portion of a processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.
  • circuitry would also cover, for example and if applicable to the particular element, a baseband integrated circuit or applications processor integrated circuit for a mobile phone or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellular network device, or another network device.
  • An embodiment provides a computer program comprising instructions for causing an apparatus to perform embodiments described above.
  • An embodiment provides a computer program embodied on a non- transitory distribution medium, comprising program instructions which, when loaded into an electronic apparatus, are configured to control the apparatus to execute the embodiments described above.
  • the computer program may be in source code form, object code form, or in some intermediate form, and it may be stored in some sort of carrier, which may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program.
  • carrier include a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory, and a software distribution package, for example.
  • the computer program may be executed in a single electronic digital computer or it may be distributed amongst a number of computers.
  • the apparatus may also be implemented as one or more integrated circuits, such as application-specific integrated circuits ASIC.
  • Other hardware embodiments are also feasible, such as a circuit built of separate logic components.
  • a hybrid of these different implementations is also feasible.
  • An embodiment provides an apparatus comprising means for receiving as an input a first set of communication system service requests, each request being related to one or more network elements of the communication system and comprising one or more parameters to be changed; means for obtaining information on utilization, allowed service times, revenue, available provisioning methods and estimated cost per service type for the network elements defined in the service requests; means for obtaining information on parameters of the service requests and mutual dependencies of the parameters; means for, based on the obtained information, replacing at least part of the service requests with another set of service requests by determining optimal time for each parameter change with minimum cost and impact on network utilization.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un procédé et un appareil de gestion de systèmes de communication. La solution comprend : la réception (200), en tant qu'entrée, d'un premier ensemble de demandes de service pour un système de communication, chaque demande concernant un ou plusieurs éléments de réseau du système de communication et comprenant un ou plusieurs paramètres à changer ; l'obtention d'informations (202) sur une utilisation, des temps de service autorisés, des revenus, des procédés d'approvisionnement disponibles et un coût estimé par type de service pour les éléments de réseau définis dans les demandes de service ; l'obtention d'informations (204) sur des paramètres des demandes de service et sur des dépendances mutuelles des paramètres. Sur la base des informations obtenues, au moins une partie des demandes de service est remplacée (206) par un autre ensemble de demandes de service par détermination d'un temps optimal pour chaque changement de paramètre avec des coûts et impacts minimaux sur l'utilisation du réseau.
PCT/FI2019/050428 2018-06-05 2019-06-05 Gestion de systèmes de communication WO2019234297A1 (fr)

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