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Network Assurance
Assurance in the network involves several key
factors that
need to be addressed. These include the integrity of the:
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Network
itself
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Traffic
monitoring and reporting mechanisms (CDR Management)
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Reference
tables and matrices that provide the parameters that drive most
of the operational flow
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Effective network assurance
addresses all of these areas.
There
is probably no area of revenue assurance that is more confusing and
difficult to deal with than the leakage and fraud associated with
the operation of the network itself. Telecommunications networks
are
extremely complex and often not well organized or managed.
The result is that there are many areas where revenue vulnerability
might occur (and often does).
Taking on network leakage and fraud is made
especially difficult by the fact that most network operations teams
are incredibly overworked
and understaffed to begin with, and these
groups are often less than pleased to learn that some outside group
or individual is going to
"poke around" in their environment.
Fortunately, there are many ways to approach
providing assurance in
the network operations area. From the least
intrusive (asking the
network operations team to provide you with a
copy of reports they already produce) to the most invasive (the
installation of probes on switches). In all cases, the most critical
factors to keep in mind are:
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To
minimize the impact on current operations |
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To
proceed with the investigation with a minimum of "blame"
and
"criticism" |
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To
execute operations in an orderly manner |
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To focus on those area where
the likelihood of finding significant leakage/fraud is the most
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The
following case studies highlight a few of the approaches that have
worked well in the past.
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Synchronization
of Network Control Tables
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Switch Integrity
(Probes and Test Calls)
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Network Inventory
Management Project
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CDR Trail Integrity Checks
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Critical
Success Factors
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Synchronization of Network
Control Tables
Ironically, one of the most effective techniques for clearing up
leakage issues in the network environment is also the easiest.
Network control tables, databases and matrices are the
mechanisms used by the network to coordinate activities across
diverse domains and assuring that these mechanisms hold the
right values, and that the values are consistently represented
across the entire organization has yielded incredible benefits
to most telecoms at a
very low cost.
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Our experience has shown
that these kinds of projects can be done for a very low cost,
involving a small number of people and little in terms of systems
overhead, with significant potential for significant results. These
projects can be:
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One time "spot checks" in order to
attain an immediate validation of the accuracy of the network
components
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or
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Projects that involve the creation of
a control table reconciliation system that periodically monitors the
accuracy and coordination between points and provides management
with a comprehensive listing.
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Switch Integrity (Probes and Test
Calls)
A more difficult problem to address arises when the performance and
accuracy of the switches themselves comes into question.
In these situation there are several approaches that can be used.
The two primary tools are:
| Probes - devices installed onto
the switch itself in order to provide a separate, auditable
activity trail to check CDR against. |
| Test Calls - (executed either
manually, or via automated test call generation CDRs) - test
calling allows the tester to make a series of controlled access
calls (recording the from-to, duration and nature of the calls)
and then provides for the tracing of those calls through the CDR
Management Chain (from switch-mediation-billing). This allows the
auditor to verify that everything that is actually known about the
call in fact, is reflected vis a vis the CDR management trail.
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The installation, management and
monitoring of probes is an extremely expensive operation, and is
typically only done in those situations where the integrity of the
switches is surely in question. At GRAPA, we usually recommend that
switch integrity is first checked with the audit of manual test
calls, checking for the types of calls that are suspect. Only when
the test call audits reveal questionable results are the more
expensive automated test calls or probes considered.
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Network Inventory Management
Ultimately, the vast majority of network leakage can be traced back
to the simple fact that most network operators do not have good
control over the inventory of their network environment itself.
Rapid expansion and
reconfiguration have left most OSS systems to function with only a
small percentage of full network inventory accounted for.
Whereas many carriers would like
to see a better than 80% accuracy of network inventory control, most
suffer with ratios far lower than that. |
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The
network inventory management projects we have worked on in the past
have involved the creation of a network element data warehouse,
which collected information from the many different OSS, network
element management systems and manual inventories, in order to
provide network management with a centrally located, operationally
independent source of information about where different elements
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CDR Trail Integrity Checks
One of the most straightforward and easiest to execute projects is a
simple audit of the CDR generation and distribution trail. These
projects attempt to determine if and where (if at all), CDRs are
being dropped, lost or duplicated by the mechanisms that move CDRs
from the switch into the mediation system. Obviously, if the
processes that manage CDRs have "holes" in their logic or
operational discipline, the result will be lost CDRs and lost
revenues.
CDR Trail Integrity Check projects
are nothing more than tedious audits and tracking of pre-defined
populations of CDRs along each point in the CDR Management Process.
The execution of the project involves little more than the reviewing
of the files and their contents, over a controlled period of time
and scope, in order to assure that all CDRs arrive, in tact at the
mediation entry point.
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Critical Success Factors
- The definition of
what should be checked, when and how?
- Helping management to assess the potential benefits these
types of investigations might yield, against the costs.
Clearly, the network operations support team
are the people who know
the network best, and are in the best position to help figure out
specifically how these kinds of assurance activities can most
effectively be done. We do not pretend to have a network operational
expertise greater than theirs.
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Revenue Assurance Library
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