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GSM today: common OSS increases efficiency

January 12, 2004

Ericsson is developing a common Operation and Support System (OSS) to secure coherence between GSM and WCDMA, and to enable shared functionality between radio and core networks management.

Even if the first GSM subscribers said "hello" almost 15 years ago, the technology is still evolving and GSM networks are set to remain in use for many years to come - particularly as the arrival of technologies such as GPRS and EDGE has boosted GSM capacity.

 

At the same time, however, many GSM operators also plan to implement WCDMA, the next-generation high-speed networks. As a result, Ericsson is working to provide solutions that support seamless network evolution and offer more opportunities for shared network functionality and re-using existing equipment.

 

The Operation and Support System (OSS) is crucial when it comes to cutting costs and running networks more efficiently since it addresses both CAPEX and OPEX.

 

Sara Wesslén, Technical Sales Support Manager at Ericsson, estimates that on average one third of operator costs derive from operations and support. To help operators reduce these costs, Ericsson has developed a system that offers the flexibility to manage different types of network through one product.

 

Future-proof solution
Wesslén says: "We have taken the best features from earlier Operation and Support Systems for GSM and WCDMA, and incorporated everything into a single future-proof solution - OSS Radio and Core [OSS-RC]. As a result operators will face lower long-term costs for both GSM and WCDMA operations." This means that for operators in the process of migrating from GSM to GPRS/EDGE and WCDMA, the platform already exists, as do the common basic applications. The network management required for future expansion of the mobile network to other technologies will be handled as cost effectively as possible.

 

Wesslén says the importance of OSS can already be seen at the rollout stage of new networks, when speed and coverage is key. "Once the physical nodes are in place, software rollout and configuration of the cellular network and node parameters is supported with OSS-RC," she says.

 

"When the network is up and running, and coverage is sufficient, issues such as capacity and quality of the radio network have to be addressed."

 

Fault management, performance supervision, trouble shooting and tuning are other important areas dealt with by the help of OSS-RC, which also supports tasks such as radio network recordings as well as neighbor relation and frequency optimization.

 

Management made easy
In view of the growing end-user demand for data services, OSS-RC offers an extensive GPRS management package that allows operators efficiently to manage the resources used to implement the GPRS services in both GSM and WCDMA networks.

 

Real-time performance monitoring has been considerably improved in the new OSS-RC, where the collection and presentation of radio-network performance data in real time has been extended to cover packet-switched data. The user interface is updated every minute and performance data may also be exported for further post-processing.

 

Wesslén says this enables more accurate network planning. "Instant feedback to network changes gives a better understanding of current radio network behavior," she says.

 

The new OSS-RC solution also has the ability to monitor alarms from the service layer, and includes enhancements in radio network optimization, enabling improved hand-over performance and low interference.

 

The OSS solution currently available features one OSS-RC for GSM radio access and GSM/WCDMA core networks. Looking ahead, the incorporation of different radio technologies into one OSS-RC will be further advanced by the end of 2004, with the release of an OSS-RC capable of handling the WCDMA radio access network as well.