Intelligent network management

Transcription

1 CATVisor software family Intelligent network management Cable network infrastructure represents a significant part of cable operator s assets. The effective use of cable network with the help of management software ensures maximum uptime, improved network reliability and better network performance and most importantly satisfied customers.

2 CATVisor software family EMS System Commander Commander PDA SmartLoader

3 High demands on networks A modern bidirectional digital cable network places a great demand on network management. It is not only about the state of the art inplant and outplant hardware but also the management software plays an important role in ensuring the availablility of high-quality services for subscribers. Cable operators have typically several management systems and file records in inefficient use. Often significant part of that data is incorrect or sometimes even completely missing. This leads to poor customer service, poor network uptime, revenue leakage and inefficient use of capital expenses as well as increase of the operational expences. Often a poor visibility of network assets leads to an ineffective use of the cable network. In worst case even the network uptime may be decreased due to complicated network management. Hence, managing the quality of provided services is a key issue for cable operators in today s challenging business. Knowing and managing end-to-end network inventory is the basic element for cable operator s success. The quality of network management can be easily improved by employing a suitable network management system. As a result an operator is capable of using the network effectively which leads to several operational benefits. Increased availability of the network Better network performance Improved network reliability Shorter MTTR Benefits of HFC network management Direct cost saving related benefits: Prevention of unnecessary truck rolls, which are often caused by lack of information Higher accuracy in off-site operations because of a faster pinpointing of the problem and its location Quick and accurate handling of ingress problems, leading to shorter downtime. Benefits indirectly affecting operating costs: Full inventory of installed (active) equipment Better network performance as the management system reveals possible amplifier alignment errors Improved network reliability through e.g. alarms on too high temperatures By upgrading to Docsis 3.0 the network can be made faster with higher capacity. Before doing this, the exisiting network should be made more reliable by employing EMS monitoring.

4 HFC network management system The basic operation of a HFC infrastructure management system is very simple: The management application communicates with all manageable inside plant network elements via the management LAN/WAN, and with the outside plant transponders via the LAN/WAN and the HFC inband communications channel. Active devices are manageable, which means that management actions are subject to them. However, information about the status of passive components can also be extracted from the information provided by active equipment. The HFC management LAN/WAN is the backbone of the HFC management. It connects the management system to all local/regional headends, thus providing IP connectivity to the inside plant equipment and the outside plant equipment via HFC network controllers. The LAN/WAN should be a closed and isolated IP network with highly restricted access to users, since misuse of HFC management applications can have severe effects on HFC network operation. Headend Y Headend X EMS Server(s) HFC Management LAN/WAN EMS Explorer Commander SmartLoader Headend 1 Headend 2 HMTS H SED RV ET ICC1 HE E RN 00 ET B M Headend N HFC inside plant equipment HFC Network Commander Lite HMS transponders Teleste transponders Commander PDA The most important managed devices are optical downstream transmitters and upstream receivers at the headend (inside plant), as well as optical nodes and wideband amplifiers in the network (outside plant). In addition to this it is possible to manage e.g. inside plant wideband amplifiers and power supplies.

5 Management functions The HFC management system consists of computers running software for doing the actual management tasks. In Teleste HFC management system, the main software components within the system are the EMS Server software, running in the server computers and the EMS Client software, EMS Explorer running in the systems user s computers. Any of the computers may run additional value-adding software applications that are typically used for special tasks, like upgrading the software in network elements. Fault management Performance management Configuration management Element configuration backup Ingress switch control for HFC transponders Security management Alarm forwarding Fault management EMS Server collects alarms from all elements in the network and headends by regularly polling the device alarm flags. The polling process also detects lost devices within the network.with HMS and SNMP based devices, alarms are detected by processing SNMP traps sent by the devices autonomously. With HMS devices, trap reception is complemented by event log synchronisation through polling. It is possible to apply event filters to display only active alarms or unacknowledged alarms. By doing this, the user can e.g. immediately see new events when they appear on the event log. The user can also suppress alarms e.g. in case an element does not behave well and produces a lot of toggling alarms. Alarms can be suppressed just for one element, a certain type of element or globally for a certain type of alarm. Performance management The EMS Server stores a set of important operating parameter values from all elements to its measurement database at regular intervals for future analysis. The measurement history of selected elements and parameters can be examined in EMS Explorer as a history graph. Configuration management The EMS Explorer installation package contains the latest device specific congiguration GUI DLL s to Teleste products, often called viewers. In EMS Explorer it is possible to open configuration sessions to selected network elements and examine and edit their configuration parameters. All configuartions are logged into the EMS event log. Element configuration backup EMS Server runs a background process that stores a backup copy of each element s configuration once every 24 hours. This function is available for all elements that have a settings saver DLL available. The configurations are stored as scml (XML) files that can be downloaded back to the element using Commander or SmartLoader. This function comes in handy e.g. in case of a system crash. Ingress switch control for HFC transponders EMS Explorer has a dedicated GUI for examining and controlling ingress switches in HFC transponders. The GUI is totally independent, thus providing quick and simple access to ingress switches in multiple HFC devices without the need to know the details of the transponder. All ingress control operations are logged into the EMS Event Log. Security management Access to the EMS Server process is password protected. There are four access levels with different privileges available. Depending on the access level, the user can view and/or edit information in EMS Explorer. Only users with administrator privileges can edit other user s data. Also user logins and logouts are logged into the EMS Event Log.

6 EMS System The EMS Server is the core software within the system. It performs numerous automated tasks and can do additional user tasks. The main server tasks are to keep up an inventory of all manageable inside and outside plant HFC elements, verify their precense and record all alarm events reported by the elements. In addition to this, the EMS server stores selected parameter values at regular intervals and keeps backup copies of network element configuration data files. One EMS server is capable of handling up to 5000 network elements. Since system access is defined on a per-server basis, this might also affect the number of servers. Each EMS server contains a local database for storing element, event and measurement data from the network elements managed by the particular server. The server application provides interfaces for exporting element and event data and importing element data. The management data is examined and manipulated by logging in to the server using the EMS client software the EMS Explorer. Depending on the selected access policy, client machines can be either in the management VLAN or in e.g. the company Intranet, which in this case must have connection to the EMS servers also. It is possible to access multiple servers simultaneously from one client and multiple clients can access the same server. CATVisor software supports: Teleste Simple Element Management Protocol (TSEMP) TSEMP protocol is used to manage all Teleste inside plant devices and all Teleste non-hms transponders. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) SNMP is used to manage all HMS transponders and eventual non-teleste inside plant devices. Communication with TSEMP protocol elements is based on polling and with SNMP elements is a combination of polling and traps/notifications. Polling is used for presence monitoring, data retrievals and configuration tasks, while traps are used for informing the management system about alarms.

7 Commander & Commander Lite For Teleste HFC transponders or inside plant elements, the LMT software is CATVisor Commander. Commander supports IP connectivity, which allows configuring of network element also via the management LAN/WAN. There is also a limited version, Commander Lite available that supports only local connectivity. A Local Management Terminal (LMT) is a PC running a software for configuring each network element locally, typically over an USB or serial connection. The device specific graphical user interfaces used by Commander are identical to those used in EMS Explorer. This gives the users a uniform view independent of the software tool in use. Commander uses a component based software architecture. This enables support for new product models just by adding the product specific software module, without the need to install a completely new software version. With the SNMP option, CATVisor Commander can also be used to monitor and control any product with an SNMP agent, especially products fulfilling the ANSISCTE HMS recommendations. With the settings saver option it is possible to save and load element configuration data for simple and fast configuration of devices. Commander PDA The Handheld LMT is, by definition, a small and simple proprietary tool for setting up outside plant devices. It uses the same local communication interfaces as the LMT PC software. The handheld LMT implementations differ greatly from vendor to vendor, the simplest being three-button devices with a character based display. CATVisor Commander PDA is a Local Service Terminal software tool for configuring, adjusting and monitoring of Teleste HFC products. Compared to traditional service terminal software, Commander PDA provides a graphical user interface that can support even the most enhanced functions in intelligent broadband amplifiers like the AC3000 series. SmartLoader The EMS system has a great number of functions but most of them are dedicated for retrieving information from the network or changing equipment settings under user intervention. If there is a need to do configuration actions to a large number of devices, value-adding software tools are needed. Such configuration operations may be changing specific device settings, downloading new settings files, or downloading new software to devices. Value adding software tools may run on the EMS server computers or on dedicated computers, depending on the operating principles. For Teleste inside and outside plant elements, the value-adding configuration software is CATVisor SmartLoader. It is a standalone PC software that supports software downloads and settings file downloads to both inside and outside plant devices. For software downloads, SmartLoader supports both broadcast and uni-cast, depending on the requirements on download speed and reliability.

8 CATVisor software specifications PDA requirements Operating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 or higher Display: QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) External memory: SD card, needed for installation only Connections: USB host (mandatory) Computer and operating system requirements Supported operating systems Windows 2000/XP/Vista SP2 or higher for Windows 2000 Recommended operating system Windows XP Basic configuration Pentium 1 GHz or higher (EMS Server) / Pentium 400 MHz or higher (other) 512 MB RAM (EMS Server) / 256 MB RAM (other) 1 GB of free hard disk space CD-ROM drive Network Interface Card (e.g. 10/100Base-T) Available products in CATVisor product family Element management software DCS110 1 Commander, single user license EMS Explorer Copyright Teleste Corporation. All rights reserved. This software is protected by copyright laws. Unauthorized distribution or reproduction of this software is strictly prohibited. DCS110 5 DCS Commander, 5 user license Commander, 10 user license DCS DCS200 1 DCS200 5 DCS DCS DCS300 1 Utilities for Commander DUS100 DCS101 DSS100 DSS110 Network management software ESS920 ESS920 ESS920 EWS930 Utility software DLS101 DLS102 DLS103 Commander, 50 user license Commander Lite, single user license Commander Lite, 5 user license Commander Lite, 10 user license Commander Lite, 50 user license Commander PDA, single user license Device User Interface and Settings Saver collection PSI/SI Table Editor, single user license SNMP protocol support, single user license Settings saver and SNMP support, single user license 500 EMS system, license for max. 500 network elements 1000 EMS system, license for max network elements 5000 EMS system, license for max network elements SNMP Wizard, license for single EMS server SmartLoader software download option, single user license SmartLoader AC spectrum download option, single user license SmartLoader HDO mass configuration and Settings Saver option, single user license Upgrades, for users with existing license DCS110 U1 Commander upgrade to latest release ESS920 U1 EMS upgrade to latest release EWS930 U1 SNMP Wizard upgrade to latest release Evaluation versions, evaluation period max 60 days DCS110 E1 Commander evaluation license ESS920 E1 EMS evaluation license EWS930 E1 EWS930 E1 P3P_CATVISOR_05/09 TELESTE CORPORATION P.O. Box 323, FI Turku, Finland Phone +358 (0)