MYCOM OSI demonstrates NFV capabilities

Delivers QoS-driven NFV Orchestration via correlation of network, service and customer data across virtual and physical domains, advanced RCA, automated policy control and execution and continuous feedback monitoring

TM Forum Live!, Nice, France – 1st June 2015MYCOM OSI, the leading independent provider of Next Generation Service Assurance, Automation/Orchestration, and Analytics solutions to the world’s largest Communications Service Providers (CSPs), today announced an NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) solution that automatically directs NFV orchestration actions based on end-to-end service assurance factors, such as faults and QoS degradations, across hybrid, traditional and virtual networks.

The solution – based on MYCOM OSI’s ProActor™ product – is part of the TM Forum Catalyst proof of concept ‘Closing the Loop: Customer Experience, Policy and Virtualization’ being demonstrated at the TM Forum Live! Conference from 1 – 4 June, Nice, France.

Whilst NFV offers substantial benefits in the cost and agility of operating networks through highly dynamic and automated VNF (Virtual Network Function) deployment and elastic scaling, a key challenge for CSPs is how to maintain end-to-end network and service quality – which may cause up to 50% of customers to churn – across such a dynamic hybrid (virtual and physical) network.

An additional challenge is that industry standards and solution providers are currently focusing first on the implementation of the VNFs and the NFV management and orchestration environment rather than the complexities of controlling how VNF introduction impacts overall network and service quality, which could be highly detrimental if not managed adequately.

MYCOM OSI’s solution for NFV addresses these challenges: rather than NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) being used solely to make decisions for fulfillment functions, MYCOM OSI’s solution augments this role and utilizes the MANO for operational network quality improvement and assurance purposes. The solution continually collects and processes very large volumes of Customer and near real-time Service Assurance data from across the entire network, automates cross-domain analysis, and issues preventive and corrective recommendations to the NFV Orchestrator. Finally, to close the loop, MYCOM OSI’s solution continues to monitor the resulting performance to determine success or instigate further actions.

As part of providing closed loop monitoring, analysis and recommendations to the hybrid network managers, MYCOM OSI’s solution monitors the performance of the virtual network functions and physical NFV infrastructure they run on and correlates this with the rest of the physical network to provide end-to-end visibility.

The products in MYCOM OSI’s solution for NFV environments include:

  • MYCOM OSI ProActor™ programmable open- or closed-loop policy control and automation solution that can execute very complex business policies in areas such as Customer Experience Management, network planning and design, or network operation and optimization 
  • MYCOM OSI PrOptima™ converged (Fixed/IP/Mobile) Service and Network Performance Management solution with out-of-the-box support for multiple technologies, domains, and equipment vendors across access, backhaul, core, and service networks
  • MYCOM OSI ProInsight™ network analytics solution that dynamically bridges to and integrates business Big Data into network processes to deliver customer-centric network planning and operations

“NFV Orchestration should not be made in isolation of the overall network as otherwise there is a significant risk that the quality of overall network and services will suffer, and competing on network quality is a key business objective for progressive leading CSPs,” commented Mounir Ladki, President and CTO of MYCOM OSI, “This Catalyst proof of concept demonstrates that CSPs can deploy their NFV environments and maintain network and service quality not just within the NFV environment itself but also in the context of the overall network, which should help them mitigate the risks associated with introducing VNFs into the otherwise purpose-built physical network environments. But to do this, you need proven solutions that collect and process vast amounts of multi-domain network, service and customer data in near real time and execute sophisticated cross-domain operational processes all within an automated closed-loop process.”

See MYCOM OSI’s Solution for NFV in Action

If you are attending TM Forum Live! Conference and Exhibition you can see MYCOM OSI’s Catalyst ’Closing the Loop: Customer Experience, Policy and Virtualization’ in action on Booth 60 and in the TM Forum Catalyst Zone. For those unable to attend TM Forum Live! please contact MYCOM OSI for a demonstration.

The MYCOM OSI demonstration will look at the use case of a corporate social network service, VMware’s Socialcast, running across an LTE network that experiences a QoS degradation. MYCOM OSI’s ProActor™ automation product executes Root Cause Analysis on the Socialcast service that includes drilling-down to network resources using MYCOM OSI’s network and service performance management product, NIMS-PrOptima™. ProActor™ identifies two correlated root causes – one in the physical IP backhaul network and one in the virtualized core network – and recommends two actions, first to increase the buffer size on certain backhaul routers and second to scale out the virtual MME in the NFV environment. These commands are sent to both the Configuration Manager and the NFV Orchestrator. MYCOM OSI’s solution reports that QoS has been restored and ‘closes the loop’ by continuing to monitor the health of the Socialcast service.