Inter-Operator Provisioning

Inter-Operator Provisioning (IOP) is the exchange of operational information between communications providers and other authorised downstream third parties in order to execute the administration of Number Portability (NP) orders, the registration of customers onto Directory Enquiries (DQ) and Emergency Services (EMG) databases, and manage activation requests to wholesale providers of voice and data products such as SMPF, ADSL, WLR and CPS. This transmission of information and handling of the order from initiation to closure must be robust and follow exact processes that are frequently dictated by industry standards.

iop-architecture-v02

To respond to these requirements, Cartesian has developed Ascertain IOP to automate all requests to and from such third parties and number portability partners, and efficiently, yet flexibly manage the order lifecycle. Based on the Ascertain Framework, which is the core of all Cartesian revenue assurance and provisioning products, IOP has been designed to be adaptable to the conventions agreed with downstream third parties whilst integrating seamlessly with in-house systems.

By using the Ascertain Framework as the harness to develop point solutions, our clients benefit from well-tested and integrated modules that enable functions such as loading data, building network models and reporting on issues, all accessible through an impressive and intuitive front-end. Operator-specific needs can be simply met while retaining the merits of an industry-standard, evolutionary framework.

Building on the Ascertain Framework, we offer individual product components that address specific third-party provisioning objectives:

controlling activity life-cycles
monitoring the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of exchanged data
ensuring adherence to industry requirements
managing the assignment and observance of activation forecasts
providing focussed reports on open, closed, cancelled and failed orders

This modular approach provides flexibility and scalability, which allows them to be integrated and configured quickly and effectively to meet particular customer requirements.

Features and Benefits

IOP has been designed using the latest technologies, ensuring an optimal level of service and stability. This section details some of the key features and benefits that it offers.

Multiple Service Provisioning

The modularity of IOP means that it can support any of the following third-party order services. In addition, requests between these services can be coordinated so that, for example, registration on DQ and EMG systems can be automatically undertaken in reaction to a telephony service activation.

registration, amendment or ceasing of Emergency Service entries on the BT Telesto or C&W EDIS databases
registration, amendment or ceasing of Directory Enquiries entries on the BT LORS2 system
provisioning of GNP order management with the addition of initiating the switch activation on the day of porting
provisioning of CPS and/or WLR products with wholesale providers
provisioning of SMPF products with wholesale providers
provisioning of ADSL products with wholesale providers

Modular Architecture

The IOP architecture is componentised into discrete modules and services. Each module provides a distinct set of functionality, and plugs into the core product to offer a high degree of flexibility and customisation. This also facilitates the quick and cost-effective implementation tailored solutions to our customers.

Order State Management

IOP operates a state model that is driven by configurable reference data. This enables it to effortlessly handle complex lifecycle models for provisioning requests, orders and transactions. Furthermore, multiple models can be devised to meet diverse scenarios. In order to facilitate the management of this functionality, IOP can generate directed graph diagrams allowing easy visualisation. See the Dynamic State Model Visualisation section for further details.

Multiple Communication Protocol Technologies

IOP provides support for both standard and proprietary communication protocol technologies. This ensures that it interfaces readily with a diverse range of upstream and downstream systems, both within your network architecture and with third-party partners. IOP can interface to systems using, amongst others:

FTP
SFTP
Raw TCP sockets
XML over HTTP(S)
SOAP
Connect:Direct (Sterling Commerce)
XFB (Axway)
Fax
email

Automated Gateway Interface

The high degree of automation offered within IOP has been designed to simplify third-party provisioning procedures. Complex, often industry-standard, business rules required to administer provisioning and number porting requests are handled by IOP and simplify BAU processes. And it will intelligently determine when user-intervention is required in order to progress and order.

Efficient Archiving

As the IOP system is designed to process significant volumes of data, an important function is the deletion and archiving of old data. The maximum age of orders to be kept online can be defined by the user, and automated processes within IOP can send orders older than this age to an online archive. This ensures that IOP’s run-time footprint is minimal, and allows for maximum speed and effectiveness of processing. The age parameter is table- or area-specific so that, for example, file summary data can be kept for two years, while sample data can be stored for just six months. Archived orders are quickly accessible and can be retrieved via an easy-to-use search interface. For long-term audit purposes, this data can be exported and archived using standard Oracle functionality.

Asynchronous Order Processing

IOP supports a number of different communication methods in order to interface with the variety of external systems used to provide third-party services. In order to perform this efficiently and reduce latency, IOP is configured to support asynchronous order processing. This allows IOP to perform more transactions and handle more orders than a conventional synchronous order based system.

Configurable Validation

Sets of validation rules that are applied to orders which are created on the basis of data from upstream systems, or received from downstream third parties, can be configured within IOP. These are then dynamically chosen at run time dependant on the service order type and downstream third party.

Benchmarks and Statistics

Performance of IOP will be dependent on the power of the hardware upon which the Oracle database runs. However, an instance of IOP and Oracle running on the same Sun V490 with 16GB of RAM and disk located on a SAN can process an average of 600,000 orders (of various types) per month. Peaks in excess of 1,000,000 orders per month can be handled.

Open Standards

The technology we use is carefully chosen, and developed using current, open standards. Such technologies include:

JDBC - Provides fast database connections without tying the database location into the application. IOP can run with the database either located locally on the same machine, or as part of a distributed enterprise architecture.
J2EE - IOP is based on Java to isolate it from hardware specifics. This greatly increases the flexibility of choice when selecting the hardware platform.
SOAP - IOP is capable of using many different interface technologies to communicate with other providers, such as SOAP. IOP supports the use of both synchronous and asynchronous web services to manage the lifecycle of orders.
JMS - IOP uses Java Message Services internally for its robust and efficient transaction handling. It can also send and receive messages with other systems through a shared JMS server.
Thin-Client -The Ascertain web-based front-end is accessible through any standard HTML browser, and can effortlessly be rolled out across the company. It delivers impressive, user-adaptable screens, and produces reports that integrate seamlessly with standard desktop applications, such as Microsoft Excel.

The back-end is built on Java to allow portability across the widest range of hardware platforms, using an Oracle database for storing configuration data, application data, audit trails, job-tracking and security information.