3G Sponsored by SPIRENT

 

 

Four Key Challenges for Operators in 3G Rollouts

15th September, 2004

Europe : We've all been hearing about 3G for years, but it's finally happening in the United States. U.S. carriers are beginning to migrate to true high-speed wireless systems like EV-DO and UMTS. However, as we have witnessed in Europe and in the United States, the migration to 3G systems has not been an easy one for most carriers.

Actix, the global provider of wireless performance engineering software, has helped more than 90 percent of 3G operators worldwide launch pre-commercial or commercial 3G networks for EV-DO, EDGE and UMTS technology. These operators have deployed Actix 3G software solutions to assist in troubleshooting, optimization and rollout of their new networks.

"The trick to a smooth 3G rollout is to recognize that the heightened complexity of 3G networks requires a significant change to existing rollout processes," said Jeff Atkins, CTO of Actix. "Actix understands the impact of this complexity from working side by side with leading operators as they rollout their 3G networks and is now offering new solutions specifically designed to combat the key challenges that emerge due to this complexity."

In its work across the globe, Actix has helped operators overcome some key challenges that they face when rolling out 3G networks, including:

1) Lack of Stability - As with any new technology, network glitches in 3G are a major problem. Technology development groups are struggling to stabilize new 3G technology to the point where they can hand it off to their operational colleagues. A key part of this challenge is being able to provide operational teams with tools and techniques to assess when the network is performing abnormally and to isolate and quantify these problems. Delays in handoff can result in millions of dollars of additional expense for every month of delay, not to mention lost service revenues.

2) Lack of Widespread Expertise - After launch, operators struggle to "raise the game" of their field engineers and to transfer the knowledge and experience held in the technology development groups into the broader organization. The result can be haphazard implementation of new processes, inconsistent quality of service and a reduced ability to troubleshoot and resolve problems.

3) Getting Rid of the Bugs - Also after handoff, a variety of bugs from billing issues and device interoperability to standards issues continue to make it through to the customer. Testing processes simply cannot recreate all possible iterations of situations that will occur in the real world - particularly due to the fact that the complexity of the 3G technology and the proliferation of vendors combined have both led to an incredibly complex interaction between network elements and devices and protocol layers.

4) The Need for "Silo Busting" - What makes these bugs even more difficult to resolve are the traditional "silos" of functional expertise that operators have established. Quite often, symptoms of problems don't clearly indicate what part of the network is causing the problem. As a result, trouble tickets raised in response to customer complaints bounce between silos unresolved.

How has Actix helped its carrier customers address these issues?

-- By Providing Vendor-independent Process Automation - Using Actix software, technology development groups can independently assess multiple vendors' infrastructure using data from open interfaces, which allows them to quickly assess when the network is performing abnormally and to isolate and quantify these problems. Furthermore, technology development groups can embed tests into Actix software to check for network glitches, turning tasks that once took two to three man weeks into two to three man hours and allowing them to stabilize the network to the point where they can hand off network performance to their operational colleagues.

-- By Enabling the Creation of Embedded Expertise - Because Actix solutions enable technology development groups to embed the best practices and troubleshooting techniques learned during trials and first market applications into software, these development groups can develop and pass on a consistent set of acceptance and troubleshooting processes via software. This enables these groups to transfer their knowledge and experience, thus helping field engineers come up to speed with the new technology more quickly.

-- By Enabling End-to-end Troubleshooting - Using Actix software, technology development and field engineering groups can gain an end-to-end view of the network, giving them an unprecedented ability to isolate the network elements or protocol layers at the root of complex problems. This allows them to quickly fix bugs while also determining what part of the network is causing a glitch - thus also taking care of the silo problem. Recently, one major operator spent weeks trying to isolate a sporadic data session initiation problem with one vendor's PDSN (Packet Data Serving Node). Within a few hours of installing Actix software, they were able to isolate the problem, quantify how often the problem occurred and get the vendor to start working on fixing it. Actix solutions enable field engineers to take on a triage function, isolating and quantifying problems on the front line, fixing the simple problems and passing the complex ones back to service troubleshooting tiger teams, technology development groups, and/or vendors.

Actix's professional services team includes former engineers, managers and directors from operators and vendors. With the experience to review rollout and acceptance processes, they have helped carriers across the globe reduce the complexity of their network rollouts by developing new metrics and process changes, and then integrating these processes into software for operator customers.

About Actix

A privately held company founded in 1991, Actix is the international market-leader in Wireless Performance Engineering software. Actix solutions address two of the biggest issues facing wireless operators today: the need to squeeze more out of their existing network investments and the race to generate significant new revenue from wireless data services.

Actix Intelligent Performance Engineering solutions enable wireless operators and manufacturers to optimize network performance, enhance service quality and gain detailed awareness of the customer experience. The company's vendor-independent solutions analyze data from all major wireless vendors and technologies, from 2G to 3G. Applications include: network performance troubleshooting, verification of customer-perceived service quality; competitive analysis and accelerated new-technology rollout.

Over 5,000 engineers from more than 170 operators globally - including Verizon, Orange, Vodafone, SKT Korea, Hutchinson 3G and T-Mobile - depend upon Actix software everyday to improve their wireless operations. Actix has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Asia Pacific and China.

Home ProZone Subscribe To Newsletter 3G Forum