Operations Development for 4G Aviation Network

Challenge/Opportunity

The client was starting deployment of a nationwide 4G network to provide bi-directional data and voice services to the leased and private aircraft market. Given the need to ensure end-to-end service availability encompassing the airborne and terrestrial 4G network, it was essential to develop an operations framework model in support of service assurance. In essence, the client required a Network Operations Center (NOC) model and solution capable of providing this support on a 24×7 basis.

Solution

An operations framework was developed defining the service support organization structure, operations methods and tools, and maintenance requirements to serve as the guiding model for implementation. A Process Framework was built defining the operations processes essential in support of the client’s requirements to ensure service availability, enable rapid detection and isolation of service anomalies, and to provide timely resolution in compliance with the service availability SLAs. Among the operations processes developed and implemented were:

• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Change and Maintenance Management
• Asset/Configuration Management (CMDB) and
• Coordination with Field (Cell Sites) Service Support Teams

In addition, the Operations Model and Requirements were used to identify and select a “best-in-class” NOC Provider to assume all NOC responsibilities as an extension of the client’s service operations team using the following criteria:

• Ability to deliver client requirements & service goals, service agreements & objectives, and achieve desired outcomes for operations monitoring and management
• Compliance with requirements for roles and responsibilities in support of process execution and effective/consistent use of tools and reporting
• Ability to demonstrate adherence to operations skillset requirements to achieve proficiency at levels 1, 2, and 3 in support of all service operations tasks.

Benefits

The initial benefits included the ability of the NOC to monitor the operations infrastructure, rapidly detect incidents, and respond with the correct action to maintain service health and availability during the early stages of network deployment. Significant focus was made to understand the roles of the managed assets comprising the service network to decrease time of incident isolation, identify a root cause, and to proactively protect service availability. A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) was developed for this purpose to record the current operational state and create descriptive attributes and relationships of all software and hardware assets having a role in service delivery. The CMDB was integrated with other OSS tools (NMS, Ticketing) to automate the requirements of rapid incident identification & resolution, problem management root cause identification, and the tracking and recording of all changes.

The following Widelity disciplines and skill sets contributed to the success of the operations framework solution:

• Operations Framework Development
• Network and IT Support Model Development
• Network Operations Requirements Identification & Prioritization
• RFP Development and Management
• Development of Monitoring, Management & Resolution Use Cases
• ITIL Service Management Process Development & Implementation
• Training Requirements Development and Onboarding the NOC Staff
• Vendor & Customer Management Policy and Process Integration