導入「新一代電信營運系統和軟體」之中介軟體方法

Abstract

電信業者既有的營運支援系統(Operations Support Systems; 簡稱OSS)和業務支援系統(Business Support Systems; 簡稱BSS)普遍存在系統間訊息交換不易、系統架構與平台互異、程式語言不一等問題，因而造成既有系統維護成本偏高、後續功能擴充不易、新系統整合困難等難題。電信管理論壇(TeleManagement Forum; 簡稱TMF)為了解決這些問題，推出新一代營運支援系統和軟件(New Generation Operation Systems and Software; 簡稱NGOSS)之發展範本藍圖。雖然NGOSS架構滿足了電信業者的需求，但當電信業者現有營運系統與NGOSS架構有落差時，無法立即將所有的運作中的營運或業務支援系統全面更換或升級，因此如何漸進式演進為NGOSS架構便成為一項具挑戰性的工作。本論文提出一個系統化的方法－中介軟體架構(Middleware Architecture)，透過中介軟體來讓現有營運支援系統漸進演進至NGOSS標準且和既有系統整合互運的方法；並用一個實際的例子展現這個系統化方法，並且以新供裝3G語音(3G Voice)服務、3G上網(3G Data Access)服務和來電答鈴(Personal Ring Back Tone, PRBT)服務的訊息流程來展示系統演進後的訊息流程。

With the fast advance of networking technologies and new services, telecom service providers need to introduce new Operational Support Systems (OSS) for managing their business. Traditional OSS development were often dedicated to the management of individual services or products, which requires considerable maintenance and integration cost when the number of OSSs keeps growing. The Next Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) framework proposed by the TeleManagement Forum is one of the solutions for this problem. Although the NGOSS framework meets the needs of service providers, it is di±cult to replace or modify all OSSs at once. The process of migration to NGOSS is generally incremental. Since most existing legacy OSSs do not follow the NGOSS framework, it becomes a challenging work to develop a new OSS following the NGOSS framework while keeping other legacy OSSs unchanged. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach (Middleware Architecture) for migrating existing legacy systems to NGOSS-Compliant systems. A practical provisioning system is given as an example to explain the proposed approach. Message °ows of three services, 3G voice, 3G data access, and Personal Ring Back Tone (PRBT), are also given to show how the new system works.