Alcatel-Lucent
5650 Control Plane
Assurance Manager
Extending IP/MPLS Management with
Integrated Control Plane Management
and Visibility
Overview
Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager2
They make it difficult to provide
more consistent service delivery
quality. They impact the ability to
offer stricter service level agreements
(SLAs) that can differentiate
service offerings. And they make it
impos sible to cost-effectively scale
Internet protocol/multi-protocol
label switching (IP/MPLS) opera tions because network operators
must rely on scarce IP routing experts
to manually resolve Layer 2 and 3
service and MPLS infrastructure
provisioning problems caused by
the routing plane.
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control
Plane Assurance Manager (CPAM)
closes this gap in IP/MPLS manage ment. It offers real-time control
plane visualization, proactive control
plane surveillance, configuration
validation, and control plane diag nosis. In addition, by seamlessly
integrating with the Alcatel-Lucent
5620 Service Aware Manager
(SAM), the 5650 CPAM provides
simplified diagnosis and intuitive
visualization of the relationship
between services, the MPLS infra structure and the routing plane.
A significant portion of service failures, provisioning problems and
troubleshooting delays can be directly attributed to control plane
mis-configuration, undetected routing topology changes and the lack
of simple tools that could be used to understand the control plane’s
impact on services. These operational inefficiencies lead to a number
of business problems for service providers.
3Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager
Solving Control Plane Operational
Issues with the 5650 CPAM
Service providers offering business critical services
and delivery sensitive residential applications such as
video can’t afford to let their customers down. Their
reputation for consistent service delivery quality and
adherence to SLAs is crucial. Since IP and MPLS
provide the control plane technology that allows
services to be rerouted around failures, leaving this
critical technology unsupervised and manually operated
can lead to unintended SLA violations. In addition,
relying on scarce IP routing experts to provision and
troubleshoot the MPLS infrastructure and services is
not efficient for mainstream operations.
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM offers routing archi tects and network operators an effective tool that can
be used to isolate and resolve control plane problems,
and under stand the impact of control plane changes
on services [Table 1].
The 5650 CPAM delivers this functionality based
on real-time control plane information provided by
the Alcatel-Lucent 7701 Control Plane Assurance
Appliance (CPAA). The 7701 CPAA is a route
listening and route processing hardware device that
non-intrusively participates in routing plane signaling.
It is based on Alcatel-Lucent’s proven and evolving
service router operating system (SR-OS).
CUSTOMER ISSUE
Error-prone and time-consuming
manual verification of control plane
configuration and topology
Services are sometimes impacted by
routing changes that are invisible to
network operations
Lack of simple control plane tools inte grated with service and network views
impede network operators from resolv ing service/MPLS provisioning fall-outs
and service failures related to the control
plane; operators must rely on highlypaid and scarce IP routing resources
BENEFITS
Accelerates verification and
troubleshooting of the control plane and
reduces service MTTR and ability to offer
stricter SLAs
Proactive control plane change detection
and impact analysis enables service
providers to offer stricter service SLAs
Enables the service provider to costeffectively scale operations by enabling
network operators to understand the
relationship between service/tunnels
and the control plane in order to resolve
provisioning issues, without the help
of scarce IP experts
HOW THE 5650 CPAM ADDRESSES THE ISSUE
Graphical control plane topology validation and diagnosis
Proactive control plane surveillance and instant visualization
of control plane, IP and MPLS path changes
5620 SAM SLA monitoring integrated with 5650 CPAM MPLS
tunnel monitoring for instant impact analysis of tunnel
changes on service delivery
Simple graphical representation of the control plane
topology and diagnosis tools
5620 SAM service (Layer 2 and 3), MPLS tunnel and OAM
trace overlay on the 5650 CPAM control plane topology view
Table 1. Solving Service Provider Issues with the 5650 CPAM
4 Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager
While IP/MPLS control plane protocols are crucial to
enabling unprecedented cost-effectiveness for rerouting
around failures, the majority of today’s management
applications from other equipment vendors do not
concern themselves with monitoring the operational
state of the control plane, providing topology visualization or validating its configuration. The reason for this
management gap is historical.
The first successful, large scale, IP-based networks were
deployed to support residential high speed Internet (HSI)
connectivity. This high volume, low cost, best-effort
service did not warrant the need for sophisticated
management software to track service SLAs. Aside from
an emphasis on using IT methods to flexibly provision
subscribers, IP operations for this type of network relied
on low value element management systems (EMS) to
configure and monitor basic infrastructure.
But the advent of mission critical business services
and service delivery sensitive subscriber services such
as video — all riding over an IP/MPLS infrastructure —
has changed service providers’ management needs.
Simplifying service provisioning, reducing MTTR and
assuring a high quality of service has become paramount.
Alcatel-Lucent responded to this need by introducing
comprehensive element, network and service manage ment in one platform — the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service
Aware Manager [Figure 2].
Re-Defining IP/MPLS Management
Figure 2. Alcatel-Lucent 5620 SAM Provides Element, Network and Service Management in ONE platform
Service Management
Network Management
Element Management
Managing
Customer Service
Managing Logically
Linked Nodes
Managing
Physical Hardware
5620 SAM
5Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager
The 5620 SAM allows operators to
focus on managing services. It intel ligently correlates corresponding
network objects and the effect of
their status on service delivery. This
service management model provides
multi-technol ogy and multi-layer
service provisioning, service alarm
management, service/customer
impact analysis, auto-generated
service test suite and service mediation (service statistics, alarms, inventory and provisioning) for operation
support systems (OSS).
By fully integrating the 5650 CPAM’s
control plane management capability with
the 5620 SAM’s leading element, network
and service management, Alcatel-Lucent
offers a next generation management
model that meets service provider’s
expectation of a carrier class IP/MPLS
management solution.
To take carrier class network and
service management to the next
level, service providers need the
ability to pro-actively manage the
intelligent protocols that make
routing decisions that are invisible
to the management plane.
With the addition of the 5650
CPAM, Alcatel-Lucent closes
that remaining management gap
by offering proac tive control plane
surveillance, validation, diagnosis
and seamless integration with
the 5620 SAM’s comprehen sive
service and MPLS infrastructure
management tools.
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM
revolutionizes IP/MPLS manage ment. It is the industry’s first offthe-shelf equipment vendor solution
that enables network operators to
overlay Layer 2 and 3 services,
MPLS tunnels, and OAM traces
on the control plane topology map.
By doing this, it allows network
operators to visualize multiple layers
in one simple integrated view, which
enables them to understand the
relationship between these layers
and their effect on each other.
The seamless navigation and inte gration between the 5620 SAM and
the 5650 CPAM allows network
operators to visualize service paths
through the routed network. It also
Industry’s First Integrated Service
and Control Plane Management Solution
Figure 3. Re-defining IP/MPLS Operations with Integrated Service and Control Plane Management
Service troubleshooting time is further reduced by
allowing operators to instantly determine whether
a control plane topology change caused a variation
in service quality.
allows service providers to under stand path changes through a
comparison of historical and
current paths.
By empowering network operators
with simple visual tools that auto mat i cally track and correlate complex
control plane topology, the 5650
CPAM decreases troubleshooting
time and reliance on IP routing
Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager6
experts to solve provisioning or
customer reported problems. This
comprehensive approach, although
incremental in nature for AlcatelLucent 5620 SAM customers, repre sents a new foundation for managing
IP/MPLS networks. It integrates
element, network, and service and
control plane management into a
single IP/MPLS management
solution [Figure 3].
Routing
Expert
Service
IP
Routing
Physical Network
Infrastructure
MPLS
Forwarding
5620 SAM5650 CPAM5650 CPAM
Network
Operator
5620 SAM5650 CPAM
By leveraging best-in-class and proven technologies
from the Alcatel-Lucent service router portfolio, the
comprehensive 5650 CPAM can efficiently be deployed
in a service provider’s environment without introducing
significant risk or cost [Figure 4].
The real-time control plane information is provided to
the 5650 CPAM by the Alcatel-Lucent 7701 CPAA,
which non-intrusively participates in routing plane
signaling. This appliance provides firsthand knowledge
of control plane topology and operational status of all
routers in the network, including third party routers.
In addition, the 7701 CPAA processes user generated
requests for real-time path computation that can span
multiple areas. All 7701 CPAAs in a network are
centrally configured and managed by the 5620 SAM.
The 5650 CPAM is seamlessly integrated with the
5620 SAM to provide in-context navigation from
provisioned services, tunnels, label switched paths (LSPs)
and historical OAM traces. It re-uses the 5620 SAM
physical infrastructure and user interface menus, thereby
allowing service providers to leverage their 5620 SAM
server platform, database and training investment.
Similarly, the well established 5620 SAM OSS interface
is extended to provide a single, common northbound
interface for both products. This approach reduces the
complexity associated with introducing a new applica tion in a service provider’s network environment.
Leveraging the Market Leading
Alcatel-Lucent Service Router Portfolio
Figure 4. Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM
Deployment in a Service Provider’s Network
Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager 7
OSS
SAM-O and CPAM-O
5620 SAM 5650 CPAM
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM
routing topology map displays
relationships between all reach -
able routers in the administrative
areas, including third party routers.
This multi-vendor feature enables
operators to unify control plane
management under one manage -
ment model and further simplifies
multi-vendor, routed core
management.
Key Features
Proactive Control Plane Surveillance
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM provides a number of mechanisms that
monitor control plane health.
With proactive control plane surveillance, an alarm generated by the
5650 CPAM alerts operators that the routing plane is undergoing changes
that exceed a configurable limit. Operators can navigate to a control plane
topology map where all new or deleted IP routes are color coded to help
them zero in on the routes affected by the routing updates [Figure 5].
The collected routing events can then be inspected for details about the
changes that have occurred. In addition, operators can locate specific routes
and LSPs that were affected by the changes and highlight the changes to
discover whether the control plane behaved as expected.
The 5650 CPAM also enables specific source destination combinations
to be actively monitored for routing changes using the MPLS tunnel and
IP route monitoring feature. Should changes be detected, the 5650 CPAM
records the new route, which can later be highlighted and compared to the
previous (historical) routes.
Control Plane Visualization, Validation and Diagnosis
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM graphically displays the entire control
plane topology, including routers from third party vendors. It uses different
colors for each administrative routing area and different icons to represent
different router roles [Figure 6].
Figure 6. Multi-area OSPF Topology DisplayFigure 5. Color-Coded Route Changes From Baseline
Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager8
In addition to this intuitive visual
topology display, routing architects
can trigger various queries that will
compute multi-area, end-to-end
routes based on real-time routing
information. The results are high lighted on the topology maps.
For troubleshooting MPLS protocols,
the 5650 CPAM provides super imposed MPLS and IP protocol
peering. This helps operators
detect incomplete MPLS or IP
peering that affect the MPLS
protocol’s operation.
The 5650 CPAM also includes a
powerful control plane configura tion search engine that detects and
highlights traffic engineering configurations that deviate from standard
implementations (e.g. different traffic
engineering parameters, incomplete
peering, available bandwidth
configuration, etc.)
Figure 7. Expanding the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 SAM Service Topology
View with Underlying Control Plane Topology
Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager 9
5620 SAM Layer 2 and 3 Service,
MPLS Tunnels and OAM Trace
Overlays
The virtual private routed network
(VPRN), virtual private line service
(VPLS), virtual private wire service
(VPWS) composite services, MPLS
tunnels and LSPs provisioned
(active and alternate paths) in the
5620 SAM can be highlighted over
the 5650 CPAM control plane map.
This feature allows operators to
understand the path used to
traverse the network, the number
of hops along the path, whether
the forward/return paths follow the
same route and view all provisioned
alternate paths for a given LSP
[Figure 7].
Should the 5620 SAM SLA
monitoring feature report service
quality degradation, a network
operator can extract the OAM
trace results for the corresponding
MPLS tunnel (path) from the
5620 SAM and verify if the path
was recently changed. Any changes
are graph ically highlighted over
the control plane topology map
to provide a visual comparison
between previous and current paths,
which might account for the sudden
change in service quality.
5650 CPAM Service Overlay
5620 SAM Service View
Asymmetrical Route
10 Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager
PROACTIVE CONTROL VISUAL VALIDATION TROUBLESHOOTING SERVICES
5650 CPAM FEATURE PLANE SURVEILLANCE AND DIAGNOSIS & TUNNELS FOR OPERATORS
Multi-Area, Color Coded Graphical Topology Views x x
Superimposed MPLS and IGP Views x x
Multi-vendor IP Topology Display x x
MPLS Tunnel & IP Route Monitoring x x
Real-time Topology Tracking from Baseline x x
Routing Event Browser x x x
Threshold Crossing Alarms on Routing Events x x
SPF, Equal Cost Route, Forward Reverse Highlights x x
MPLS Tunnel and IP Route Highlight x x
Incomplete IGP, LDP, RSVP Perrring Detection x x
Control Plane Parameter Search/Highlight x x
VPRN, VPLS, VPWS, Composite Service Highight x
MPLS Tunnel, LSP and Protection Path Highlight x
Service and MPLS Tunnel OAM Trace Highlight x x
While provisioning network infra structure or services, network oper ators now have visualization and
diagnostic tools at their fingertips
that allow them to identify what
is causing provisioning fall-outs.
For example, should an LSP fail to
become operational, the network
operator can verify that all IP and
MPLS protocols are opera tional, and
use path computations with different
parameters to identify whether the
lack of available bandwidth is causing the problem.
In short, whether solving provi sioning fall-outs, service failures or
proactively detecting control plane
issues, the Alcatel-Lucent 5650
CPAM offers a range of features
that enable routing architects and
network operators to link service
and control plane management
and simplify IP/MPLS operations
[Table 2].
Table 2. Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM Solves Control Plane Issues
11Alcatel-Lucent 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager
For this reason, Alcatel-Lucent continues to develop
innovative network management tools and processes.
This ongoing innovation allows Alcatel-Lucent to offer
a comprehensive portfolio of management applications
that enable service providers to improve and scale their
operations, reduce time-to-market and differentiate
their service offerings.
The 5650 CPAM enables proactive monitoring, intu itive diagnosis and simple routing design validation. But
it is its seamless integration with the Alcatel-Lucent
service aware management portfolio that truly elevates
this solution as the new standard for carrier class
IP/MPLS management.
Innovative IP/MPLS Management with Alcatel-Lucent
Service providers understand that adopting IP/MPLS
as the technol ogy of choice requires them to develop
an operational capability that will support their growth.
Alcatel-Lucent has a long tradition of excellence in
network management and leadership in carrier
Ethernet solutions, and continues to set the network
and service management bar far beyond basic element
management systems.
Alcatel-Lucent believes that opera tional efficiency has a critical impact
on a service provider’s success with
the deployment of new revenue
generating services, such as business
virtual private networks (VPNS)
and triple play residential services
over an IP/MPLS network.
www.alcatel-lucent.com
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trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to
change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein.
© 2007 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved. 22087 (06)
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