Page 1
A P P L I C A T I O N N O T E
Service-aware IP management for the
Ultimate Wireless Packet Core
Page 2
Abstract
Long Term Evolution (LTE), such as realized in the Alcatel-Lucent Ultimate Wireless Packet Core,
represents much more than an upgrade to the wireless network. It means the convergence of the
mobile and supporting transport layers into an all IP-based network. This transformation poses
significant operational challenges to mobile operators. Maintaining a high-quality customer
experience within an all-IP network requires operators to respond quickly to the dynamic nature
of IP-based services with a network management environment designed to support them.
In particular, operating an all-IP network for advanced mobile services requires powerful network
management capabilities that are aware of services end-to-end. Such an efficient network management
system is crucial to containing the network’s total cost of ownership, optimizing asset usage, and
streamlining multi-technology network operations.
Alcatel-Lucent offers precisely the kind of service-aware network management system required for
the Ultimate Wireless Packet Core. With the seamlessly integrated 5620 Service Aware Manager
(SAM) and 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager (CPAM), Alcatel-Lucent provides a scalable
solution which meets the next-generation IP management challenges of new mobile networks while
minimizing the cost of network operations.
This paper details how the advanced configuration, assurance, performance monitoring, and
security management capabilities of the 5620 SAM and 5650 CPAM allow cost-effective, end-toend management of the Ultimate Wireless Packet Core, the wireless backhaul, and the underlying
IP/MPLS transport network.
Page 3
Table of contents
1 1. Introduction
1 2. Ultimate Wireless Packet Core network management
2 3. Advanced route and path management
3 4. Configuration management
3 Control plane bearer deployment
4 Configuration policy audits
4 5. Fault management
4 Mobile and transport layer assurance
4 EPS path visualization
6 OAM test management
6 Cross-layer (Mobile/IP transport) path correlation
7 IP reachability monitoring
7 6. Performance management
9 7. Security management
9 8. OSS integration
9 9. Conclusion
Page 4
1. Introduction
Alcatel-Lucent Ultimate Wireless Packet Core solves the investment dilemma facing mobile operators
by providing a single, converged mobile packet core that supports both LTE Evolved Packet Core
(EPC) and 3GPP packet core functionality. The result is a service-aware, all-IP core network that
simultaneously addresses the immediate requirements of delivering 2.5/3G services, as well as the
more stringent control and data plane requirements of LTE. By supporting mobile broadband
services that use any 3GPP radio access technology (GERAN, UTRAN, E-UTRAN), the Ultimate
Wireless Packet Core gives operators both a scalable, high-performance 3GPP core that addresses
existing capacity constraints and the flexibility to migrate to LTE at their own pace.
Network management will play a key role in the success of LTE, and mobile operators must look
beyond traditional element and network management solutions to manage the service volumes
and complexities of their new mobile networks. Existing, and often manual, processes are slow and
error prone, driving up operations costs; reactive problem detection leads to longer outages and
dissatisfied customers; and integration with existing systems and processes is expensive and timeconsuming, making it extremely difficult to protect existing investments.
The Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) frees mobile operators from the traditional
boundaries of element and network management, offering advanced assurance and provisioning
capabilities designed for the complexities of all-IP networks. When combined with the 5650 Control
Plane Assurance Manager (CPAM), the 5620 SAM provides advanced troubleshooting capabilities
that integrate physical, routing, and service topologies, simplifying fault isolation and thereby minimizing service interruptions. The 5620 SAM also provides flexible, automated configuration and
provisioning tools that reduce the possibility of human error. Equipped with powerful, standardsbased OSS interfaces, the 5620 SAM easily adapts to existing OSS environments for faster and
more cost-effective integration.
2. Ultimate Wireless Packet Core network management
The Alcatel-Lucent 5620 SAM, with the 5650 CPAM, provides comprehensive element and
end-to-end IP management for the Alcatel-Lucent Ultimate Wireless Packet Core (SGW, SGSN/
MME, PCRF, PGW/GGSN) and mobile backhaul (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. IP ma nagement for the Alcatel-L ucent Ultimate Wireless Packet Core and mobile backhaul
UTRAN
UMTS, HSPA
E-UTRAN
LTE
GERAN
GPRS, EDGE
Mobile backhaul
SGW
5620 SAM,
5650 CPAM
SGSN/MME
Ultimate Wireless
Packet Core
PCRF
PGW/GGSN
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote 1
Page 5
This document outlines the capabilities and benefits of service-aware network management in the
context of LTE/EPC. These include:
• Configuration management, allowing coordinated deployment of configuration data across
network elements operating at both the mobile and transport layers
• Multi-layer performance management, enabling aspects of self-optimization for the EPC
and transport layer
• Multi-layer fault correlation and root cause analysis, simplifying fault isolation and recovery
• Visualization of the inter-domain relationships (between mobile services and underlying
IP/MPLS transport layer), enabling operators to understand the interactions between layers
and easily isolate/resolve network issues
• Comprehensive SLA monitoring that proactively detects and isolates SLA violations within
any layer of the network
• End-to-end assurance coordinated across all network layers, further easing fault isolation
and resolution
• Management of multiple backhaul strategies employed in both LTE and 2G/3G mobile environments
• Coordinated security infrastructure, providing operator scope and span of control
• A single GUI, simplifying service introduction and reducing training requirements
• XML-based northbound interfaces, facilitating integration with higher level OSS/BSS systems
3. Advanced route and path management
A significant portion of service failures, provisioning problems, and troubleshooting delays can be
directly attributed to IP control plane misconfiguration, undetected routing topology changes, and
the lack of simple management tools that reveal the control plane’s impact on network services. These
operational inefficiencies can lead to a number of business problems for mobile service providers.
Operational inefficiencies make it difficult both to provide consistent quality of service delivery and
to meet strict service level agreements (SLAs) that can differentiate service offerings. Inefficiencies
can also make it impossible to scale network operations cost-effectively, such as when network
operators must rely on scarce in-house IP routing experts to manually resolve Layer 3 infrastructure
provisioning problems caused by routing plane misconfiguration.
The Alcatel-Lucent 5650 CPAM provides multivendor IP/MPLS route and path analytics, closing the
gap in IP/MPLS control plane management. The 5650 CPAM simplifies management of dynamic
IP/MPLS networks, offering scalable, proactive detection and rapid resolution of control plane issues.
The 5650 CPAM is tightly integrated with the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 SAM, giving service providers
the industry’s first and only fully integrated platform for service-aware element, network, service, and
control plane management of IP/MPLS networks. By leveraging its integration with the 5620 SAM,
the 5650 CPAM provides simplified diagnosis and intuitive visualization of the relationship between
the mobile service layer and the IP/MPLS transport layer.
With the 5650 CPAM, network operators can overlay layer 2 and 3 services, MPLS tunnels and
service validation traces on the control plane topology map to visualize multiple layers in a single
and integrated view.
The 5650 CPAM’s multi-layer, cross-domain capabilities are based on real-time, multivendor 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 in order to obtain details about control plane topology and
the operational status of all routers in the network, including third-party devices. The operating
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote2
Page 6
system in the 7701 CPAA is based on Alcatel-Lucent’s proven and continuously evolving Service
Router Operating System (SR OS).
The balance of this paper describes the capabilities of the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 SAM and Alcatel-Lucent
5650 CPAM and their combined deployment for the end-to-end management of the Ultimate Wireless
Packet Core and underlying IP/MPLS transport layer.
4. Configuration management
The 5620 SAM GUI-based interface provides access to all network elements from a single management
point in the network. Intuitive forms support configuration of all aspects of the Ultimate Wireless
Packet Core elements and simplify provisioning. The 5620 SAM allows for increased automation
through provisioning templates and policies that significantly accelerate provisioning while greatly
reducing provisioning errors.
Control plane bearer deployment
Figure 2 illustrates the 5620 SAM’s multi-platform capabilities — in this case, defining the behavior
of S5 paths between multiple serving and PDN gateways.
Figure 2. 5650 SAM control plane configuration
The configuration forms shown above define global policies on the 5620 SAM that control the
behavior of GTP running over S5 paths between S and P gateways. Once the definition is set, the
policy is dispatched to an operator-defined set of gateway nodes and applied locally to the S5 path
endpoints on the target nodes. If the operator subsequently changes one or more parameters in the
global policy, this change is automatically dispatched to the network elements using this policy,
updating local copies of the policy. Using policies to define configuration parameters speeds network
turn-up and ensures consistent behavior across a desired set of network elements.
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote 3
Page 7
Configuration policy audits
The 5620 SAM provides a configuration policy audit capability, which allows operators to verify
deployed configurations in the network against configurations defined by 5620 SAM policies. The
5620 SAM compares the master configuration rules stored in the 5620 SAM database with the
configuration deployed on managed network elements, identifying discrepancies and allowing
operators to correct (or accept) the discrepancy.
The 5620 SAM’s northbound interface allows OSS access to all configurable items of the Ultimate
Wireless Packet Core elements, enabling optional flow-through provisioning.
5. Fault management
The 5620 SAM provides a complete fault management solution for all network layers, including:
• Intelligent alarm creation based on events generated by the MME, SGW, PGW, PCRF, the
eNodeB data plane, and transport layer network elements (These alarms are stored in a central
alarm log and are also associated with the ‘alarmed’ object — e.g., a S5 control plane bearer —
held within the 5620 SAM, allowing operators easy access to an object’s alarm state)
• An alarm correlation function which relates alarms and events to transport layer and dependent
Evolved Packet System (EPS) paths in the mobile service layer (EPC and e-UTRAN), allowing
operators to quickly and easily understand the root cause of a fault in the network
These capabilities allow operators to quickly identify in which network layer the fault occurred,
isolate what physical and logical elements were affected, and determine the cause of the fault and
how to resolve it.
Alarms generated by the 5620 SAM are passed to OSS systems via the 5620 SAM’s northbound interface.
Mobile and transport layer assurance
The 5620 SAM employs a multi-layer approach for mobile service and transport layer assurance.
The system’s assurance tools enable operators to view and test each network layer end-to-end,
including inter-layer integration, allowing operators to easily understand cause and effect between
network layers. This multi-layer assurance capability can be applied to both user plane and control
plane bearers in the mobile layer, as well as in the underlying IP/MPLS transport layers.
The 5620 SAM’s assurance tools include:
• EPS path visualization
• EPS path test using the 5620 SAM’s OAM service test management capability
• Dynamic mobile-to-IP/MPLS transport layer correlation
• IP reachability monitoring (proactive and on-demand)
EPS path visualization
All EPS paths can be viewed from the 5620 SAM’s topology map (see Figure 3), providing access to
a wide variety of information related to each EPS path in the network. The map provides a summary
view of the LTE network elements and the mobile layer paths (e.g., S1-U between the eNodeB and
SGW) between them. The path representation between each pair of network elements summarizes
all the connections between them and has an associated information table that indicates any active
alarms against the underlying paths. From each summary path the operator can open a pre-filtered
list of individual alarmed paths and view detailed state, fault, and performance information related
to each path. Information regarding the state of the underlying transport path is also available from
the same form.
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote4
Page 8
Figure 3. 5620 SAM Mobile EPC infrastructure topology
As part of its bearer visualization capability, the 5620 SAM also provides user plane visualization
via its topology maps. As illustrated in Figure 4, the set of nodes (PGW to eNodeB) through which
a default/dedicated bearer passes are highlighted on the map. Because user equipment may be engaged
in a handover (being handed-off from one network element to the next eNodeB to eNodeB or SGW
to SGW), maps may be refreshed on-demand.
Figure 4. 5620 SA M control plane bearer map – C-Plane an d physical view s
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote 5
Page 9
From the service topology map, operators have access to bearer contexts at the SGW and PGW,
which provide state and performance data related to the bearer. From the map window (see Figure 5),
the operator can also test the individual segments which make up the bearer (PGW to SGW and
SGW to eNodeB), as well as test the end-to-end path (PGW to eNodeB) for IP connectivity, delay,
jitter, and packet loss. This latter function is described in more detail in the next section.
Figure 5. 5620 SAM mobile co re serv ice topology
OAM test management
The 5620 SAM provides a test management capability, which — by leveraging the capabilities of
the MME, SGW, PGW, eNodeB, and the IP Transport layer network elements — allows operators
to monitor the SLA behavior of the network.
These Operations, Administration, and Management (OAM) measurements can be performed
on-demand or can be set up to run in the background to monitor connectivity, delay, jitter, and packet
loss over the various layers of the network on an ongoing basis. Supported OAM tests include GPRS
Tunneling Protocol (GTP) echo, Internet Control Messaging Protocol (ICMP) and Ethernet OAM
(802.1ag and Y.1731). This capability allows operators to constantly monitor network behavior and
provides a very powerful tool for detecting, isolating, and resolving network faults.
Cross-layer (Mobile/IP transport) path correlation
Used in combination with the 5650 CPAM, the 5620 SAM details the relationship between an EPS
path (user or control plane) and the end-to-end underlying IP transport layer. If the level of service
provided by a bearer is below the acceptable standard (as determined by the OAM test management
capability described above), the 5650 CPAM and 5620 SAM can quickly isolate the root cause of
the service degradation stemming from underlying IP transport layer issues. Such rapid problem
resolution and correlation between two layers — mobile and transport — significantly improves
the operational agility of a mobile operator (see Figure 6).
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote6
Page 10
Figure 6. 5650 CPAM IP transport layer path topology
IP reachability monitoring
The 5650 CPAM maintains a detailed view of the routing layer (L3) topology, which it derives from
the IP network. Based on this topology view, operators can proactively monitor the reachability of a
network IP subnet from any point in the network (i.e., assess if there is an IP layer path from SGW
and eNodeB).
The 5620 SAM provides the 5650 CPAM with the set of subnets to be monitored via an east-west
interface. The 5650 CPAM generates a notification to the 5620 SAM if the reachability of one or
more subnets is lost. The 5620 SAM uses this notification to alert operators of problems and affected
network elements. With the 5650 CPAM’s assurance capabilities, operators can then isolate the
problem in the routing layer and resolve it.
6. Performance management
A comprehensive set of statistics counters — collected by the 5620 SAM from the MME, SGW, and
PGW nodes — enables operators to monitor network activity, collect planning data, and diagnose
faults with the network. A typical performance management data form (shown in Figure 7), displays
performance management data collected from a network element by the 5620 SAM.
Performance management data can be collected by the 5620 SAM either on-demand or at regular
intervals (as defined by a statistics polling policy). The operator has complete control over the set
of SNMP MIB tables that are polled by the 5620 SAM, as well as the polling frequency. Polled
performance management data are stored in the database and are accessible via the 5620 SAM’s
northbound interface.
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote 7
Page 11
Figure 7. 5620 SAM statistics log record
The 5620 SAM also provides real-time plotting (shown in Figure 8) for both real-time and historical
counters, providing operators with a visual representation of performance data. The minimum
collection frequency for the statistics plotter is 10 seconds for real-time data. Multiple counters can
be plotted simultaneously on the same plot window for comparison purposes, and multiple plot
windows can be open at the same time.
Figure 8. 5620 SA M statistics display
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote8
Page 12
7. Security management
The 5620 SAM features a multi-layer security architecture. The system authenticates operators by
username and password before they are allowed to access the 5620 SAM GUI. This authentication
can be carried out in conjunction with a RADIUS or TACACS+ server. User profiles, assigned at login,
provide the administrator with fine-grained control over an operator’s access rights and privileges. The
5620 SAM has additional span-of-control capabilities, allowing the system administrator to limit an
operator’s privileges to a subset of managed network elements.
8. OSS integration
The 5620 SAM offers an XML-based northbound interface, which provides access to all information
stored within the 5620 SAM database. Through this interface an OSS system has access to all
configuration capabilities (read/write), performance management data, and alarm information
related to the managed network elements and stored in the 5620 SAM database.
This northbound interface allows mobile operators to integrate all Ultimate Wireless Packet Core
elements and managed IP/MPLS transport layer elements into an OSS infrastructure via a single
interface. The interface abstracts, for OSS systems, the different types of network elements and
different software versions deployed in the network, dramatically reducing integration costs and
complexity. It also reduces network bandwidth consumption, enabling multiple OSS platforms
to request the same data from the 5620 SAM instead of going directly to the network elements.
The OSS Connected Partner Program provides ongoing (release over release) certification between
the 5620 SAM’s northbound interface and pre-integrated products from leading independent software
vendors. This certification reduces the time and cost of integrating the 5620 SAM into a mobile
service provider’s network environment. To find out more about the program and partners please
visit our website at www.alcatel-lucent.com/osscp.
9. Conclusion
Service-aware network management based on the 5620 SAM provides advanced IP assurance
and provisioning capabilities designed to help operators efficiently manage the complexities
of an all-IP network. From proactive troubleshooting that spans physical, routing, and service
topologies to advanced provisioning tools and standards-based interfaces, the 5620 SAM provides
unmatched operational flexibility and rapid, easy integration into existing operational environments
and processes.
Proven in more than 270 customer deployments worldwide, including some of the largest and most
advanced IP/MPLS networks, the 5620 SAM equips mobile service providers with the tools required
to manage their networks efficiently.
As service providers continue to transform their networks and services and evolve their operational
models, the modular, extensible, and scalable architecture of the 5620 SAM not only addresses
today’s mobile network challenges but provides a foundation to support tomorrow’s market-leading,
mobile and converged service offerings.
Service-aware IP man agement fo r the Ultima te Wireless Packet Core | Application N ote 9
Page 13
www.alcatel-lucent.com Alcate l, Luc ent , A lcatel-Lucent an d the Alcate l-Luce nt log o
are tradem arks of Alcat el-Luc ent. A ll othe r trad emarks are the p roperty of thei r resp ective owners.
The info rmation prese nted is subject to change without notice. A lcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility
for i naccura cies con tained h erein. C opyright © 2010 Alcatel-Luce nt. All righ ts rese rved.
CPG2 896100214 (03)
Loading...