iManager U2520, an IP network and service quality management system, is industry-leading in service-oriented quality monitoring and analysis. Nowadays, networks are developing towards all-IP rapidly. How to perceive user experience and implement E2E network and service quality management has become a brand-new challenge for carriers. Compared with traditional EMSs that focus on NE management, U2520 dedicates to service quality management. With the service-oriented design idea, the U2520 uses the monitoring center and series probes to collect network and service performance data in real time and detect service changes to improve the O&M efficiency and reduce the operation expenditure (OPEX).

Features

As a service and network monitoring system, the U2520 provides visualized management that helps carriers monitor service quality in real time and learn about service changes. The U2520 improves the O&M efficiency and reduces the OPEX.

Visualized Management

• Network visualization, The U2520 displays probe connections as well as service and network alarms in topologies. This feature simplifies routine maintenance.
• IP path visualization, The U2520 displays service alarm paths and NE forwarding paths in topologies, assisting customers in fault locating and network optimization.
• End-user experience visualization, The U2520 analyzes test data about networks and services. The analysis results help carriers learn about end-user experience in various services, such as the IPTV (including BTV, VoD, and OTT), Internet, and VoIP services. The U2520 displays the analysis results in various forms (for example, in a diagram, matrix, or top N list) and provides them in diversified reports.

Combined Use of Probes for Various Scenarios

The U2520 provides a series of probes, including external probes (NEU100, NEU200, and NEU1000), internal probes, and software probes (NEU10P). The probes can be flexibly deployed at different network positions to monitor services on a network that is composed of devices from multiple vendors. In this way the U2520 achieves centralized management.

Real-time Monitoring and Proactive O&M

The U2520 enables proactive O&M, and supports around-the-clock network and service monitoring to measure network performance and obtain customer experience statistics. The U2520 supports the following monitoring functions:

• Monitors network and service indicators continuously or periodically. This function keeps carriers updated with indicator changes and enables carriers to take actions before any Performance deterioration.
• Automatically discovers elements of carriers networks and provides prewarnings against performance deterioration. The U2520 helps carriers quickly pinpoint root causes of faults and improve service quality in advance, and enhances customer satisfaction on network operation.
• Collects long-term indicator data. This function helps carriers develop a network performance baseline which serves as a solid data reference for network planning and optimization.

Proactive Responsibility Identification

• Real-time monitoring and rapid responsibility identification, A series of U2520 probes can be flexibly deployed on a network which is composed of devices from different vendors. The U2520 uses these probes to perform end-to-end monitoring in real time to rapidly identify fault points. O&M engineers can view the reports to trace faults. This function simplifies responsibility identification.
• Fault locating assistance and OPEX reduction, after receiving user complaints, O&M engineers can go to users homes and install the NEU10P on users PCs. The NEU10P can coordinate with upper-layer probes on the live network. This feature reduces O&M costs and improves fault locating efficiency.
• Clear responsibility identification, The U2520 collects long-term indicator data and monitors indicators in real time. This feature helps customers identify faults between different networks. The U2520 also provides assessment on different access modes and the quality of various resources and compares indicator data between different carriers networks.

TMF-compliant Indicator System

The U2520 supports a TMF-compliant indicator system that is composed of KPIs, KQIs, and SLA and based on QoE.The indicator system can be used to dynamically get aware of network health conditions.

• KPI: data collected in each test or collection.
• KQI: indicates a quality indicator that shows the end-to-end service awareness based on service scenarios. Generally, a KPI is calculated from multiple KPIs.
• SLA: indicates an agreement signed between a service provider, such as a carrier or SP and a customer in terms of service quality. The involved aspects are the function, performance, and usability. Generally, an SLA is composed of multiple causes.