Operational support systems for carrier-scale IP networks

The operational support systems (OSS) of any major telecommunications opera tor are the underlying resource for the management and delivery of all its communications services. It is used for handling direct customer interactio ns (helpdesk, orders, fault handling, billing, etc) and for the processes i nvolved in managing the services and the networks on which they are support ed Many such services and networks are rapidly evolving in the Internet pro tocol (IP) era with a consequent requirement for radical improvements and s treamlining in the design of the OSS. This paper describes some of the chal lenges faced by BT in the quest to design IP OSS for future operations.