TM Forum has released MTOSI 2.0, which it describes as the most comprehensive standard ever published for managing broadband. It covers resource and service management and includes inventory, assurance and activation, which are some of the most integration-intensive areas in service providers' operational environments.
Multi-Technology Operations System Interface (MTOSI) Release 2.0 simplifies integration by providing all the specifications needed throughout the development lifecycle, including business analysis, information model, and interface specifications.
TM Forum claims MTOSI saves implementers substantial, tangible efforts that can be measured regarding system integration by:
- reducing uncertainty and providing leading-edge business analysis at the requirements stage;
- describing best practices for creating web services-based interfaces, the design stage;
- defining detailed specifications of the critical interface operations that are needed to manage networks and services at the integration stage.
MTOSI 2.0 packages the range of management interfaces in an integrated suite, including functions in the Business Process Framework (eTOM), Resource Management and Operations (RM&O), and Service Management and Operations (SM&O) areas.
Steve Orobec, Lead Consultant Strategy, Architecture and Innovation BT Group plc said, "By introducing and deploying software and APIs into our network using commercial off the shelf products rather than proprietary products and in-house development, we saw huge savings in integration times.
Furthermore, managing thousands of APIs in a communications organization means managing the "˜how, what, why, where and when' of APIs"”what they do, how to implement them and, more importantly, why they are there."
Orobec explains that managing a "spider web of hundreds or thousands of APIs across the OSS" can be quite daunting for designers and architects. "It is something I hope to address with the new TM Forum standard called NGOSS, for which MTOSI is the first stage and foundation of that evolution."
Chunghwa Telecom will demonstrate its use of MTOSI 2.0 in Transmission Network Management Systems at Management World 2009 in Nice, part of a cooperative project with Telcordia.