High-quality customer access is a key competitive advantage of communication service providers. To provide it, a network operation optimization package-Helix Smart Service Assurance-has been created.
With the Helix Service Assurance solution, engineering teams, network Management Centers (NOC), and Service management centers (SOC) have an integrated set of powerful automated and analytical tools that enable predicting, identifying, and solving complex problems related to service quality and network failures. The solution was developed by TEOCO (on May 10, 2023, TEOCO's service delivery business was acquired by Amdocs, a leading provider of software and services for communications and media companies, so Helix is now part of its product portfolio).
Providing quality of services from Helix
Providing a high-quality customer experience is not as easy as it used to be. Next-generation 5G connectivity based on New Radio technology, cloud and hybrid networks will allow providers to offer consumers new service options and scenarios. In addition, enterprise customers require greater visibility and control over compliance with their service level agreements (SLAs), which requires constant monitoring. These factors highlight the need for "smart" service assurance as a critical task for suppliers to gain and maintain a competitive advantage in today's market.
Helix is an integrated suite of intelligent solutions that:
- simplifies and automates the solution of problems with network performance and service quality, as well as troubleshooting failures;
- predicts and prevents network failures, service quality degradation, and SLA violations;
- generates analytical reports with the ability to respond;
- supports closed loop orchestration and self-healing.
The Helix Smart Service Assurance package solves a number of tasks.
Addressing current and future service quality challenges
The Helix Service Assurance solution is designed to solve problems that providers may face in the future. It provides a powerful set of capabilities for dealing with network failures, performance, and services. With the growth of context-sensitive data and the development of network technologies, there is a need for a solution that can scale with your services; whether you need a big data solution or a flexible cloud solution, Helix will meet your future needs.
Growing the role of analytics
Helix Analytics uses proprietary machine learning algorithms to analyze large amounts of up-to-date and archived data; revealing deep trends allows operational and engineering teams to focus on critical issues and quickly launch new services. Helix analytics filters and prioritizes alarm alerts, identifies the root cause of problems, automates network recovery and troubleshooting processes, and detects anomalies in the operation of resources and services that require preventive actions.
Customer-centric approach for Service Management Centers (SoCs)
Customer experience is increasingly seen as a key driver of competitive advantage. With Helix, service management centers can track problems, prioritize them, and investigate them. In an effort to make their offerings more attractive, providers prioritize network disruptions by predicting network problems, notifying customers in advance of possible service outages, and providing access to service quality indicators through digital customer portals.
Evolution towards virtualized networks
The spread of NFV and SDN continues, so Helix offers built-in support for hybrid networks that include both physical and virtual elements. Built on a scalable cloud architecture, the Helix solution provides a closed loop of automation, easily integrates with network orchestrators, tracks SLAs in multi-vendor networks, and accurately analyzes the dynamic topology of the network and services.
Switching to 5G
For mobile operators, Helix's advanced tools help address some of the key challenges of the future 5G era, including context-sensitive analysis of huge amounts of data and fault indicators, real-time monitoring of individual network slices allocated to user-configurable services, and a closed loop optimization of various RAN resources.
Components of the Helix Smart Service Assurance solution
Fault management
Helix Fault Management controls and simplifies the entire notification management process. This allows network teams to visualize, monitor, and fix network and IT issues in real time. A suite of advanced correlation and automation tools enables network management centers to predict potential network degradation, prioritize problematic faults, and take necessary corrective actions to minimize downtime and negative impact on customers.
Performance management
Helix Performance Management helps service providers deliver on their network compliance promises to private and corporate consumers. Advanced Helix PM algorithms automatically detect network anomalies and use adaptive thresholds, which provides better monitoring of KPI trends. Thanks to this, the NOC can solve problems with network parameters and quality of services (QoS) in complex multi-technology networks, as well as anticipate these problems. Designed to handle massive amounts of information (using the latest big data technology), Helix PM helps operations and engineering teams identify network traffic patterns, predict potential disruptions, and plan for future network expansion.
Service management
Helix Service Management displays customers and the services they provide. It provides service management centers with a comprehensive set of tools for monitoring, prioritizing, and investigating service-level failures and performance issues. Helix Service Management includes an intuitive set of tools for geolocation and data visualization, providing an end-to-end vision of customer actions in the network. Based on industry-leading network and service models, Helix Service Manager enables SOC users to proactively identify which sites, services, and customers will be affected by a network outage, thereby reducing the risk of an SLA violation.
A versatile and effective solution
Helix Service Assurance is a single converged system designed for multi-technology and multi-vendor network environments that includes cellular networks (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G), fixed networks (cable, fiber, and xDSL), IP networks, NFV SDN, and legacy networks. The solution meets the most stringent IT requirements; therefore, it can be implemented in any organization's network.
The Helix solution is designed from the ground up to support operating, engineering, and business groups. Each group uses a set of external user interfaces with great capabilities for visualizing different types of data coming from multiple sources. A key element in all Helix applications is to move away from the OSS approach based on individual systems (error management, performance management, etc.) and focus on end-to-end quality assurance control.
The solution has a modular architecture, meaning that its various functions are grouped into modules that can be selected according to the user's current requirements, and then added new ones as needs change, the network is updated and expanded.
In the Helix Service Assurance package, the Sentinel module serves as a centralized user interaction tool.
This next-generation interface provides NOC and SOC teams with advanced visual analytics tools to explore and explore potential issues in detail, enabling efficient engagement and correlation analysis of all available data. It uses performance, error, and configuration information from various domains, service models, networks, and topologies. In addition, it effectively visualizes aggregated information obtained from detailed data collected from the network and ML (Machine Learning) analysis results generated automatically by various components of the Helix suite.
Several national telecom operators are already interested in this solution on the Ukrainian market.
Seeton is committed to providing telecommunications companies with professional advice on implementing an automated, analytical, proactive, and unified approach to service quality, network performance, and fault management.
