In an effort to reduce its network management maintenance and support costs, Telecom Italia SpA is preparing to jettison a series of proprietary systems in favour of a state-of-the-art system from one of four suppliers – Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Sun Microsystems Inc or IBM Corp. A decision is expected by the end of May on which system will replace the incompatible legacy systems that resulted from the merger of SIP, Italcable, Iritel, Telespazio and Sirm two years ago. Among the principal systems was TIRCS, which Italian systems engineering firms Telesoft SpA and Italtel SpA built on top of AT&T Corp network management technology. We had several systems that were derived from the hardware we used, which includes Italtel, Ericsson, AT&T. We want to get to an interoperable system, says Telecom Italia network manager Giuseppe Gerarduzzi. The new network management system will mark the piece de resistance on the integrated network control project that Telecom Italia has been preparing since its creation. That merger created an urgent need to redesign the network control and management systems the better to reflect the reorganized company and to take advantage of advances in digitalization, intelligent networks and software development technologies. These two things, one organizational, the other technological, drove the profile of a new centralized [network] management that was not just the sum of the previous ones, but an integrated one that takes into account all potential network problems and the reality of a single operator, Gerarduzzi says. He says that, while the operator’s new network control systems will be completely operational by the end of June, the new network management software will not be fully functional until sometime early next year. In the meantime, our several existing network management systems, for which we have built new interfaces and reinforced their compatibility, will support the new integrated network control system, he said. Within its new four-level network control system, the national and international nodes are functioning fully, while the regional and provincial ones are at 50% capacity, Gerarduzzi said. The system has been built in collaboration with AT&T, Alcatel Italia, Ericsson, Italtel, Marconi, Sirti and Telesoft, he said. For the network management layer, DEC’s TeMIP Telecommunications Management Information Platform and Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView may be leading the other candidates, IBM’s TMN 6000 and Sun’s Solstice.
By Marsha Johnston
Eric Etev, business manager for network management at DEC’s Communication Expertise Center in Sophia Antipolis, France says: Telecom Italia decided a few months ago to seek a new system and, today, there are two possibilities – TeMIP and Hewlett- Packard. They have already had several tests – CSELT in Turin did technical evaluations and Telecom made operational tests for the sales and support aspects. For its part, Hewlett-Packard Italia telecommunications marketing manager Silvio Remonato says that components of Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView system are already used for several Simple Network Management Protocol applications at Telecom Italia, others are being negotiated, and Hewlett-Packard is increasingly present on new projects. Existing Hewlett- Packard applications at Telecom Italia include one for the central management of Simple Network Management Protocol local network routers, which uses the Node Manager and Operations Center modules, and another called SG2, for managing network management centre computers. DEC could ultimately have an edge on its competitors, since Telecom Italia’s network administration infrastructure has historically been based on a Telesoft application running on VAXes. If TeMIP is finally chosen, Etev says, the functionality of the Telesoft application would be converted for TeMIP, which runs on Alpha Unix, and the VMS VAXes would eventually disappear. For either DEC or Hewlett-Packard, the sale would be yet another in an exploding market. Says Hewlett’s Remonato, We’re in phenomenal growth mode, adding that revenues will be two to three times higher this year than last. With 30-odd TeMIP clients worldwide, Etev says the market is in full-blown expansion, with new and existing operators both needing pre-packaged systems. New operators like Bouygues and E-Plus need them to get their new services up and running as soon as possible, he said. Then you have the majority of existing operators, like Telecom Italia and France Telecom, who have in-house network management systems that were developed by their R&D subsidiaries. More and more, they want systems that cost less to develop and maintain; they’re looking to reduce their operating costs. Indeed, Gerarduzzi notes that one of the advantages of the new network control and management system for Telecom Italia and its clients will be better service at a lower cost. The new system should warn of impending breakdowns before they impact our clients and should provide more economic service, with fewer, more qualified staff, he explained.
