Serve AtOnce Activation Manager Rel. 5.0 Product Description

Nokia Siemens Networks Serve atOnce Activation Manager Release 5.
0
Product Description Approved
dn054769 Issue 5-2 en Approved
Nokia Siemens Networks
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Serve atOnce Activation Manager release 5.0
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and describes only the product defined in the introduction of this documentation. This document is not an official customer document and Nokia Siemens Networks does not take responsibility for any errors or omissions in this document. This document is intended for the use of Nokia Siemens Networks customers only for the purposes of the agreement under which the document is submitted. No part of this documentation may be used, reproduced, modified or transmitted in any form or means without the prior written permission of Nokia Siemens Networks. The documentation has been prepared to be used by professional and properly trained personnel, and the customer assumes full responsibility when using it. Nokia Siemens Networks welcomes customer comments as part of the process of continuous development and improvement of the documentation. The information or statements given in this documentation concerning the suitability, capacity or performance of the mentioned hardware or software products are given as is and all liability arising in connection with such hardware or software products shall be defined conclusively and finally in a separate agreement between Nokia Siemens Networks and the customer. IN NO EVENT WILL Nokia Siemens Networks BE LIABLE FOR ERRORS IN THIS DOCUMENTATION OR FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL OR ANY LOSSES SUCH AS BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFIT, REVENUE, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY OR DATA, that might arise from the use of this document or the information in it. THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS". EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE MANDATORY LAW, NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT, ARE MADE IN RELATION TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY OR CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT. NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REVISE THIS DOCUMENT OR WITHDRAW IT AT ANY TIME WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. This document and the product it describes are considered protected by copyrights and other intellectual property rights according to the applicable laws. The wave logo is a trademark of Nokia Siemens Networks Oy. Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens AG. Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks of their respective owners, and they are mentioned for identification purposes only. Copyright Nokia Siemens Networks 2009. All rights reserved.
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Contents
1 Executive summary..............................................................................4 2 Introduction..........................................................................................6 2.1 Serve atOnce Activation Manager product briefly................................7 2.2 Benefits.............................................................................................10 3 Features..............................................................................................13 3.1 Flow-through provisioning..................................................................14 3.2 Service Order processing..................................................................15 3.3 Network topology...............................................................................15 3.4 Subscription awareness.....................................................................16 3.5 Network-initiated auto-provisioning....................................................16 3.6 Mass provisioning..............................................................................17 3.7 Service Management.........................................................................18 3.8 Integration.........................................................................................19 3.9 System monitoring.............................................................................20 3.10 System management.......................................................................20 3.11 Security...........................................................................................20 3.12 Performance, capacity and scalability..............................................21 3.13 Availability.......................................................................................21 4 User Interfaces....................................................................................22 4.1 O&M Suite.........................................................................................22 5 External Interfaces.............................................................................27 5.1 Northbound interfaces.......................................................................27 5.2 Southbound interfaces.......................................................................28 5.3 Interface to Network Management System........................................28 6 Integration Tools and Services.........................................................29 6.1 Integration Suite ..............................................................................29 7 Use Case Examples............................................................................34 7.1 Fixed Mobile Convergence provisioning............................................34 7.2 Voice service provisioning.................................................................36 8 Product Configurations......................................................................40 References and additional reading.....................................................43 Glossary................................................................................................44 Appendix 1 - Examples of network elements integrated to SAAM...46 Appendix 2 Architecture...................................................................49
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Executive summary
Nokia Siemens Networks offers well-planned, optimized and fully integrated service fulfillment automation with its state-of-the-art software products and globally available professional services. The product of Nokia Siemens Networks for service activation is called Nokia Siemens Networks Serve atOnce Activation Manager ( SAAM ). Serve atOnce Activation Manager covers the whole process of enabling customer to use communication services, from receiving customers order from various channels to activating services in the network elements. Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports provisioning of a wide range of network elements off-the-shelf from various domains such as mobile, fixed, cable and broadband. The product has been developed to meet future provisioning needs for fully convergent and all-IP based networks. Serve atOnce Activation Manager enables operators to minimize the time and cost to adapt the fulfillment process for new services by being a very configurable and adaptable product. In addition local system integration work force can be utilized for integration of Business Support Systems (BSS) and 3rd party network elements to Serve atOnce Activation Manager. Serve atOnce Activation Manager comes along with tools which makes it possible to easily adjust the product to operators specific business needs and environment. Serve atOnce Activation Manager with its flexible workflow orchestration and integral services component enables phased approach for system consolidation, and this way helps operators to reduce the risks and upfront investments related to system consolidation. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is based on standards such as Service Oriented Architecture Protocol (SOAP), OSS Through Java (OSS/J), Shared Information Data/Knowledge (SID) and complies to relevant parts of enhanced Telecommunications Operations Map (eTOM). Serve atOnce Activation Manager is fully compliant with OSS/J Service Activation interface. eTOM and SID are part of the New Generation Operations Support System (NGOSS) initiative promoted by TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum).
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Introduction
Todays service providers are struggling with a variety of provisioning problems. In mature markets service providers need to find ways to be more competitive, reduce operational costs and increase ARPU despite the growing complexity of services and underlying network technologies. Operators need not only to create attractive product offerings to their customers, but also to be able to create, deploy and activate the services to their customers quickly and correctly. In emerging markets operators have similar problems, but, in addition, they need to be able to activate the services to a large number of subscribers fast and effectively to get business up and running. Mature service providers also need to be able to launch new services quickly to a large number of subscribers or a subset of subscribers. Figure 1 Introduces more in detail the operators key challenges and reasons.
Figure 1. Operators Key Challenges
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Operators are constantly looking for ways to accelerate the introduction of new attractive services to improve their competitive situation in the market. On the other hand, there is constant pressure to decrease operating costs. To reach these objectives operators need effective tools with proper support for the operators service development and provisioning process. Automating service provisioning workflows brings operators the required speed with reduced costs. By automating the service development and provisioning operators can reduce time-to-market and OPEX.
2.1
Serve atOnce Activation Manager product briefly

Nokia Siemens Networks Serve atOnce Activation Manager is a futureproof provisioning system for service and subscriber provisioning. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is a centralised provisioning system. It supports multi-technology networks such as 2G, 3G, packet core, broadband, IMS, PoC and VoIP. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is multi-vendor-capable. It supports Nokia Siemens Networks products and solutions and also 3rd party products and solutions. Serve atOnce Activation Manager brings value to the operator through its zero-touch automated provisioning capabilities. Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports not only traditional flow-through provisioning but also self-service provisioning, mass provisioning and network-initiated auto-provisioning. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides flexible and efficient tools for defining services and provisioning workflows. The main target of Serve atOnce Activation Manager is to be able to automate the service activation process so that subscribers can use services as soon as possible, as much as possible. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides capabilities for service configuration and service activation. The solution is independent of specific network domains or technologies. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is part of Nokia Siemens Networks Service Management product portfolio, which helps network operators and service providers to bridge the gap between an innovative business opportunity and a successful subscriber service.
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Different service technologies and their evolution as well as service integration and consultancy services are important and a significant part of the complete Nokia Siemens Networks end-to-end solution. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is a key component in Nokia Siemens Networks Integrated Provisioning Solution. Via its interworking with Nokia Terminal Management System (NTMS), the subscriber gets not only the service activated correctly and smoothly, but also the needed device settings to use the service. The Serve atOnce Activation Manager has following main functions: 1) service configuration and provisioning workflow modelling (service management) 2) provisioning through Point-of-Sales, customer care call-centre or self-service portal (flow-through provisioning) 3) provisioning for a range of subscribers (mass provisioning) 4) provisioning initiated by the network (network initiated autoprovisioning)
Figure 2 Key capabilities of Nokia Siemens Networks Provisioning Solution
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Serve atOnce Activation Manager is based upon standards such as the New Generation OSS (NGOSS) initiative. NGOSS is a TM Forum initiative to drive efficiency and minimise costs in telecommunication network operations. In addition, practical solutions are also gained from the OSS through Java initiative (OSS/J). The adoption of new generation standards means that providers and vendors can apply common process integration rules to the integration tasks that comprise business process engineering and re-engineering. They can also apply common and freely available implementation tools to put those rules into practice. By using Serve atOnce Activation Manager, business support systems gain a standard interface to the network. The solution is compatible with NGOSS eTOM and SID standards. The Serve atOnce Activation Manager complies with only relevant parts of the models see Figure 3 . Compatibility is established through the full adoption of standard OSS Service Activation API, harmonised with SID and eTOM.
Figure 3 Serve atOnce Activation Manager mapping to eTOM processes
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2.2
Benefits
Operators are facing growing challenges in the area of service fulfillment, driven by the need to increase revenue and save costs. Serve atOnce Activation Manager helps to face these challenges by providing a state-of-the-art subscriber provisioning system, which is technology- and vendor independent. Serve atOnce Activation Manager enables increased revenue by: Faster service development. There is a need to introduce more profitable services as well as to introduce them faster to stay competitive. Legacy fulfillment solutions have proven to be very costly and time-consuming when new services are to be introduced, hence deteriorating the business cases for new service introduction. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides flexible and efficient tools for configuring new services and the provisioning process. Serve atOnce Activation Manager follows Tele Management Forums NGOSS principles, combined with an open, standards-based architecture to keep integration costs to an absolute minimum. Loyal customers through reduced churn. Operators are facing increased churn, which demands ways of improving customer loyalty. A large part of churn is attributed to both the subscriber friendliness of new services and the proper functioning of the service. Service activation will play a major role in fighting churn, by ensuring that subscribers are always correctly provisioned in the network, but also by providing more intuitive ways to activate services, for example, through functions such as auto-provisioning and service discovery as well as self-service. Obviously, services that are easier to activate and that work correctly also generate more ARPU with the customers that stay with the operator. Serve atOnce Activation Manager was designed to support auto provisioning, and it also supports advanced mechanisms to ensure proper provisioning of all data required to enable the service for the subscriber. Through Serve atOnce Activation Managers interworking with the device management system, the subscriber experience is further improved, since also proper device settings are provisioned to the terminal, not only the service activation in the network elements. Serve atOnce Activation Manager reduces costs by: Process automation. Process automation becomes increasingly important. More people involved and more configuring to be made in multiple network elements and service platforms, makes room for errors
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and costs valuable time. Serve atOnce Activation Manager reduces the need for manual provisioning. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is designed to interwork with external systems such as CRM. It can be integrated to inventory and workflow systems and can adapt to any fulfillment process. Correct provisioning. Incorrect provisioning can generate a lot of customer complaints, which causes a heavy burden on customer helpdesk as well as system administrator personnel. Not only does Serve atOnce Activation Manager have mechanisms in place to avoid incorrect provisioning, but it also provides tools to diagnose the subscription state of each individual subscriber at any given point in time. This can be presented in terms of business parameters rather than technical parameters only. The tool will also show the actual network provisioning state, rather than the agreed state. Serve atOnce Activation Manager helps to keep the business support system (BSS) consistent with the network in terms of services activated to subscribers. With Serve atOnce Activation Manager tools it is possible to define rollback scenarios for cases where the provisioning process fails. Flexible service configuration. Services are continuously evolving, which means that services need to be updated regularly. The flexible data model of Serve atOnce Activation Manager (based on Shared Information/Data Model, SID) allows adapting to almost any new combination of services. Services and service logic can be configured using a graphical user interface. Also, Serve atOnce Activation Manager can take advantage of an external inventory system to speed up service development even more. Pre-integrated and standard based interfaces. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides a set of pre-integrated interfaces thus reducing the integration costs and time-to-market of new services. Serve atOnce Activation Manager also has standards-based interfaces towards the BSS (OSS/J, SOAP).This helps operators to achieve a future-proof provisioning architecture in contrast to implementing various proprietary interface mechanisms supporting point solutions which tend to become a heavy maintenance burden. Adaptable provisioning system. Networks are continuously evolving, at any given operator. This means that there is a regular need to update interfaces or introduce completely new elements, such as application servers. Through an open connector architecture based on Java, and an extensive library supporting many network elements already, Serve atOnce Activation Manager can adapt to any new network element very fast with a minimum amount of development and downtime. No vendor lock-in. Operators wish to be able to do best-of-breed selection by picking the best vendor for each network element separately. This means that fulfillment must be extremely flexible in supporting any network element vendor for the actual implementation of new services. The connector architecture of Serve atOnce Activation
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Manager allows for fast adaptation of 3rd party elements. Serve atOnce Activation Manager has a good track record in adapting fast to new elements.
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Features
This section describes features and functionality of Nokia Siemens Networks Serve atOnce Activation Manager. The features described here are independent of underlying network technologies. SAAM resides in a layer between Business Support Systems (BSS) and network elements. The main product components are the northbound interfaces, the service order processing and related workflows as well as connectivity to the network elements via the Network Element Integrations (NEI). The O&M Suite is the main user interface of SAAM through which it is possible to manage provisionings, view status and performance data as well as configure the system. The Integration Suite is an off-line tool with which it is possible to define workflows and services. It also provides aids for connector development.
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Figure 4 Serve atOnce Activation Manager product components
3.1
Flow-through provisioning
The main functionality of Serve atOnce Activation Manager is subscriber and service provisioning. The provisioning requests i.e. service orders are originated from upper level BSS systems like CRMs, self-service portals or any other applications used in Call-centres or Point-of-Sales. The provisioning requests can also be triggered from the GUIs of Serve atOnce Activation Managers like O&M Suite. Whenever Serve atOnce Activation Manager receives the request it will be managed by the service order processing and Serve atOnce
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Activation Manager executes provisioning logic attached to the provisioned subscriber service. In flow-through mode Serve atOnce Activation Manager can execute provisioning operations for any user data in network elements without knowing the subscribers or subscription existence beforehand. After the execution Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides the result of the operation to the client.
3.2
Service Order processing

Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers various capabilities for processing incoming service orders. These capabilities are used in different phases of order processing within Serve atOnce Activation Manager, and they are used for ensuring that orders are processed correctly and according to particular operator needs. In a normal situation service orders are processed immediately after Serve atOnce Activation Manager receives orders from client system(s). In certain cases there is a need to process requests at a specific time, for example to activate subscription at pre-defined time. Serve atOnce Activation Manager has scheduling support for such purposes; client system can define at which point of time the order processing should be started. In some cases, for example during peak hours, or during congestion in network elements, the incoming service orders can not be processes immediately. For such situations Serve atOnce Activation Manager has queuing support and support for service orders that take long time; service orders wait in internal queues until the network element is ready to receive new commands, and Serve atOnce Activation Manager sends the commands to elements sequentially from the queue. Some of the service orders may be more important or more urgent than others. For example blocking of services of prepaid subscriber who has run out of balance has to be done instantly. Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports priorities to ensure high priority service orders are processed as soon as possible in cases where there are several orders waiting to be processed in queues.
3.3
Network topology
Large telecom operators have a number of different network elements for various purposes. Often there are different network domains, like
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fixed, mobile, with various network element types like DSLAM and mobile registers (e.g. home location register). In many cases there are also intermediate elements between OSS systems and network elements, like element managers or provisioning systems used for managing specific subset of network elements. Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers support for configuring the network topology, and mechanisms for using the network topology information as part of the service order processing. Network topology information is needed for example in order to be able to route the incoming service orders to correct network element instances. Typical scenario where routing is needed, is a network where there are multiple HLR network elements, and each one of them handles specific range of subscribers. In this case Serve atOnce Activation Manager can route commands to correct elements using IMSI number ranges. Another example is an activation of DSL line, Serve atOnce Activation Manager has to route the service activation command to correct element manager or DSLAM to which the subscriber is connected.
3.4
Subscription awareness
Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides the possibility to add subscription awareness functionality in to normal flow-through provisioning. The services can be implemented either in flow-through mode or in subscription awareness mode. When subscription awareness is used Serve atOnce Activation Manager stores the subscription of provisioned service to its internal subscription inventory. In that way Serve atOnce Activation Manager is aware of the services provisioned to the subscriber. If some service is implemented in subscription awareness mode Serve atOnce Activation Manager can not execute any operations to the data that does not have subscription in Serve atOnce Activation Manager inventory.
3.5
Network-initiated auto-provisioning
The network can detect that a subscriber wants to use a new service and automatically trigger Serve atOnce Activation Manager to provision the service into the network elements. SAAM can as well notify the CRM that the service has been subscribed to the end user. For an example see use case Voice service provisioning in chapter 7.2.
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Network-initiated auto-provisioning is not part of standard SAAM product release 5.0, but can be delivered on a need basis.
3.6
Mass provisioning
Serve atOnce Activation Manager mass provisioning offers the capability to easily manage service subscriptions for a number of subscribers with one operation. Mass provisioning in Serve atOnce Activation Manager can be divided to two different kinds of functionality: Batch job and mass operations. Batch job provides a way to activate service subscriptions to a number of subscribers. The operation can contain different subscriptions for subscribers as well as the subscriptions can contain subscriber specific data. It can be used only for creating the subscriptions to network elements. Batch jobs are always based on the XML input file containing the subscribers and related subscription data. Mass operations provide a way to execute certain operation (create, modify, delete) for certain subscription to the number of subscribers. The operation can be executed for some identifier range (e.g. IMSI) or for the subscribers listed in the XML input file. The file makes it possible also to set subscriber specific attribute values and the O&M Suite can be used to set common attribute values for all subscribers. The batch job and mass operations can be triggered from Serve atOnce Activation Manager O&M Suite GUI.
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Figure 5 O&M Suite - one of the mass-provisioning views
3.7
Service Management
The provisioning with Serve atOnce Activation Manager is based on the services defined in Serve atOnce Activation Manager. There are two kinds of services: resource facing services (RFS) and customer facing services (CFS). Resource facing services model closely the network element interfaces that Serve atOnce Activation Manager provisions. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides various ready made network element integrations with resource facing services in NEI library. Customer facing services can be used to model the customers business model i.e. services that are provided to subscribers. Typically one service offered to subscriber requires interacting with several network elements or registers. That can be defined by using customer facing services formed mainly with resource facing service operations and logic between those. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides tools for modelling and managing services in Serve atOnce Activation Manager service catalogue as well as tool for defining the logic for customer facing services.
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The service catalogue in Serve atOnce Activation Manager is the storage place for service definitions imported to Serve atOnce Activation Manager. The definition of the logic for customer facing services is mainly implemented with workflows by using the graphical user interface provided by Integration Suite. The workflows can be used to include some special functionality for the normal provisioning flow of the subscriber services. Typically these can be related to the handling of different kind of error situations by implementing e.g. rollbacks or retries if the provisioning fails to some network element. In addition of modelling provisioned services, the CFS/workflows can be used to implement any special business logic needed for subscriber data in network elements. A good example of this kind of service is identifier change of subscriber in the network (e.g. IMSI or MSISDN change). Workflow can execute any needed operations to network elements in order to change subscriber identity.
3.8
Integration
In Serve atOnce Activation Manager there are two different types of integrations: Network element integrations and integration to CRM/BSS systems. The network element integration includes resource facing services defined for certain network element, rules/logic for provisioning the service subscription to subscriber and connector to provide the connectivity to the network element. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides various ready-made network element integrations in NEI library. In addition to ready-made network element integrations Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides tools to define integrations to any network element. Integration to CRM/BSS systems can be implemented by using interfaces Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers for provisioning the subscriptions. Depending of the customer case its possible to implement also customer specific integration by using some protocol that Serve atOnce Activation Manager does not support by default.
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3.9
System monitoring
Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers comprehensive functionality for monitoring the Serve atOnce Activation Manager system for operation and maintenance purposes. The product maintains key performance indicators (KPI) on the most important aspects of service provisioning, like number of service orders processed within a period of time. KPIs are visible in the O&M Suite graphical user interface, and are reported to network management system (NMS). KPIs are an easy way to verify that system is functioning normally, and to for example identify and troubleshoot potential performance bottlenecks. Serve atOnce Activation Manager has a capability to send alarms in situations where system has noticed severe error situations, like disk can not be accessed or a processing load is exceptionally high. Alarms can be used to keep O&M personnel informed about serious errors. Serve atOnce Activation Manager audit trail provides a view to activities executed in Serve atOnce Activation Manager. It provides means to investigate which users have performed which actions. For monitoring and mainly for troubleshooting purposes Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers a set of log files. By defining the logging level the user can study the relevant details of Serve atOnce Activation Manager functionality.
3.10
System management
For backup and restore purposes Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers means for exporting and importing system data, like Serve atOnce Activation Manager configuration information. License management controls the usage of Serve atOnce Activation Manager and maximum capacity of the product through the capacity license. Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers functionality for managing the license files. There is also GUI for displaying and modifying the product configuration.
3.11
Security
There are several levels of security implemented in Serve atOnce Activation Manager product. The platform that Serve atOnce Activation
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Manager runs on has been hardened and security tested. Serve atOnce Activation Manager offers capabilities for managing Serve atOnce Activation Manager users. Encryption of traffic on both northbound and southbound interfaces is possible where supported by client system and network elements respectively.
3.12
Performance, capacity and scalability

Serve atOnce Activation Manager has been designed for modern communication operators with a need for large transaction volumes. Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports hundreds of transactions per second and is capable of supporting sub-second response times. Serve atOnce Activation Manager scales up to 50 million subscribers.
3.13
Availability
System availability needs vary depending on the usage scenario of service activation product. Serve atOnce Activation Manager is offered in four different configurations: Entry configuration on HP platform or IBM platform, High End configuration on IBM platform and a PC configuration. Entry configuration is an entry level product configuration for production use. It is targeted for managing small subscriber base for customers with no need for fully redundant or highly available system. The Entry configuration is available on IBM or HP platform. High End configuration is fully redundant, highly available configuration with support for automatic fail-over, high performance, capacity and scalability. The High End configuration is currently available only on IBM platform. PC configuration is Serve atOnce Activation Manager configuration for testing, proof of concept and demonstration purposes. It can not be used in production environment and has no high-availability support.
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User Interfaces
The main user interface of Serve atOnce Activation Manager is O&M Suite. It can be used by SAAM system administrators and users. In addition to O&M Suite there are specific GUIs for viewing alarm status, IBM Blade center and HP HW management.
4.1
O&M Suite
O&M Suite is a web application which provides a web interface. Users access the web interface by using a web browser.
Figure 6. O&M Suite Main View
Through a single graphical user interface it is possible to:
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launch mass provisioning operations launch provisioning operations for one single subscriber view provisioning status of actions launched by O&M Suite view key performance indicators for provisionings. KPIs can be viewed in tables or graphs. Also historical data can be shown on weekly basis. configure SAAM authentication information (login and passwords) configure access to network elements e.g. IP-address, login, password
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The status view shows the operational summary of provisioning actions launched by O&M Suite as well as detailed view of each operation.
Figure 7 O&M Suite Operation details view
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The KPI data helps to correct and optimize the provisioning process and capacity. O&M Suite makes the capacity pain points visible. The KPI data provides information about the provisioning process, the computing platform and the database performance. Also historic data of KPIs can be shown on a weekly basis in the O&M Suite in both graphical and table format.
Figure 8 O&M Suite Key Performance indicator view.
The KPIs help operators to correct and optimise the provisioning process and capacity and provides valuable information about performance of SAAM. The KPIs can be sent to network management system via SNMP. Some examples of KPIs:
provisioning KPIs: total number of subscriptions per service total number of subscriptions per network element type/instance total number of provisioning requests failed per day with the reasons for failure shown
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performance KPIs: time taken to process a subscription request lost connector connection to any network element duration of the loss of connection system information KPIs:
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External Interfaces
Serve atOnce Activation Manager contains following integration capabilities: SOAP/XML and OSS/J northbound interface SAAM core functions have been separated from the interfaces to the network elements
Serve atOnce Activation Manager can easily be integrated to the operators business support system, for example, an order management system that supports Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), or to any EAI system. Along with Serve atOnce Activation Manager software comes interface specifications, developing instructions, and examples of how to integrate Serve atOnce Activation Manager to operators business support systems.
5.1
Northbound interfaces
Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides an OSS/J and a SOAP/XML northbound interface for integration to the operators business support system, for example, Order Management System or CRM system. The Serve atOnce Activation Manager OSS/J interface is implemented according to the following TM Forum specification: OSS Common API OSS Service Activation API
The Serve atOnce Activation Manager SOAP interface is based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles.
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5.2
Southbound interfaces
Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides an extensive library of preintegrated interfaces to Nokia Siemens Networks systems and to 3rd party network elements. Supported technologies and solutions include for example 2G/3G mobile networks, packet core networks, IP Multimedia Subsystems, Push to Talk over Cellular, broadband networks, Mobile TV and convergent solutions. Appendix 1 lists examples of network elements which Serve atOnce Activation Manager has been integrated to. For a complete list, please contact Serve atOnce Activation Manager product management. Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides technical connectivity to the network elements and the most commonly used services. In addition to the pre-integrated services, it is possible to define more services with the Integration Suite tools.
5.3
Interface to Network Management System

Serve atOnce Activation Manager provides NE3S interface based upon SNMP version 2 for fault management (alarms) and performance management (key performance indicators) purposes towards Nokia Siemens Networks network management systems NetAct. Examples of alarms that are sent to NMS are: Available memory low Available disk space low Database space allocation warning Disk access failure Network Element Connection Failure High CPU load average IBM BladeCenter hardware alarm Process failure
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Integration Tools and Services
6.1
Integration Suite
The Serve atOnce Activation Manager provisioning function is extendable. For service provisioning, Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports a number of pre-integrated network elements. Serve atOnce Activation Manager also provides tools for defining the provisioning business logic and for developing integration interfaces, and in this way makes it possible to expand the number of provisioned network elements. The Integration Suite of Serve atOnce Activation Manager contains three kinds of capabilities:

Provisioning workflow definition/modelling Service definition/modelling Integration capabilities for integrating Serve atOnce Activation Manager northbound to BSS and southbound to network elements and service platforms
The Integration Suite is an off-line tool. The Integration Suite tool takes the input given in the GUI and converts it to XML-based rules. The rules are stored in files, which can be exported and downloaded to the Serve atOnce Activation Manager.
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With the Integration Suite it is possible to configure the workflow for the provisioning, what services need to be provisioned in which network elements and in which order. It is also possible to define rollback and retry scenarios for cases of incomplete provisioning, as well as define scheduling and prioritization of the provisioning tasks. With the workflow function it is also possible to define validation of attribute values as well as formatting of service attributes, e.g. adding prefix or changing parameter type from string to integer.
Figure 9. Integration Suite Workflow Function
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The service definition capabilities mean that via the GUI of the Integration Suite it is possible to define the services which can be subscribed to a subscriber. The services can be simple services provisioned to one NE, or service bundles. A service consists of a set of attributes that are either service or subscriber specific. The attributes can be given default values, or it can be defined that value is provided in the incoming provisioning request.
Figure 10. Integration Suite Service Overview View.
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The Integration Suite contains Java plug-ins for Eclipse. With these Java plug-ins it is easy to integrate new network elements to SAAM. SAAM contains also examples how to make integrations to new network elements. SAAM comes with a broad library of ready-made network element integrations. Nokia Siemens Networks provides customisation and system integration services. The services can be used for integrating Serve atOnce Activation Manager to the operators environment and for defining and customising services and provisioning workflows. In cases where there is no suitable southbound integration available off the shelf, a Network Element Integration can easily be developed and added to the Network Element Integration library of Serve atOnce Activation Manager. The tasks to develop a new integration are carried out in an integration project and it covers all phases of the project from requirements gathering to final acceptance testing at customer premises. Defining new services and provisioning workflows and/or customising services can also be part of the integration project offered by Nokia Siemens Networks.
Figure 11 Services building blocks: Professional services for systems integration
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Use Case Examples

This chapter describes two use cases where Serve atOnce Activation Manager is used for subscriber provisioning. These are examples only and are not the only use cases that Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports. The use cases illustrate the fact that Serve atOnce Activation Manager is a centralised provisioning system regardless of the network domain and can be used to automate the provisioning process, and to reduce churn and OPEX. Serve atOnce Activation Manager supports a wide range of Nokia Siemens Networks solutions. Examples of supported solutions are listed below: Fixed Mobile Convergence solution Femto solution HLR evolution (HLRe) IMS solution Voice solution Communication Key solution Rich Client Service solution Subscriber Data Management (SDM) solution
This document contains two examples of selected solutions: Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Voice solution.
7.1
Fixed Mobile Convergence provisioning

For users, the attraction of FMC is that it will bring personal converge broadband access and mobile access, beyond the home and office. For service providers without a 3G network, FMC is also a viable technology for offering broadband services.
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A key factor for successful FMC launch in all scenarios is the ability to manage the subscriber provisioning and service activation. Provisioning is an integral part of Nokia Siemens Networks FMC solution. The FMC provisioning solution covers terminal provisioning, network element provisioning and current provisioning system usage in the FMC provisioning solution. Fixed Mobile Convergence solution provides single integration point between the FMC elements and operators existing customer management infrastructure. This means that all subscriber provisioning operations (such as creation or deletion of subscribers or changes to existing profiles) can be called via single interface. Serve atOnce Activation Manager for FMC is a solution consisting of Serve atOnce Activation Manager and pre-integrated key FMC network element integrations and related customer services. Solution is easily extendable and customisable to meet the changing requirements and service provider needs. The example of the provisioning workflow is illustrated in Figure 12.
Figure 12. Network provisioning example.
Subscriber experience for Network provisioning example: 1. Subscribe to new service (e.g. visit PoS, contact call centre or login to selfservice portal) 2. Optional: Receive welcome message and instructions to accept upcoming new settings 3. Optional: Receive and accept new FMC settings to device through NTMS. 4. Optional: Receive message about client download; Would you like to continue with the download Y / N ? 5. Perform Client installation to PC. 6. FMC is available for subscriber.
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Device provisioning is done with the Nokia Siemens Networks device management product called Nokia Terminal Management Server. FMC solution supports over 20 different network elements from the software client configuration towards the subscriber service support. Figure 13 contains examples of FMC services. More detailed description of the supported services can be found from Serve atOnce Activation Manager product documentation.
Figure 13. Examples of supported FMC services.
7.2
Voice service provisioning

Operator challenge is to integrate new voice register infrastructure with operators existing business support systems and processes. This is key integration in order to ensure end-to-end activation of services to endcustomers in timely and error-free manner Nokia Siemens Networks Voice service solution complemented with Serve atOnce Activation Manager addresses this critical integration by exposing single, well-documented and standard Web-Services -based integration point from Voice service solution to existing business support systems. With this, Nokia Siemens Networks Solution can minimize the change impact into existing systems and this way reduces the risk, time and cost associated with the register solution integration.
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The example of the provisioning workflow is illustrated in Figure 14.
Figure 14. Network provisioning example.
Subscriber experience: 1. Subscribe to new service (e.g. visit PoS, contact call centre or login to selfservice portal) 2. Optional: Receive welcome message and instructions to accept upcoming new settings 3. Optional: Receive and accept new mobile settings to device 4. Optional: Receive message about client download; Would you like to continue with the download Y / N ?. 5. Voice service is available for subscriber.
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The Voice service solution can also be provisioned to the subscribers seamlessly. Seamless provisioning means that the services are provisioned to the subscribers automatically by network initiated triggering. Network-initiated auto-provisioning is not part of standard SAAM product release 5.0, but can be delivered on a need basis.
Figure 15. Automated service provisioning example. (network-initiated autoprovisioning)
Voice service solution includes end-to-end provisioning support from device provisioning to provisioning of all needed network elements.
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Figure 16. Example of dataless HLR services
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Product Configurations
Serve atOnce Activation Manager is available in four product configurations: Entry Configuration on IBM or HP hardware, High End Configuration on IBM hardware and PC configuration. All configurations except PC configuration include hardware, platform software and Serve atOnce Activation Manager application software plus supporting product documentation. PC configuration is a pure software configuration including SAAM platform and application software only. Entry Configuration ( IBM ) Entry configuration is a product configuration with redundant cluster application server (CLAS) nodes and disks. It can support up to 5 million subscribers. High End Configuration ( IBM ) High End Configuration responds to operators growing needs in the areas of high availability, scalability and performance. It provides automatic failover for the entire Serve atOnce Activation Manager application. In case of hardware failure, the Serve atOnce Activation Manager application will automatically fail over to secondary hardware blades. High End Configuration is also equipped with an external EMC storage where the physical Serve atOnce Activation Manager database resides. When Serve atOnce Activation Manager is part of the IPS solution, the EMC storage can be common to both the Serve atOnce Activation Manager and NTMS products. It can support up to 20 million subscribers in subscription awareness mode and up to 50 million subscribers if all services are in flow-through mode. Entry Configuration ( HP hardware) Since SAAM release 5.0, Entry configuration is also available on top of HP Proliant hardware. It is a single rack-mounted node and it can support up to 5 million subscribers. PC Configuration
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PC configuration is a product configuration for demonstration, testing and trialing purposes. It runs on RedHat Linux on standard PC hardware. Required hardware and operating system: Disk: RAM: 80GB or more 2GB RAM or more
CPU: AMD Opteron, Intel Pentium at 500 MHz or faster, or Intel EM64T DVD-ROM RedHat Enterprise Linux version 5.2 (64-bit) See www.redhat.com for certified hardware
Tested laptops include e.g. Lenovo Thinkpad T60.
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Table 1.
SAAM Product Configuration HW details
ENTRY CONFIGURATION IBM BladeCenter

Cabinet Chassis CLAS-nodes Database nodes CPU/node
HIGH END CONFIGURATION IBM BladeCenter
ENTRY CONFIGURATION HP Proliant

HP Universal Rack 10642 G2 Shock Rack N/A DL380 G5 rackmounted server with 16GB memory 2 x Intel Xeon Dual Core X5260, 3,33GHz processor 64bit 8 x 146 GB 10k disks
The rack-mounted cabinet is based on the IBM 19 industry-standard cabinet rack for servers: IBM S2 standard rack cabinet (height 25U). 1 x IBM Bladecenter chassis 2 x LS21-blade with 4GB memory 1 x LS21-blade with 4GB memory 2 x AMD 2,4GHz Dual Core Opteron 64bit 3 x 146Gb SAS (Serial Attach SCSI) hot swap disks 1 x IBM Bladecenter chassis 4 x LS21-blade with 4GB memory 2 x LS21-blade with 4GB memory 2 x AMD 2,4GHz Dual Core Opteron 64bit N/A 2 x Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper GbE Switch Module for BladeCenter 2 x Brocade 20-port 4 Gb SAN Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter Fibre channel kits EMC CLARiiON N/A CX3-20 15 x 146Gb 15k disks
HardDisks
Ethernet Switches
2 x Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper GbE Switch Module for BladeCenter
N/A
Fibre Channel External disk storage
N/A
N/A
N/A
Serve atOnce Activation Manager platform software contains 3rd party software such as RedHat Linux Enterprise Edition version 5.2, Oracle Enterprise Edition version 10.2 and IBM WebSphere application server version 6.1. High End configuration contains in addition to those also RedHat Global File System, Cluster Suite and Directory Server, EMC NaviSphere Host and Linux Host Attach Kit as well as PowerPath Workgroup.
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References and additional reading

1. Serve atOnce Activation Manager Roadmap https://sharenetims.inside.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/Guest/Open/366914096 Integrated Provisioning Solution, Solution Description https://inside.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/global/Work/Sales/NSNSolut ions/RevenueGrowth/Pages/IPS.aspx NTMS 6.0 Product Description https://sharenetims.inside.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/Guest/Open/384037047 TMF, eTOM, Addendum D: Process Decompositions and Descriptions, GB921D, v4.6 TMF, SID Business View: Concepts & Principles, GB922, v5.1 TMF, Service Framework GB924, v1.9 TMF, NGOSS 4.5, GB927 NGOSS Lifecycle & Methodology, v1.3 OSS/J, OSS Service Activation API JSR 89 OSS/J, OSS Common API JSR 144
2.
3.
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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Glossary
API ARPU BPEL BSS CFS CLAS CORBA CRM DNS DNS/ENUM DSL EAI EM eTOM FGW FMC GUI HLR HLRe HSS HSSd IMS IMSI IN IP J2EE KPI MML NetAct NDS NGOSS Application Programming Interface Average Revenue Per User Business Process Execution Language Business Support System Customer Facing Service Cluster Application Server Common Object Request Broker Architecture Customer Relationship Management Domain Name Server Mapping the E.164 Number Space into the DNS Digital Subscriber Line Enterprise Application Integration Element Manager Enhanced Telecom Operations Map Femto Gateway Fixed Mobile Convergence Graphical User Interface Home Location Register HLR evolution based upon DX HLR Home Subscriber Server Home Subscriber Server distributed IP Multimedia Subsystem International Mobile Subscriber Identity Intelligent Network Internet Protocol Java 2 Enterprise Edition Key Performance Indicator Man Machine Language Network Management System of Nokia Siemens Networks Network Directory Server New Generation OSS
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NMS NPS NTMS O&M OMS One-NDS OPEX OSS/J PoC PoC-R PoS RFS RMI SAAM SDM SID SIP SNMP SOA SOAP TMF VoIP XML
Network Management System Nokia Profile Server Nokia Terminal Management Server Operation & Maintenance Operation and Maintenance Server One Network Directory Server Operating Expenditure OSS through Java Push to Talk over Cellular Push to Talk over Cellular Register Point-of-Sales Resource Facing Service Remote Method Invocation Serve atOnce Activation Manager Subscriber Data Management Shared Information Data/Knowledge Session Initiation Protocol Simple Network Management Protocol Service Oriented Architecture Simple Object Access Protocol TeleManagement Forum Voice over IP Extensive Markup Language
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Appendix 1 - Examples of network elements integrated to SAAM

Table 2 Examples of network elements and interfaces integrated to Serve atOnce Activation Manager Interface MML Description Interface to DX HLR.
Domain Mobile
Element DX HLR
HSS
SOAP
Interface to Home Subscriber Server
HSSd
SPML
Interface to distributed Home Subscriber Server based upon One-NDS Interface to Service Routing Register
SRRi
MML
Flexi ISN MMSC NT HLR NTMS Femto IN Systems FGW charge@once Advantage charge@once Advantage Comverse IN IMS CSDM HSSd iNUM DNS/ENUM IP-Unity UM MPM
RMI RMI SPML WSI CORBA CORBA XML/http
via NPS via NPS Interface to One-NDS via PGW Interface to Nokia Siemens Terminal Management System (NTMS). Interface to FGW via OMS element manager Interface to IN Interface to IN Interface to IN
SOAP SPML SOAP RMI SOAP
Interface to Community Service data Manager Interface to One-NDS via PGW Interface for DNS/ENUM. Interface for IP-Unity Unified Messaging for residential and business subscribers. Mobile Presence Management
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Domain
Element Novinum Navitas DNS/ ENUM PoC-R
Interface Proprietary Command Channel Interface RP-18 RMI CORBA SOAP SOAP XML/SOAP CORBA CORBA CORBA CORBA
Description Interface to DNS/ENUM
Interface to Push to talk over Cellular register (PoC-R). Interface to Mobile Softswitching Server Interface to media gateway via NetManager Interface to Voice over IP server for fixed networks. Interface to Business Subscribers server Interface to Voice Over Cable server Via NetManager. Via NetManager. Interface to DSLAM via ACI. Interface to IP DSLAM via ACI-E. Support for MSAN SIP subscribers.
VoIP
MSS Surpass hiE9200 Surpass hiQ4200 Surpass hiQ4300 Surpass hiQ8000
Fixed
hiE9200 TDMand softswitch EWSD TDM switch
Broadband
hiX5300 hiX5625/30/35
Device Management
NTMS Swapcom DMC
WSI http SMPP
Interface to Nokia Terminal Management Server Interface to Swapcom Device Management Interface to Jinny Short Message Service center Interface to Jatayu Multimedia messaging server Interface to Ericsson MMSC Interface to Trio private exchange Interface to Ferma VOMS Interface to Tecnomen Voice Mail System
Short Message Service Centers Multimedia Servers
Jinny SMSC
Jatayu MMSC Ericsson MMSC
http/XML CORBA CORBA JDBC Socket
PBX Voice Mail Systems
Trio VPBX Ferma VOMS Tecnomen VMS
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Domain
Element Tecnomen NGM
Interface XML/SOAP NE3S
Description Interface to Tecnomen Next Generation Messaging Interface to network management systems. This SNMP based interface is used for sending alarms to NetAct/NMS.
Network Management Systems
NetAct
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Appendix 2 Architecture
The Serve atOnce Activation Manager cluster platform is based on J2EE, IBM WebSphere Application Server, and Oracle database. The platform operating system is Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS.
SOAP Clients
OSS/J Client
Client Layer
SAAM
SOAP Workflow Engine Service Activation OSS/J Service Inventory
Provisioning Logic Layer Integration Layer
NPM DB
Operation Activator HLRHLR Connector Conn HLR HSS Connector HSS NPS Connector NPS ... Connector ...
Network Layer Network Access Layer
Figure 17.
SAAM release 5.0 high-level software architecture
Serve atOnce Activation Manager has a layered software architecture which consists of a client layer, a communication layer, a business logic layer and a network integration layer. The client layer contains the Serve atOnce Activation Manager user interfaces that are used for subscription management, configuration, operation and maintenance and the customisation of the Serve atOnce Activation Manager product.
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The communication layer provides interfaces for the client system Serve atOnce Activation Manager integration. Single-point integration for provisioning clients towards any underlying network elements is provided through OSS/J Service Activation API. Alternatively, a SOAP interface is provided. The business logic layer contains three services for BSS clients:
business logic and workflows for provisioning and data manipulation on the basis of workflows that can be dynamically deployed and linked between service data and the Serve atOnce Activation Manager provisioning business logic business logic related to the service catalogue for providing services for the client system and for Serve atOnce Activation Manager interworking subscription and subscriber profile storage (subscription and service inventory) for advanced and subscriber-aware provisioning features
The network integration layer provides connectivity to the network including connectivity and connectors to element managers, network elements and registers, for carrying out provisioning operations (create, update, delete) and data read/query operations. Connectors encapsulate different types of network element interfaces and protocols, and thereby they free the operator and the BSS systems from doing any integration directly to the network elements for subscriber and service provisioning purposes.
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Serve AtOnce Activation Manager Rel. 5.0 Product Description

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Serve atOnce Activation Manager release 5.0

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Figure 1. Operators Key Challenges

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Serve atOnce Activation Manager product briefly

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Figure 2 Key capabilities of Nokia Siemens Networks Provisioning Solution

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Figure 3 Serve atOnce Activation Manager mapping to eTOM processes

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Figure 4 Serve atOnce Activation Manager product components

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Service Order processing

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Figure 5 O&M Suite - one of the mass-provisioning views

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