Data is growing every day in all the domains, it is
applicable for Telecom also. NMS/OSS/BSS systems need to handle huge number of devices
and data to meet the business requirements of CSPs.
Webopedia says,
Big data is a
buzzword, or catch-phrase,
used to describe a massive volume of both
structured and
unstructured data that is so
large that it's difficult to process using traditional
database and
software techniques. In
most enterprise scenarios the data is too big or it moves too fast or it
exceeds current processing capacity.
According to IBM, the following are the top 5 high value use
cases that can be the first step to BIG DATA:
1. Big Data
Exploration:
Find, visualize, understand all big data to improve decision
making.
2. Enhanced 360
degree view of the customer:
Extend existing customer views by incorporating additional
internal and external information source.
3. Security/Intelligence Extension:
Lower risk, detect fraud and monitor cyber security in real
time.
4. Operational
Analysis:
Analyze a variety of machine and operational data for
improved business results.
5. Data
Warehouse Modernization:
Integrate big data and data warehouse capabilities to
increase operational efficiency.Therefore, BIG DATA = $$$$$
Why do you need Big
Data in Network Management field?
In FCAPS model ‘P’ stands for Performance & BIG DATA
plays a vital role in this bucket.
Imagine your NMS/OSS systems are managing thousands of
devices, when you have to read thousands of PM counter data from these devices,
you need to persist & perform some analysis near real time. And of course,
the volume of data over a period of time is going to grow from GB to TB or may
even to PB (depends on your PM functional requirements though). If you need to build a scalable management system, apart
from Architecture, design and various others factors, DB layer should also be given a
high priority for storage.
Many Telco vendors are building Big Data Analytics product which would ingest data from legacy OSS/BSS/NMS data source and perform Analytics and help CSP for better business.
Many Telco vendors are building Big Data Analytics product which would ingest data from legacy OSS/BSS/NMS data source and perform Analytics and help CSP for better business.
Why can’t you achieve
it with traditional databases?
No, Big Data framework is not intended for a traditional business
solutions and rather a flexible framework for custom point solutions. A RDBMS,
on the other hand, is intended to store and manage data and provide access for
a wide range of users, Structure, Parallel processing, Nodes of Cluster ranging
from hundreds to thousands.
For example, If you are using Oracle Database at your back-end of NMS/OSS,
you can have a hybrid solution of using Oracle also with Hadoop with the help
of Oracle Grid Engine. It all depends on
your need, you either use Hadoop with a single node or multiple nodes in a
cluster based on your scalability needs (focusing only on the data here).
In traditional Database systems, you will be storing the huge data in multiple servers using Grids. For NMS/OSS there is no problem of
storing the data for years in multiple servers, but the real problem lies in 'READ'ing the 'Unstructured' data for analysis. Big Data framework gives you that!!
Which Big data framework to be picked?
I have heard of Hadoop only, but there are many. Please
check the following link.
So the answer is : It depends on your requirement.
Wikipedia says,
Apache Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storage and large-scale processing of data-sets on clusters of commodity hardware. Hadoop is an Apache top-level project being built and used by a global community of contributors and users.It is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
What should be done
in NMS/OSS?
Any large scale NMS/OSS should support Big Data in the Database layer for
supporting huge number of network elements. Wait, it not only depends on number
of network elements, it’s all about the amount of data is stored and read for
processing. There are many NMS solutions out there which adds sophiscated NETWORK PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION tools which are very critical business applications
for a CSP embedded as part of their management solution. Those vendors need to get their setup into BIG DATA !!
Note: Performance Analysis falls under Service Management Layer
What will Network Performance Analyzer do with Big Data?
What will Network Performance Analyzer do with Big Data?
Storing of performance measurement counter data and
performing historical aggregation are really important for trend analysis. This
would help to identity QoS in the overall network, Traffic hot spots, call
drops, coverage losses etc.. In order to
provide a near real time analysis with detailed reporting feature, tons of data
should be stored and processed in order to provide a critical value.
What will you get out of Big Data analytics?
Sources & Useful references:
- User satisfaction
- Business & Operations efficiency
Sources & Useful references:
When surfing the internet, I found the following pieces of
information would be quite useful to know, please read this !!
http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/Strategyand_Benefiting-from-Big-Data_A-New-Approach-for-the-Telecom-Industry.pdf
http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/whitepapers/wp-big-data.pdf
http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/whitepapers/wp-big-data.pdf
