Ensuring service level agreement compliance through introduction of integrated network operations center

Throughout the world Next Generation Networks are being rolled out by operators and service providers with the promises of new services and new sources of revenue. But service delivery is becoming increasingly complex because of a need to deliver a service across multiple domains and technologies to any end point at any time. Determining the QoS provides a discriminator between various types of service that suppliers provide, and leads to opportunities to balance the level of service quality offered against price and customer expectation. The use of QoS agreements in SLAs (Service Level Agreement) provides service providers with the opportunity to delight their Customers, build stronger long- term relationships and brand image, and maintain/grow market share. Therefore service providers are looking to introduce Integrated Network Operations Center (NOC) to offer high quality services with service level guarantees for various tiers of customers while managing the efficiency in the use of network and services. The article addresses challenges of building an Integrated Network Operations Center (NOC) for service providers on base of industry standards and discusses the sequence of steps that should be taken in order to implement it, with focus on end-to-end QoS guarantee (SLA).