Proactive fault management in mobile core network

1. Proactive fault management in mobile core network Niko Isotalo Instructor: Ira Antikainen Supervisor: Timo O. Korhonen

2. Agenda • Objectives • Designin the Equipment • Further development • Conclutions

3. Objectives of the thesis To design system which will... • Efficiently detect faults and configuration errors from the customer network • Help network operator in more difficult problems • Be available as many customers as possible • Create clear procedures what to do when error has been found • Be easy to use and maintain

4. Design process challenges/problems • What tasks are needed to effectively manage customer network? • How to help network vendor in more demanding tasks? • How product availability for the all the customers can be assured? • How to create user interface which is easy to use? • How to measure user interfaces usability?

5. Effective management of customer network • Regular health checks • Regular backups • In case of alarm/fault logs are created and health check is done

6. Advantages for network vendor • Collection of all necessary logs • Information about already know product problems • In case of alarm/fault logs are created and health check is done

7. Product availability for all customers Where to place equipment: • All the customers does not have remote access to their network • Product should be available to all the customers –system will be placed on the customer network Security policy: • Customers has different security policies and some are tighter than others. Because of this systems securtity policy is strict, but flexible.

8. Designing user interface Usability goals: • System should be easy to use • System should be logical to use • System should guide you towards wanted action • System should be efficient to use • Visual expression should be neutral

9. Designing user interface Usability goals are met by following nine principles of user Centric design • Design for the users • Involve users in the development process • Be consistent • Use simple and natural dialogue • Reduce unnecessary mental effort by the user • Provide feedback to the user • Use prototypes to evaluate ideas • Usability goals should control the development • User centric attitude

14. Measuring usability of user interface Test scenario: • Add different network elements and specify task to them • Change configuration information of the nodes • List and delete network elements • Totally 61 different tasks

15. Measuring usability of user interface Usability of the user interface was measured by monitoring following attributes • Percentage of succesfully completed tasks • Time needed to complete these tasks • Number of errors made • Users subjective satisfaction

16. Measuring usability of user interface Results:

17. Furher Delvelopment • Update the list of know problems and procedure how those problems are solved • Rule-based classification algorithm , • This algorithm will predict error behaviour by searching for eventsets before the target event • Can predict critical events with 70% accuracy

18. Conclutions • Fault management can be improved with already existing tools by using those more efficiently • Using these same tools, support for customer can be offered faster • Designed system saves time –more time can be spent on root cause analysis of the new problems • Customer networks will be in better shape which leads to a more stable networks

19. Questions?