From Network Management to Service Management - A Challenge to Telecom Service Providers

Telecom service providers are facing tremendous challenges today as their customers' demand for service quality increases. To meet the challenge service providers must shift their focus from managing the networks to managing the services. Traditionally network management systems are developed based on ITU-T's FCAP model to automate the network management process. With the network evolves from voice- centric to integrated services such as UMTS, WIMAX, and IMS, service management to measure customer experience becomes essential. The next generation service management systems will be based on the eTOM model and may require Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which provides an integration technology based on the concept that a service is a sequence of components to implement business processes. Although there is no tight link between SOA and Web services, Web service technology addresses many of the requirements for building an SOA- enabled environment. This paper discusses the challenges of service management, SOA, and the relationship with web services.