The embedding of an OSS into a comprehensive NGN environment

The use of an Operation Support Systems (OSS) will play a key role in allowing operators or service providers to accelerate their service- and network oriented business processes. Applying of Tele Management Forum (TMF) blue prints such as the enhanced Telecommunications Operations Map (eTOM) or the Shared Information and Data Model (SID) as well as state-of-the-art IT architectures such as Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) including process automation capabilities are further building blocks to reach this. This requires also that the Next Generation Networks (NGN) environment including the OSS need to be considered from an integration driven perspective which encompasses a comprehensive architecture view about the NGN itself, the processes, the data, and IT support systems. The TMF's New Generation Systems and Software (NGOSS) principles in concert with Project Management Institute (PMI) methodologies will empower such a wide-ranging architecture view too. All this together will form a suitable framework of an OSS development project. The whole NGN environment such as a Service Creation Environment (SCE), the Business Support Systems (BSS) or Enterprise Support Systems (ESS) and their relations or Reference Points to the OSS will be covered by this approach. This paper will systematically consider all this matters but focus on the OSS's outer edges to the NGN environment.