Rapid software development for multi-vendor services

To provide network services successfully, telecommunications companies must work with many operations policies, network configurations, and types of equipment. The demand for advanced network services that can help service providers minimize their capital investment and reduce their operating expenses has outpaced the supply of the reliable, high-quality software systems and tools needed to develop and deliver them. Such software is needed to make service delivery more manageable and more profitable, but it is a challenge to develop it rapidly because of the great diversity in the equipment, technologies, protocols, and interfaces of the various vendors. Bell Labs has built the declarative command processor (DCP) to address this challenge. This paper describes how DCP makes it possible to develop multi-vendor services software rapidly at reduced cost. It also explains the key concepts of DCP: data-driven programming, declarative programming, and Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based automation techniques. Finally, it presents a successful application of DCP to deliver an inventory and configuration management service that has had an annual revenue growth of 50% over two years.