Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market and Forecast 2010-2015

May 17, 2010

Author: Kaustubha Parkhi
Published: May 2010
Pages: 133
Pricing:

Single-user License: $ 2,995 USD
Company-wide License: $ 7,995 USD
Team License (Up to 5 Users): $ 3,865 USD

OSS, BSS, OSS/BSS, Next Generation Billing, Next Generation OSS, Next Gen OSS/BSS, Telecom Provisioning, Telecom Billing, Telecom Administration

Overview:

Next Generation Networks (NGN) promises a high quality end-user experience. Telecommunications service providers expect the NGN framework to provide them with tools that would ensure customer loyalty. However, the path towards achieving the ideal NGN is fraught with formidable challenges. The most critical challenge confronting operators is optimizing their OSS and BSS platforms, systems, and processes.

The OSS/BSS vendor environment is extremely competitive with close to 400 vendors, mostly specialized in niches and having a strong services arm. Vendor categories include Comprehensive Solution Providing Pure OSS/BSS Vendors, Comprehensive Solution Providing Composite Vendors, Skill-set Extension Solution Providers and Core Strength Concentrators - BSS and OSS. The vendor landscape is characterized by extensive M&A activity.

With research beginning in 2007, the report Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market and Forecast 2010-2015 provides a comprehensive analysis of drivers and issues related to technical and business aspects of OSS/BSS deployments and developments while forecasting their growth over the next five years. With the global economy at large beginning to show concrete signs of a turnaround from the recent slowdown, the erstwhile sunrise sector - telecom is at the forefront on capitalizing these good tidings. Consequently, operators are more willing to spend on refurbishing, augmenting and establishing OSS and BSS setups. Additional impetus for the operator bullishness is derived from the promise heralded by wireless broadband, which is universally looked upon as the single most promising factor. This optimism is reflected in the revised market sizes for OSS and BSS solutions. While the optimism is spread pretty much across the OSS/BSS board; systems that are instrumental in fresh rollouts as well as those that deal with revenue leakage will stand to benefit the most, as is evidenced in the respective revenue growth rates.
With the global economy at large beginning to show concrete signs of a turnaround from the recent slowdown, the erstwhile sunrise sector - telecom is at the forefront on capitalizing these good tidings. Consequently, operators are more willing to spend on refurbishing, augmenting and establishing OSS and BSS setups. Additional impetus for the operator bullishness is derived from the promise heralded by wireless broadband, which is universally looked upon as the single most promising factor. This optimism is reflected in the revised market sizes for OSS and BSS solutions. While the optimism is spread pretty much across the OSS/BSS board; systems that are instrumental in fresh rollouts as well as those that deal with revenue leakage will stand to benefit the most, as is evidenced in the respective revenue growth rates.
With the global economy at large beginning to show concrete signs of a turnaround from the recent slowdown, the erstwhile sunrise sector - telecom is at the forefront on capitalizing these good tidings. Consequently, operators are more willing to spend on refurbishing, augmenting and establishing OSS and BSS setups. Additional impetus for the operator bullishness is derived from the promise heralded by wireless broadband, which is universally looked upon as the single most promising factor. This optimism is reflected in the revised market sizes for OSS and BSS solutions. While the optimism is spread pretty much across the OSS/BSS board; systems that are instrumental in fresh rollouts as well as those that deal with revenue leakage will stand to benefit the most, as is evidenced in the respective revenue growth rates.

Important Questions Answered by this Report

  • What are the telecom network operator interests in NGN OSS/BSS?
  • What are the challenges to OSS and BSS implementation?
  • What are the best OSS and BSS approaches for NGN?
  • What are the technologies involved in OSS and BSS?
  • Who are the leading vendors for NGN OSS/BSS?
  • What is the market forecast for OSS and BSS?

Additional Value in this Publication

Technical Overview of OSS and BSS in NGNs: This section begins with an introduction to OSS and BSS and their roles in the operator environment. It explains the various blocks that go into building of the OSS: Network elements, events, alarms and others. It next explains the BSS building blocks: Billing, rating, mediation, charging, customer care and others. This section is followed by the description of prevalent industry approaches like TMN - FCAPS model that are widely followed by operators. The section then analyzes the technical impact of NGN on OSS and BSS architectures.

Vendor Analysis: Profiles of vendors offering OSS/BSS products and services for next generation networks. This section first explains the basis of vendor selection including vendor classification, innovative contribution, market leadership position and future growth path. Each vendor is then analyzed in the light of its product and solution portfolio, major implementations, differentiating aspects with other vendors and their future plans. The report includes recommendations to vendors including diversification, best practices, market segment, and solution approach.

Quantitative Analysis and Forecast: This section begins with a detailed explanation of the research methodology. Quantitative analysis includes measurable items such as billing systems, network management systems and their sub-classes (mediation, wholesale billing, retail billing, CRM, revenue assurance, resource management, task management, delivery management, synchronization management) along with geographical segmentation, trends and projections. Importantly, the quantitative analysis assesses the impact of various drivers and issues on the above measurable items, thus forming a logical conclusion of the quantitative discussion in the previous sections.

Note: This section represents a comprehensive forecast including Forecast Methodology by Overall OSS and BSS Software Market, Split by OSS and by BSS separately, by geography (NA, EMEA, CALA, and APAC), and by modular break-up including: Network Planning and Engineering (NPE), Fault Management (FM), Performance Management (PM), Provisioning and Service Activation (PSA), Inventory Management (IM), Billing and Customer Care (B&CC), Mediation (MD), and Revenue Assurance (RA). The section also includes OSS/BSS Vendor Rakings Based on Net Profit Margins.

Key Findings:

  • While both OSS and BSS functions will witness a healthy growth, traditional OSS functions will grow faster than traditional BSS functions.
  • IM will register the maximum absolute growth in terms of revenues among the traditional OSS functions followed by PSA and NPE, signaling a return to the rollout era..
  • Revenues of B&CC and MD will grow at a lower than average rate, while RA will emerge as the fastest growing BSS function.
  • APAC will top the growth in terms of revenues and percentage share among geographic regions, CALA will follow. NA will continue to remain the largest market for OSS/BSS solutions. While the NA region will have fewer new network roll-outs, it will continue to generate substantial customer additions. APAC and CA-LA will witness hectic activity on both: new network roll-out as well as customer additions, while EMEA will show modest activity on both these fronts.
  • Share of services component in the revenues will increase from less than 40 percent to more than half.

Audience:

  • Network operator managers tasked with making long-term architecture and support system decisions including vendor decisions
  • Product management personnel concerned with the impact of OSS and BSS systems on next generation application and services rollout such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and technology and/or application frameworks or platforms
  • Managers and Directors tasked with OSS responsibilities and anyone that is involved in OSS/BSS decision making
  • Vendors, suppliers, and service providers to network operators interested in their prospects for selling into the carrier marketplace
  • Network and Engineering personnel seeking specific information such as leading OSS/BSS Approaches including as OSS/J, OSA/Parlay, MDA, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). This publication has both business/market information and technical information!

Companies in Report:

  • Amdocs
  • AT&T
  • BT
  • CBOSS
  • Cerillion
  • China Mobile
  • Comarch
  • Comptel Corporation
  • Comverse
  • cVidya Inc
  • Evolving Systems Inc
  • Formula Telecom Solutions
  • Hewlett-Packard Company
  • IBM
  • Intec Telecom Systems
  • ITU
  • LHS
  • Metratech
  • MindCTI Ltd
  • Oracle
  • Orange
  • Redknee
  • Rogers
  • SAS
  • Subex
  • Telcordia Technologies Inc
  • Telstra
  • TELUS
  • Vodafone
  • VPIsystems Inc
  • WebNMS
  • Xalted
  • 3
  • Abacus
  • Accel Partners
  • Accenture
  • AdventNet
  • Airtel
  • Albacom
  • Alltel

ZOHO Group

Table of Contents:

1 Executive Summary. 8
2 The relevance of NGN.. 10
2.1 Background. 10
2.2 What is NGN.. 10
2.3 Introduction and history. 11
2.3.1 Timeline. 11
2.4 Comparison of NGN with Public Switched Telephone Network and with Public Switched Data Network 11
2.5 Drivers of NGN.. 12
2.5.1 Telecom Operator and Vendor Interests. 12
2.5.2 Improvement in Access Technologies. 13
2.5.3 Reduced Vendor Dependency. 14
2.6 Challenges for NGN.. 14
2.6.1 Large Scale Capital Expenditure. 14
2.6.2 Operational Challenges. 15
2.6.3 Integration of Multiple Private Networks and Application into the Larger Public Networks 15
2.6.4 Quality of Service (QoS) 16
2.6.5 National Security and Competitive Policies. 16
2.7 What is IMS?. 17
2.7.1 Background. 17
2.7.2 HSS. 18
2.7.3 Application and media servers. 18
2.7.4 CSCF. 19
2.7.5 Interconnection protocols. 19
2.8 Drivers behind IMS. 19
2.8.1 Value-Added Services. 19
2.8.2 Transparency in Access. 20
2.8.3 Scalability. 20
2.8.4 Industry Consortia. 20
2.9 Conclusion. 21
3 NGN OSS/BSS: Components, IMS Implications and Frameworks. 22
3.1.1 Network Planning and Engineering. 22
3.1.1.1 Market Size. 23
3.1.2 Fault Management 23
3.1.2.1 Market Size. 23
3.1.3 Performance Management 23
3.1.3.1 Market Size. 24
3.1.4 Provisioning and Service Activation. 24
3.1.4.1 Market Size. 25
3.1.5 Inventory Management 25
3.1.5.1 Market Size. 26
3.1.6 Billing and Customer Care. 26
3.1.6.1 Market Size. 27
3.1.7 Mediation. 27
3.1.7.1 Market Size. 27
3.1.8 Revenue Assurance. 27
3.1.8.1 Market Size. 28
3.2 Challenges for OSS and BSS. 28
3.3 OSS Challenges. 29
3.3.1 Stakeholder Apprehensions. 29
3.3.2 Framework to Integrate Customization Demands. 29
3.3.3 Smooth Transition from Existing OSS Frameworks. 30
3.3.4 Multi-vendor Co-ordination. 31
3.4 BSS Challenges. 31
3.5 SDP: The Shock Absorber 32
3.6 TMForum Solution Frameworx. 34
3.6.1 Key NGOSS Terminology. 36
3.6.2 TAM... 37
3.6.3 Business Process Framework (Formerly eTOM) 38
3.6.4 SID.. 40
3.6.5 TNA.. 42
3.6.6 APIs and Interfaces. 43
3.6.7 NGOSS Compliance Tests. 43
3.6.8 The NGOSS Lifecycle. 43
3.6.9 Advantages of NGOSS. 45
4 Approaches and Technologies. 46
4.1 Fundamental Concepts. 46
4.1.1 Middleware. 46
4.1.2 SOA-The Bedrock for SDP and OSS/BSS. 47
4.1.3 Service Oriented Application Protocol (SOAP) 49
4.1.4 Web Services (WS) 49
4.1.5 Extensible Markup Language (XML) 50
4.2 OSS/BSS Frameworks. 50
4.2.1 Telecommunication Management Network (TMN) 51
4.2.2 FCAPS. 53
4.3 Messaging Formats. 55
4.3.1 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) 55
4.3.2 Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) 57
4.4 Enterprise Data Organization Approaches. 58
4.4.1 Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) 58
4.4.2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) 59
4.5 Approaches towards IMS-enabling OSS/BSS. 59
4.5.1 OSS/J. 59
4.5.2 MDA.. 62
4.5.3 Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 64
5 Vendor initiatives. 66
5.1 Vendor Landscape Observations. 66
5.2 Vendor Classification. 66
5.2.1 Comprehensive Solution Providing Pure OSS/BSS Vendors. 66
5.2.2 Comprehensive Solution Providing Composite Vendors. 67
5.2.3 Core Strength Concentrators - BSS. 68
5.2.4 Core Strength Concentrators - OSS. 68
5.3 Vendor Summary. 68
5.3.1 Amdocs. 69
5.3.2 CBOSS. 71
5.3.3 Cerillion. 72
5.3.4 Comarch. 74
5.3.5 Comptel Corporation. 75
5.3.6 Comverse. 77
5.3.7 cVidya Inc. 78
5.3.8 Evolving Systems Inc. 79
5.3.9 Formula Telecom Solutions. 80
5.3.10 Hewlett-Packard Company. 81
5.3.11 IBM... 83
5.3.12 Intec Telecom Systems. 84
5.3.13 LHS. 85
5.3.14 Metratech. 86
5.3.15 MindCTI Ltd. 87
5.3.16 Oracle. 89
5.3.17 Redknee. 90
5.3.18 Subex. 91
5.3.19 Telcordia Technologies Inc. 93
5.3.20 VPIsystems Inc. 95
5.3.21 WebNMS. 96
5.3.22 Xalted. 98
6 Quantitative Forecasts and Analysis. 100
6.1 Forecast Methodology. 100
6.2 Overall OSS and BSS Software Market 100
6.2.1 Overall Revenue Split Up. 101
6.2.2 OSS Split-Up. 102
6.2.3 BSS Split-Up. 103
6.3 Geographical and Revenue Component-wise Distribution. 104
6.3.1 Overall Geographical Distribution. 104
6.3.2 Overall Revenue Component-wise Distribution. 105
6.4 Modular Break-Up. 106
6.4.1 Network Planning and Engineering (NPE) 107
6.4.2 Fault Management (FM) 110
6.4.3 Performance Management (PM) 112
6.4.4 Provisioning and Service Activation (PSA) 116
6.4.5 Inventory Management (IM) 119
6.4.6 Billing and Customer Care (B&CC) 121
6.4.7 Mediation (MD) 124
6.4.8 Revenue Assurance (RA) 127
6.5 OSS/BSS Vendor Rakings Based on Net Profit Margins. 132
6.6 Conclusions. 133
6.7 Recommendations 133

List of Tables

Table 2-1: Comparison between NGN, PSTN and PSDN.. 12
Table 5-1: Vendor List 69

List of Figures

Figure 2-1: IMS Components. 18
Figure 3-1: OSS and BSS Positions. 22
Figure 3-2: Kabira PSA.. 25
Figure 3-3: Frameworx from TMForum.. 35
Figure 3-4: NGOSS Schematic. 36
Figure 3-5: eTOM... 39
Figure 3-6: SID Business Entity Framework. 41
Figure 3-7: NGOSS lifecycle management 44
Figure 4-1: Logical Layers of TMN.. 53
Figure 4-2: NGOSS and OSS/J Synchronization. 60
Figure 4-3: TMF/Prosspero. 61
Figure 6-1: Consolidated OSS/BSS Revenues (In Million USD) 100
Figure 6-2: Consolidated Revenue Functional Split-Up (In Million USD) 101
Figure 6-3: OSS Revenue Split-Up (In Million USD) 102
Figure 6-4: BSS Revenue Split-Up (In Million USD) 103
Figure 6-5: Consolidated Revenue Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 104
Figure 6-6: Consolidated Revenue Geographical Summary (%) 105
Figure 6-7 Consolidated Revenue Component-wise Split-Up (In Million USD) 106
Figure 6-8: NPE Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 107
Figure 6-9: NPE Geographical Summary (%) 108
Figure 6-10: NPE Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 109
Figure 6-11: FM Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 110
Figure 6-12: FM Geographical Summary (%) 111
Figure 6-13: FM Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 112
Figure 6-14: PM Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 113
Figure 6-15: PM Geographical Summary (%) 114
Figure 6-16: PM Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 115
Figure 6-17: PSA Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 116
Figure 6-18: PSA Geographical Summary (%) 117
Figure 6-19: PSA Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 118
Figure 6-20: IM Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 119
Figure 6-21: IM Geographical Summary (%) 120
Figure 6-22: IM Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 121
Figure 6-23: B&CC Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 122
Figure 6-24: B&CC Geographical Summary (%) 123
Figure 6-25: B&CC Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 124
Figure 6-26: MD Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 125
Figure 6-27: MD Geographical Summary (%) 126
Figure 6-28: : MD Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 127
Figure 6-29: RA Geographical Split-Up (In Million USD) 128
Figure 6-30: RA Geographical Summary (%) 129
Figure 6-31: RA Component-wise Split-up (In Million USD) 130
Figure 6-32: Operator Billing Revenue Losses (In Million USD) 131
Figure 6-33: OSS/BSS Vendor Ranking Based On Net Profit Margins (%)