Industry Information Infrastructure

Collaboration in the communications industry is greatly facilitated by the implementation of an Industry Information Infrastructure. In North America, an Industry Information Infrastructure known as [http://www.commonlanguage.com Common Language] , which is maintained by Telcordia, currently supports millions of interconnection orders each year between communications service providers (Source - [http://www.atis.org/obf/index.asp OBF] ). This Industry Information Infrastructure provides key master data in support of a 360 degree view of network and services. This Industry Information Infrastructure provides master data management in support of [http://www.commonlanguage.com/resources/commonlang/equipment_info/index.html equipment information] , [http://www.commonlanguage.com/resources/commonlang/location_info/index.html location information] , [http://www.commonlanguage.com/resources/commonlang/connection_info/index.html connections information] and [http://www.commonlanguage.com/resources/commonlang/services_info/index.html services information] .

The four characteristics of an Industry Information Infrastructure include the following:

The first characteristic of an Industry Information Infrastructure is that the solution must include a standards-based information framework. This would include size, structure, and format of field identifiers to ensure maximum interoperability with industry suppliers, trading partners, and available software. Conformance to the relevant standards from ETSI, [http://www.atis.org/ ATIS] , ITU-T, IETF, and the [http://www.tmforum.org/browse.aspx TM Forum] should be considered.

The second characteristic of an Industry Information Infrastructure is that it would provide a complete data dictionary with syntax rules. This would include a well-defined reference as to what each character position in the identifiers represent, valid values for each field and subfield, and, in general, any and all rules on how the Industry Information Infrastructure is to be represented and interpreted. This will ensure that all adopters who implement this Industry Information Infrastructure will benefit from a shared understanding not only within organizations, but also between trading partners and suppliers.

The third characteristic is that the Industry Information Infrastructure should provide an industry registry and naming engine. The registry would provide the industry with one authoritative source for all data objects. This is a critical point related to global uniqueness. If an Industry Information Infrastructure can ensure global uniqueness for a particular instance of an object as referenced through a unique key (e.g. network location), AND each network location has one and only one representation, then managing the truthful information on that object becomes manageable.

To illustrate this point, imagine two or more systems that store network location information. As long as those two systems have the same address, there is probably no question as to the correctness of the information. However, as soon as the location information between systems is out of synch, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish which location information is accurate without sending a person to perform a costly site audit. Therefore, it is critical that each object be managed by one authoritative source, with applications accessing that information through that authoritative source. In this manner, each application stores only the keys (identifiers) of the applicable objects, enabling the information to change, while ensuring that each application has the most up to date attributes for the information object.

The naming engine would support a mechanism by which people, processes, and systems can use fixed field identifiers that support global uniqueness within their domain of applicability. For example, interconnection processes require a shared understanding of location information between different companies, global uniqueness and universal interpretation are hard requirements. On the other hand, circuit specifications, which are generally proprietary and not shared with trading partners, are required to be unique only within a communications service provider — not necessarily between service providers. However, with many industry mergers and acquisitions in the industry, there are drivers emerging for a global uniqueness requirement for naming and specifying all facilities and circuits.

The fourth characteristic of an Industry Information Infrastructure is publication and distribution engine to update organizations and corporations that rely on that information. For example, if address information for a network location with a network point of interface is updated as a result of a street name change, then all parties that rely on that location information should have real-time access to the updated information. Another example would be when one equipment manufacturer acquires another, the updated supplier information would be provided to all communication service providers who currently have deployed equipment from the acquired company installed in their networks. In this example, when it becomes necessary to order replacement parts of the acquired equipment, knowing that equipment from Vendor A (who was recently acquired by Vendor B) is now available exclusively from Vendor B, helps ensure continuity of service through availability of spare network components.