Network Operations Center A network operations center for one location or in more locations locations from which which control is exercised over
Telecom networks, PSTN, ISDN, PLMN 2G, 2G/3G , B3G
One NOC or more than one NOC
Large organizations may operate operate more than than one NOC, To manage different networks or To provide provide geographic redundancy in the event of one site being unavailable or offline or Failure.
Responsibility
of NOCs
To Monit Monitor or the netw network ork for alarms or certain conditions requiring special attention to avoid impact on the network's performance , To avoid interruption. interruption . To ensure ensure perfect perfect netwo network rk performan performance ce NOCs are responsib responsible le for monitorin monitoring g for 1. Power failures, 2. BER, FER, and and circuits down down alarms) alarms) and 3. other performance performance parameters parameters that may affect the network¶s health (Interference, Noise, Distortion, Low/High RSSI , site uptime/downtime etc)
Responsibility
4.
of NOCs
Analyse Analyse problems,
5. Perform troubleshooting, troubleshooting, 6. Communicate Communicate with site
ENGINEERS and other NOCs
,
7. Track problems through resolution. 8. If necessary, NOCs escalate problems to the appropriate personnel level. 9. For severe conditions that are impossible impossible to anticipate ± such as a power failure or optical fiber cable cut etc 10.NOCs have to immediately contact ENGINEERS to remedy the problem.
NOC set up NOCs are frequently frequently set up up with with several rows of desks, all facing a video wall, showing details of Highly Highly significa significant nt alarms, (Critical, Major, Minor, Alerting alarms etc)
ongoing ongoing incidents incidents and general general n/w performance; The corner corner is used for showing showing a news news TV chl or weather TV chl, as this can keep the NOC current events which may ENGINEERS aware of have an impact on the network.
Overview of a typical NOC. Lot of monitors (front), backbone overview (back) and news broadcast on TV-set (right)
NOC OPERATIONAL (24*7*365)
NOC staff may perform extra duties; a network network with equipment equipment in public public areas (such as a mobile network BTS) may be required to have a telephone number attached to the equipment for emergencies (EOW); as the NOC NOC is is continuo continuously usly (24*7*365) staffed
Tier 1 ±tier 4 NOC engineer NOCs often escalate issues in a hierarchical manner, if an issue is not not resolved resolved in a specific time frame, frame, Next Next level level is informed informed to speed up problem remediation. NOCs have have multiple multiple "tiers", which define how experienced/skilled a NOC engineer is. A newly-hired newly-hired NOC engineer engineer might be considered a "tier 1", whereas others may be of level " tier 3" or "tier 4". Hence Hence some problems problems are escalate escalated d within within a NOC before a site engineer or other network engineer is contacted.
