Pushing FCAPS into the Network

The FTN MIB provides an SNMP-based example of policy usage. Other types of decision-making can be pushed into the network. One area is that of billing and accounting. Many service providers use a flat-rate billing model because the deployed NEs and management facilities cannot provide a usage-based approach. Usage-based billing allows for improved SP margins and network resource use. The Lightweight Flow Accounting Protocol (LFAP) from Riverstone is an effort to provide for more accurate billing and accounting in the NEs themselves . This is similar to the provision of CDR/PDR facilities that we saw in Chapter 6. The merit of LFAP is that it may become a standard.

Over time, we may expect to see more of the FCAPS being standardized and implemented in NEs. This would free the NMS/OSS to do very advanced functions, such as:

• Root-cause analysis

• Asset management

• Usage-based billing

• Capacity planning and forecasting

In other words, as FCAPS capability is pushed into the network (along with policy-based facilities), we may see some OSS (or possibly business management system) facilities being pushed in turn into the NMS.