The deployment of remote equipment is steadily on the rise, with more remote equipment being used year in and year out. For example, the growth in cell phone usage necessitates an increase in the number of cell phone towers erected. These towers are usually remotely deployed.

Broadcast towers, microwave sites and broadband wireless towers are experiencing the same growth phenomenon, and as these networks steadily expand, they also continue to become increasingly more complex and difficult to manage. Moreover, service providers aren't just managing a handful of remote sites anymore. In many cases, service providers are managing thousands--some even tens of thousands--of remote sites.

As more equipment is deployed remotely and networks become more complex and distributed, the potential for problems at these sites increases. An end-user customer may experience a disruption in their service due to power outages, extreme temperatures or flooding, doors being left unlocked or open, or a battery designed to serve as a backup in the event of a power failure running low on charge and needing replacement. Any of these disruptions may translate into loss of both customer satisfaction and revenue for the service provider.

The pain point for these service providers, therefore, is figuring out how to efficiently manage these remote sites and keep them up and running, while delivering the higher levels of reliable service their customers are demanding.

AUTOMATED NETWORK MANAGEMENT

In the past, whenever remote site equipment failed, a company would simply dispatch a technician to the site or utilize point solutions to monitor individual equipment. Because of today's complex networks and competitive landscape, many service providers are finding this approach is no longer an economical or viable solution, and are increasingly under pressure to more proactively prevent problems, fix them more quickly, and reduce costs to compete more effectively.

Service providers have turned to network management systems. However, traditional network management systems weren't designed to support the specialized management and control capabilities necessary to support these highly distributed networks. On their own, network management systems can't detect environmental and legacy system failures without the use of remote devices that integrate these factors into the network management systems.

To compensate, many service providers and businesses have begun deploying remote site monitoring solutions to help them monitor and control the equipment they have in remote or understaffed locations. This technology helps the service provider or business gain visibility into what is transpiring with their equipment so they can take steps to address any issues before they become significant problems.

PROACTIVE ACTION PREVENTS DISRUPTION

While they have the right idea - deploying remote site monitoring technology is a step in the right direction - the reality is today's service providers can't afford to just have reactive remote monitoring. The demands customers are placing on networks require them to always be up and running. Therefore, remote site monitoring also has to be about what a company is doing proactively to address issues that may arise at remote equipment sites.

For instance, remote monitoring solutions can give a service provider the ability to proactively monitor, access and control equipment in remote locations and facilitate communication between those sites, giving the service provider all they need to effectively manage the site. These solutions should include the ability to detect potential equipment failures, low batteries, and/or environmental conditions such as high temperatures, high humidity and open doors, among other things.

Once a problem is detected, these solutions can do everything from notifying the right people about the issue, determining the proper course of action needed to be taken, rebooting equipment, and when needed, restarting a system and verifying it is operational once again.

Remote site monitoring solutions can help service providers become the proactive companies they need to be by running five simple processes:

Monitoring environmental conditions for extreme temperatures, humidity, water, fire, etc.
Understanding the security of the remote station.
Observing power thresholds and control power cycling at remote sites.
Remotely accessing and controlling features at distant sites via broadband, dial-up, or wireless networks.
Using scripting in remote processes to monitor and proactively take action without the need to bring human interaction into the equation.

CONCLUSION

It is more critical than ever for service providers to focus not only on monitoring their remote site equipment, but to also proactively address remote site issues whenever they arise. It can be the difference between keeping a customer and losing them to another service provider who is more proactive in addressing potential issues on their network.

Solutions that enable administrators to take a more active approach in monitoring, accessing and controlling their remote equipment, will, in the long run, help administrators avoid the pitfalls that inevitably hurt networks, namely down time due to equipment failure, environmental conditions, security, or power loss. As networks continue to expand, these solutions will be able to scale and allow the same administrator insight to each new remote site added to the network. ENS