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Plugging the Holes in a Telecom
Network Phone Company/ISP improves uptime and
customer service by connecting remote legacy equipment to the
corporate network
Telecom operations, these days,
typically have sophisticated network and systems management
(NSM) software in place to monitor their servers, workstations
and routers. Such systems often utilize Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP) as a means of transmitting and
receiving network monitoring information. Great if you run
only modern equipment. But what about the other elements that
impact the health of a network such as power sources, old
PBXs, batteries, legacy telecom boxes that dont recognize
SNMP, or environmental factors such as temperature and
humidity. If you dont address these elements, they can exert a
significant toll on downtime.
This was the case at the Matanuska Telephone Association a
phone company, cellular provider and Internet Service Provider
(ISP) operating in the vicinity of Palmer, Alaska (about 45
miles north of Anchorage). Matanuskas network spanned an area
of 10,000 square miles. While the backbone and central office
were modern, many last-mile telecom huts on the periphery
contained legacy equipment and non SNMP-enabled batteries that
couldnt be centrally monitored.
How were service
issues dealt with? If seven subscribers called with a problem
with their phone or Internet, the company dispatched someone
to fix it. People sometimes had to wait overnight before a bug
was resolved, said Rich Allen, traffic administrator at the
Matanuska Telephone Association.
The company solved the problem using a combination of two
products: SNMP-Link 81 (SL81) by Omnitronix, Inc of Seattle,
WA, and a network monitoring system known as InterMapper by
Dartware, LLC of Hanover, NH. AlarmsPro Inc., worked closely
with Matanuska to deploy the hardware and software at its
Palmer headquarters as well as the telecom huts throughout its
territory.
Network Blind Spots
Log into any
monitoring system today and access the network maps. You can
rapidly document the infrastructure and, at a glance, view the
health of the network as a whole. If a situation is apparent,
you can drill down to that specific locality to isolate the
bug, and even investigate interconnections between devices.
The panorama can be so dazzling, however, that it
masks a multitude of blind spots. These zones dont show up on
maps as they represent areas invisible to the system. This can
include: legacy, non-SNMP and non-networked devices; PBXs
(enterprise phone system) or Central Office switches;
temperature and humidity factors; water sensors and smoke
detectors; door sensors; battery (power) sensors; air
conditioning (AC) units; carbon monoxide sensors; and output
relays.
Equipment rooms, for example, often contain
devices that lack a network interface. Though many of these
are quite old, they are often smoothly running and too
expensive to replace. Fortunately, tools are available that
speak to these boxes and bridge the gap with an SNMP network
at a fraction of the replacement cost.
There are three
levels of integrating legacy devices into an SNMP network,
said Tim Stoner, president of Omnitronix. You can read alarms
issued from the device's RS-232 serial ports (the standard
ports between computers and peripherals); send queries
concerning the amount of free disk space remaining, the number
of phone calls made, and the voltage or signal strength; and
set thresholds for each device to alert IT of any potential
issues.
Monitoring Temperature and Batteries
Two of the most important elements to monitor in telecom
are temperature and battery voltage. All electronic equipment,
after all, is sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. Many
hardware specs list operating temperature in the 50 to 95
degrees Fahrenheit range bad news if your business has to deal
with the harsh winters of Alaska. Thats why Matanuska
Telephone Association pays particular attention to the
monitoring of temperature and battery health at its last-mile
telecom equipment huts.
Temperature and battery
conditions can bring any site to its knees, said Frank Knapp,
CEO of AlarmsPro. If the temperature is too high, you can
experience a thermal runaway which is very bad for the battery
and can even cause explosions.
Knapp explains that the
batteries at a $100,000 battery plant will last far longer if
they are buffered from extremes of temperature or voltage. His
company worked with Matanuska to set up alarms if voltage
levels decay. The phone companys telecom huts contain banks of
batteries that supply power to the equipment in case the power
goes out. Negative (-)48 Volt battery banks are used,
comprised of 24 two-volt batteries. Typically, phone companies
have no way of knowing when a battery goes bad, even if the
overall voltage remains acceptable. Using the Omnitronix SL81,
AlarmsPro divided the batteries into two groups so they can
monitor the voltage output of each half. By comparing the
voltages, they can rapidly determine if a cell has gone bad
the voltage on one half of the battery set will be different
with that of the other half. The battery monitoring software
that comes with the SL81 sends alarms to InterMapper whenever
the batteries are unbalanced. Thus Matanuska knows about a
battery failure before the whole system is affected.
If the voltage drops below a set point, we can send a
technician to address the situation before it becomes
critical, said Matanuskas Allen. By keeping a close eye on
temperature and voltage levels we attain a lot more battery
life.
Depending on the available infrastructure at the
specific telecom hut, alarms and messages can travel via
Ethernet, phone line, Internet or wireless. Managers receive
alarms via pagers, email, or can view alerts on their
InterMapper or Omnitronix software.
Many excellent
manufacturers continue to build good equipment that cant
interface with the IT infrastructure, said Knapp. InterMapper
works with the SL81 to provide any maps you need to
effectively monitor your equipment.
As some of
Matanuskas last-mile locations dont have Ethernet, alternative
means of connection are used to keep costs low. With a large
territory to cover and some sites being remote as well as
sparsely populated, the phone company sometimes has to use
existing dial up lines to relay alerts.
Whatever means
of connection is employed, we have a total of 30 SL81s
operating in our territory and they have moved us from
reactive to proactive mode, said Allen.
He says that
in the past, if the grid went down, there was no way of
knowing that the huts were operating on battery power. After
eight hours when the batteries were spent and user complains
mounted, the company would send a technician to investigate.
By monitoring battery power using the SL81/InterMapper
solution, we now have an eight hour window to take action
before the battery run out, said Allen. Also, we can monitor
the state of our batteries in real time so they are always
available in the event of an outage. Without a doubt, we now
offer improved service to our subscribers.
Terminal
Server
Knapp also points out that the Omnitronix box can
act as a terminal server, and that this feature proves
especially valuable with aging PBX systems. If a PBX does not
have a network interface, it will at least have an RS-232
maintenance port. By connect that port to one of the
Input/Output (I/O) ports on an SL81, the PBX can be monitored
using a network monitoring system, or via dialup. Alarms and
trending data can be viewed graphically. This applies to all
major PBXs such as those manufactured by Nortel, Lucent and
others.
The Nortel Option 11, 61 and 81, for example,
produce a large number of alarms and messages. Most of these
alarms, however, represent minor concerns which may require
little or no proactive monitoring. It is vital, therefore, to
isolate the important alarms. Knapp notes that the Omnitronix
SL81 can easily recognize these alarms and communicate them to
a technician.
Similarly, collecting alarms from a
Lucent switch poses its own challenges. Lucent switches do not
issue alarms out a serial port. To manage these alarms, the
SL81 searches through several menus to locate the most
pertinent alarms.
Further, the Omnitronix box also
monitors microwave, making it possible to isolate periods of
signal fade rather than waiting for the signal to vanish
completely.
You can monitor PBXs or microwave signals
and trend the results on graphs that highlight when service is
diminishing or a situation may be developing, said Knapp.
Further, the SL81 does what no one else does it translates
analog values into real world numbers such as dBm or adjusted
voltage levels so you have no need to interpret the results.
Managing Threats
To maintain a high level of
service, telecommunications providers must carefully manage
threatening conditions before they cripple mission-critical
equipment. By paying close attention to critical issues such
as temperature and battery voltage, providers can minimize the
huge costs associated with equipment damage, data loss and
facility downtime.
By monitoring and handling a
variety of remote equipment, events and environmental
conditions, the life cycle of legacy equipment can be greatly
extended, said Stoner. It is possible to monitor any device
with a contact closure output such as a battery, UPS, PBX, air
conditioning unit or door strike plate and alert your network
monitoring system when an event occurs.
For more
information on Omnitronix, Inc. technology and products, visit
www.omnitronix.com; call (206) 624-4985; fax (206) 624-5610;
or write to them at 1200 North 96th St., Seattle, WA
98109.
# # #
By Drew Robb
Drew Robb is a Los
Angeles-based writer specializing in technology and
engineering issues.
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