Telecom operations 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.
C a s e S t u d y
Pluggin the Holes in a
Telecom Network
Telecom operations 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 "Phone Company/ISP only modern equipment. But what about the other elements that impact the health of a network such as power sources, legacy PBXs, improves uptime and batteries, legacy telecom equipment that don't recognize SNMP, or customer service by environmental factors such as temperature, water and humidity. If you don't address these elements, they can exert a significant connecting remote toll on downtime.
legacy equipment to This was the case at the Matanuska Telephone Association - a phone company, cellular provider and Internet Service Provider the corporate network " (ISP) operating in the vicinity of Palmer, Alaska (about 45 miles north of Anchorage). Matanuska's network spans 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 could not 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 from Asentria, 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. C a s e S t u d y
Pluggin the Holes in a
Telecom Network
Network Blind Spots Fahrenheit range - bad news if your business has Log into any monitoring system today and access to deal with the harsh winters of Alaska. That's why the network maps. You can rapidly document the Matanuska Telephone Association pays particular at-infrastructure and, at a glance, view the health of the tention to the monitoring of temperature and battery network as a whole. If a situation is apparent, you can health at its last-mile telecom equipment huts. drill down to that specific locality to isolate the bug, and even investigate interconnections between devices. "Temperature and battery conditions can bring any site to its knees," said Frank Knapp, CEO of AlarmsPro. The panorama can be so dazzling, however, that it "If the temperature is too high, you can experience a masks a multitude of blind spots. These zones don't thermal runaway which is very bad for the battery and show up on maps as they represent areas invisible can even cause explosions." to the system. This can include: legacy, non-SNMP and non-networked devices; PBX's (enterprise phone Knapp explains that the batteries at a $100,000 system) or Central Office switches; temperature and battery plant will last far longer if they are buffered humidity factors; water sensors and smoke detectors; from extremes of temperature or voltage. His door sensors; battery (power) sensors; air conditioning company worked with Matanuska to set up alarms if (AC) units; carbon monoxide sensors; and output voltage levels decay. The phone company's telecom relays. huts contain banks of batteries that supply power to the equipment in case the power goes out. Negative (-Equipment rooms, for example, often contain )48 Volt battery banks are used, comprised of 24 two-devices that lack a network interface. Though many of volt batteries. Typically, phone companies have no these are quite old, they are often smoothly running way of knowing when a battery goes bad, even if the and too expensive to replace. Fortunately, tools are overall voltage remains acceptable. Using the Asentria available that "speak" to these boxes and bridge SNMP-Link SL81, AlarmsPro divided the batteries into the gap with an SNMP network at a fraction of t... [download for more]
