The Network Operation Center (NOC) within the satellite industry is indisputably the spot where compliance with the SLAs is most tangible. The NOC is in charge of managing, supporting, and monitoring the performance of satellite networks. This includes planning, installing, and performing corrective and preventative maintenance. Additionally, they are in charge of keeping an eye on networks for alerts or situations that need special attention to prevent harm to network performance and customer service.
The activity carried out by these centers is frenetic, therefore automation is a key tool to obtain the highest performance of the network, as well as optimizing resources.
In this article we are going to go through the top reasons you should consider to automate your Satellite Network Maintenance:
Establishing the correct thresholds:
Monitoring is a continuous process that calls for ongoing tweaking of thresholds, device lists, and similar parameters. When the modifications are not updated, the consequences could ruin the maintenance process, as it is mandatory to be constantly aware of the modifications that the infrastructure requires. Usually, the NOC puts a lot of focus on the needed thresholds, but a couple of months later the alerts are not aligned with the current status of the whole infrastructure, and most of the time the alerts end up in an unattended mailbox.
Network Maintenance Systems (NMS) are specialized tools to support and modify accurately the parameters so that the events are recognized and can be automatically reported to the network personnel, therefore the alerts can be processed precisely. For example, if a maritime network is presenting errors, because of a located storm, the NMS will report which parameters must be changed. The effectiveness of network maintenance service is crucial since maritime units also operate in a low-bandwidth environment with diverse communications capabilities. Automating these types of events, by visiting the conflictive remote virtually, and changing the cross-pol, IDU power, and 1Db Compression point among other parameters. Moreover, the parameter can be scheduled and the tool will automatically take care of the maintenance process by changing the parameters needed to optimize the network. The NMS will be a key enabler not only to comply with the SLAs but also to reduce the time and effort of the personnel in charge of these types of complex network infrastructures.
Decision-making process:
Making decisions when there is a big deal within a network infrastructure could appear straightforward at first glance, but a bad decision can be accompanied by a chain of catastrophic misfortunes. The challenge of the NOC operator is not only to solve the problem but find where and what is happening to activate the required protocol and follow the procedure efficiently.
Automating the maintenance is necessary to identify where the problem is and how to solve it, obviously having qualified personnel will ensure that the protocols are activated on time and in the correct way. For example, ALUSAT the NMS developed by INTEGRASYS provides a full report in real-time of the status of each of the remotes that composed the network, therefore it is very easy to locate where is the error. The report will be sent automatically to the responsible team, as the tool allows them to include their emails. Therefore the team will be prepared to recognize, identify and prioritize incidents, in order to know which is the best way to fix the issue or share the report with the customer to give an exhaustive explanation of what is happening.
Monetize the NOC efficiently:
One of the largest issues of NOC operations is justifying, as running 24-hour operations is expensive due to staffing costs, from availability to continuous training as the ecosystem is continuously changing, and the customer needs must be contemplated in these extended training. Moreover, there are lots of expenses when setting up the NOC, as the initial investment is high, and the return on investment is not immediate. Also, in order to maintain the NOC updated, technological investments are mandatory to keep the center equipped with the needed tools.
Automating the maintenance process is the best way to minimize personnel costs, as well as minimizing technology costs, as there are available tools that can seamlessly monitor the network infrastructure, as well as reporting the status so that the performance is controlled by only one software instead of having different technologies for each of the processes. The tool can assume coordination among the teams, and there won’t be the need of counting on different profiles that are experts in concrete tools.
Only if its potential is fully realized will the NOCs be of significant assistance and serve a worthwhile purpose. Although it takes a lot of effort, money, and time, it is the most dynamic and economical method of managing and safeguarding networks. Automating the network maintenance will be the only way to monetize the NOC efficiently and guarantee compliance of the SLAs to the customer.
The most complete NMS available within the market is ALUSAT, which is the perfect complement of the Auto commissioning tool Satmotion, which ensures a rapid and accurate network deployment. These two tools are totally connected and allow to follow with no failures from the remote setup to the full network maintenance. Live the network automation experience now, for being a current user or purchasing for the first time Satmotion Pocket, try ALUSAT for one month free.