Xantaro

The importance and necessity of Service Integration

The networks of carriers, telcos and service providers are complex structures extending across several technological levels (Figure 1). In modern networks, value-added services are usually realized in high performing, packet-oriented IP/MPLS infrastructures. 

The required bandwidths are supplied by suitable transport infrastructures based on optical or electrical, wired and wireless transmission technologies. The value-added services and ideally the complete production infrastructure of the network operator are provisioned, monitored, administered, maintained and billed by suitable management systems.
 

From System to Service Integration

The successful integration of systems on one technical layer and connecting them to neighboring layers is no big challenge today (Figure 2). The real challenge for network operators and integrators is to integrate systems on different layers and supplied by a variety of manufacturers into one functioning value-added service.

In order to achieve this the integrator has to have comprehensive know-how concerning the technologies on the different layers and to be able to employ this knowledge efficiently and in a way which meets the needs of the clients. These complex requirements usually go beyond the means and abilities of systems integrators not specifically focused on these tasks and markets.
 

The definition of Service Integration

For Xantaro, Service Integration is the holistic view and integration of a service across all technological layers (Figure 3). Service Integration does not just concern itself with the question which components should be used on a certain layer to complete a certain task, but looks beyond this at how existing or new components on different levels can be combined in such a way that the required service features (such as bandwidth, availability, QoS, OSS integration, production costs, etc.) can be realized.