Best Practices for Quality Management in the Telecommunications Industry

ENSE627/ENPM647

Spring 2004 Guangming Zhang

Graciela Piedras

Rowin Andruscavage

Introduction: Information & Telecommunications Technologies

Scope

Case Study (fodder)

Wired Telephone system evolution

operator switchboard

circuit switched analog (PSTN/POTS)

circuit switched digital (PBX, ADPCM backbone)

packet switched, connection-oriented vs. connectionless (ISDN, FDDI, ATM, *DSL ... )

applications: Internet, VoIP, SIP, VTC

Mobile Telephone system evolution

(http://roadmap.ecn.purdue.edu/CTR/documents/wireless_roadmap_final.pdf)

1G Analog

2G Digital (TDMA, PDC, GSM, CDMA)

2.5G Packet Digital (GPRS, EDGE, CDMA2000)

3G High-Speed Digital (WCDMA)

4G Seamless mobility between fixed wire & WLAN

Case Study (fodder)

Networks (refer to OSI model)

Building networks

Cabling: BNC, CAT5, fiber

Ethernet: 10BT, 100TX, 1000-T

Protocols: IPv4, IPv6

Serial peripherals: RS232, USB, Firewire

ISM band wireless networks

WiFi WLAN: 802.11b/a/g

IrDA, Bluetooth, WUSB

Case Study (fodder)

Government steering & regulatory commissions: NTIA, FCC, FTC ...

Standardization bodies: ETSI, ITU, ANSI

Service networks: Sprint, AT&T, Baby Bells

Data networks: Metricom Ricochet

Satellite networks: Iridium, GlobalStar, InmarSat, Teledesic

Baldrige Criteria Framework

Telecom organization can itself be network-centric*

* make heavy use information & communication technology systems in structure and operations of the business.

(currently being defined by DoD to streamline operations by setting up systems of sensors -- decision makers – effectors . Characterized by moving “power to the edge”, flattening the chain of command & empowering agents to make tactical decisions, freeing up the operational control center to make more strategic decisions)

Organizational Profile

Gov't regulation, resource mgmt (decades to institute change)

Industry consortiums, standards bodies (decades to change)

Service providers

Manufacturers

Software / systems integrators

Org Profile: Environment

Org Profile: Relationships

Org Profile: Challenges

Highly competitive & fast paced

Regulatory environment

Interoperability

Backwards compatibility w/ legacy systems

Large deployed base makes for expensive system-wide upgrades

Tackling resistance to change

1. Leadership

Common qualities, business vs. technical leadership

Bios

2. Strategic Planning

R&D technology => service deployment

Funding, VC

Risk management

3. Customer & Market Focus

CRM databases

Working together teams

Identify gaps in market

Timing (bluetooth vs. WLAN, Iridium vs. GSM networks)

4. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management

Network centric operations hub

Centralized IT system – knowledge databases,

5. Human Resource Focus

Organization

Matrixed between functional & IPT leads

Functional spheres of expertise mapped to processes; should overlap with others

Communications tools

Human nodes are decision makers in net centric operations

e-mail, PIM collaboration, IM, & other infrastructure

Management & Technical Proficiency

Representation in industrial consortiums, conferences

6. Process Management

Online configuration-controlled process docs

Store and employ best practices

Change board

Continuous improvement

Example: Standards process (RFC, sample implementation, ratification, test suite)

Example: CMMI continuous improvement of regulations, standards, deployed hardware, software updates

7. Business Results

standard/proprietary format acceptance, adaptation, rejection

market growth / market share

trouble tickets, incompatibility reports

adherence to evolution plan

Extra Issues: Reliability

OSI model - different quality goals distributed between different levels of communications stack:

Physical layer: high S/N ratio – need quality components

Link layer: low bit error rate via encoding

Network layer: quality of service (QoS) guarantees

Transport layer: error detection & recovery

Extra Issues: Security

Goal: Competitiveness – similar to quality, different means (also for privacy)

Encryption regulations, specifications, export restrictions

Conclusion

Standards driven

Breaking down resistance to change

Application to future transitions:

DRM, decentralized distributed ad-hoc networking (JTRS), p2p applications, info mgmt infrastructure (semantic web, discovery, etc.)

Links / Bibliography

Questions

Rowin Andruscavage

2004-04-14T22:06:42