Netro Corporation is a provider of broadband, point-to-multipoint,
fixed wireless equipment. Telecommunications service providers use
the company's equipment to provide voice and high-speed data access
connections to end users or between locations in the metropolitan
telecommunications network as an alternative to using wired or other
connectivity.
Netro's Martin Moore, Director of Software Development, and
his team faced many challenges after delivering Netro's first
generation NMS. They pondered how to address emerging needs
as deployments of BWA systems (Broadband Wireless Access)
grew in numbers and complexity. Netro's first generation NMS
solution needed enhancements in some fundamental areas:
Comprehensive FCAPS support
Scalability for large and complex deployments
Integration, including northbound OSS support
"We neither wanted to reinvent the wheel nor did we
have a large enough staff to develop this in-house,"
Mr. Moore said. Complete out sourcing on the other hand posed
a challenge in protecting Netro's technology and ensuring
quality.
WebNMS Framework Offering
WebNMS Framework offers a compelling solution for these
kinds of management requirements. It is designed to empower
companies like Netro deliver superior solutions.
"Its hard to justify the cost and risk of architecting and building a management solution from the ground up. The widely-used AdventNet Web NMS makes it possible to maintain full control of a solution using new high-productivity technologies, while avoiding large NMS teams and high execution risk." - said AdventNet CTO, Dr. Tony Thomas.
"We liked the modularity and scalability of the WebNMS Framework architecture that other products lacked," Mr.
Moore said. "The support team at WebNMS Framework was very responsive
and cordial making our team more productive. WebNMS Framework's architects
helped us in the initial design and even provided on-site
training to get the development effort jump-started"
added Mr. Moore.
Delivering Netro's AirView Link Navigator NMS
Starting with a development team of 3-6 engineers including
client and server teams, the task was challenging to say the
least. This was exacerbated by the fact that most team members
were either novice Java developers or had no Java related
experience at all.
"The team relied on the development tools - JBuilder
for Java coding and CVS (an open software change management
package) for source control."
"The most useful AdventNet Web NMS service was the topology module while the fault management module was also utilized extensively," Mr. Moore said.
The flexibility of WebNMS Framework's client services enabled Netro
to support CORBA for northbound interface from the server
using the WebNMS Framework. "We were able
to create multiple distributed back-end servers connected
with CORBA," added Mr. Moore.
The AirView Link Navigator NMS provides intuitive GUI applications
to administer, configure and monitor Netro's Broadband Wireless
Access (BWA) network elements. It also interfaces to third-party
NMS tools to facilitate end-to-end service activation, provisioning,
and fault management. These features enable Netro's customers to
lower their operational costs and speed rollout of new services.
Business Benefits
Accelerated Service Rollout
Pro-active management
Integration with OSS systems
Scalablity and Reliability
Deployment Success
As of March 2002 the AirStar system is deployed at over 82 customers
in over 37 countries.
"We neither wanted to reinvent the wheel nor did we have a
large enough staff to develop it in-house"
"I consider this project a major success particularly since
we were able to beat our ambitious milestone of launching the product
with the fore set features and resources as planned"
-Martin Moore
Director of Software Development
"AdventNet's Web NMS offered comprehensive out-of-the-box functionality and integration that enabled us to launch the AirView Link Navigator in under 12 months" - Mr. Moore
Illustrative Features
Configuration Management
Configuration from a central Network Operations Center (NOC)
or from separate NOCs
Highly scalable architecture to control thousands of network
elements
Remote, automated download of network element software updates
Software control of all radio operational parameters
Configurable settings for user port, traffic type, traffic throughput,
and traffic policing
Performance Management
Statistics collection of link error bit rate, cell loss and
frame loss
Full diagnostics and control
Built-in BER testing capability
Fault Management
Full alarm and event reporting
SNMP or CORBA interfaces to network-wide fault management platforms
WebNMS's Commitment to Support Excellence
Support excellence has been one of WebNMS Framework's key core competencies.
WebNMS Framework has made a substantial investment on this front to ensure
the success of customer projects.
As a result of partnering with WebNMS Framework, Netro was able to successfully
launch their AirView Link Navigator. The WebNMS Framework based
implementation allows operators to easily monitor both wireless
data and voice traffic thereby enabling dynamic bandwidth allocation,
which is considered a hallmark of Netro's Airstar system.
About Zoho Corporation
Zoho Corporation is the leading provider of carrier-grade solutions used
for rapid development and deployment of end-to-end network management
solutions. From embedded agents to massively scalable, element and
network management tools, network simulators and GUI interface builders,
WebNMS Framework's software products are designed for the demanding needs
of today's businesses. Zoho Corporation's unmatched customer focus and
dedicated team of professionals, has enabled the company to achieve
industry-leadership while delivering superior business value through
innovative, open standards-based products and legendary customer
service.
Zoho Corporation has offices in CA, Austin, New Jersey, Chennai, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing. It has a well-trained partner base around the globe and thousands of customers world-wide. For more information, call 888-720-9500 or visit our Web site at: www.webnms.com.
If you have questions about the success story please contact sales@webnms.com
About Netro Corporation
(NASDAQ:NTRO) is the leading global provider of broadband wireless
access (BWA) systems used by telecommunication service providers
to provide businesses with high-speed voice and data access. As
of May 2001 the system, called AirStar, is deployed with over 82
customers in 37 countries.
