Where The Five Functional Areas Of Network Management (FCAPS) Are Not Adhered To - Essay Example

17.05.06 Where the five functional areas of network management (FCAPS) are not adhered to Case Study Part-A A company x has been providing health insurance for the past 15 years in the US Market. The organisation would like to engage the services of a call centre to log requests related to enquiries, claims and grievances. They require 100% uptime of the system and confidentially of information transmitted across the network as well as the network should be fault proof and cost effective. They also have committed to provide business to the tune of 100 seats in the next two year. The organisation also wants to setup offices across many cities out of US. Presently the system of the company x is not good enough to cater the needs of the customers and the company x is also facing some problems because it has not implemented the OSI application functions namely, fault, configuration Accounting performance and security management. Due to this the present system of networking management is facing the following problems: First the fault management in the company x is not working properly i.e. not providing clear and correct report about the incident/fault which has occurred and therefore the problem arises about identifying the fault and its source. In this way the system cannot priorities the fault, which has occurred and cannot be able to restore services on time and properly. Some Hardware faults to be handled instantaneously through replacement to restore services cannot be attended immediately. Due to fault in network, a user is immediately affected and the better services could not be provided to the users. The most common and serious problems of networks are connectivity failure, which are in the category of fault management. The network failure is caused more often by a node failure than by failure of passive links. When this happens all downstream systems from the interface are inaccessible. Such failures are associated with the network interface card, which needs replacement. The nod failures manifest as connectivity failures to the user. Another cause of network connectivity failure is procedural but very common. Network connectivity is based on IP address, which is a logical address assigned by the network administrator. The IP address in uniquely associated with a physical MAC address of network component. However mistakes are made in assigning duplicate IP addresses, especially in an enterprise environment with many system administrators. A host or system interface problem is a shared medium can bring the entire segment down. It becomes nightmare for the network manager to isolate problem without causing interruption is services. The intermittent problem could also occur as a result traffic overload, which would cause packets to be lost. Sometimes the management system indicates failure, when in actuality data traffic is flowing normally. Power hits could reset network component configuration, causing network failure. The network has a permanent configuration (default) and a dynamic configuration (runtime) and thus a performance problem could manifest as a network delay. The company is using LAN networking system, which is not sufficient for the organization. Because of connection through wires / cables and switches, it is not useful. So without proper network connecting Architecture, Company is facing lots of problems. Due to circuit - switch connection security of data and information has always been at stake. Security conscious clients always looking for more security proof network. Security plays a crucial role in deciding network architectures. Due to multiple servers at single location cannot fulfill the requirement of the organisation. Organisation had a network having lesser bandwidth and this creates lots of problem. The network used at a time by number of concurrent users for various applications and which takes longer response time and at times posting websites will be more than that of an organisation processing manufacturing orders. (Also the cost of the LAN system where especially the organisation needs to work constantly on multimedia needs gigabit cabling, gigabit connectors and with gigabits Ethernet cards and gigabit switches) All these resources contribute to the cost of architecture. So unplanned architecture reduce the scope for flexibility. Managing a network is also proving costly for the organisation due to absence of appropriate management tools and effective resource deployment at the time of implementation. Due to shortages of capacity for planning the configuration of the network lead to a fall in the quality of service and reduced profit potential or margin which has negative impact on revenues and productively as well as on the image and reputation of the company x. Quality of the services provided by the organisation lead to degradation due to shared network links, delays by networking equipment i.e. packet drops at routers, delays causes by excessive hops, congestion, also delay caused by overflowing queues and retransmission of dropped packets and poorly managed network capacity or insufficient capacity. Today Accounting management is the most important part of any networking management but in the present organisation it has not been efficiently managed. Cost is the main factors for any of the job done by the organisation. Organisation X never analyses on the Return of Investment (ROI) and due to this it cannot identify profit centers. organisation x is heavily investing resources, capital and also time but it can not increase customer satisfaction, employee productivity and operational efficiency which results in non enhancement in the business of the organisation in the matching ratio of investment. Cost affects almost all part of the networking management. It affects designing, installing and maintaining a network. Due to mismanagement of accounting / cost, organisation cannot provide increased bandwidth and also cannot maintain the network by applications such as packeteer, Bandwidth application protocol and other software, which promise bandwidth for critical applications. These applications can provide application based priority, user based priority and time and protocol based rules which can manage the available bandwidth to the best effect. So the organisation cannot shorten the lead-time, cannot address both international and domestic capacity needs. Being a financial business organisation where redundancy i.e. duplication of customer transactions are involved need identical set of hardware to be kept standby to avoid disruptions in customer services which influences the business as well as cost directly. Storage of Data in any organisation is the backbone of networking management. Deploying adequate storage facilities and robust backup plan involve cost. An usage application has increased and the volume of data has becoming huge in terms of quantity. It needs for higher capacity devices, which has become necessary. In case of computer network breakdown, an effective data backup and recovery plan can save company's valuable time and ensure a continuous flow of business. An optimum backup and recovery plan requires an enterprise-wide plan that defines clear policies, data priorities and schedules, which can not be observed in the company x. A comprehensive disaster recovery plan that requires allocation of suitable hardware, software and budget by the management but it has not been provided properly in the organization. Presently in the organisation there is no scalability, which means that there is no understanding about how to balance current needs with provision for a scope for expansion. The performance of the current infrastructure can be measured by the volume, arrival rate, response time class, user session time, number of concurrent users, as well as processor and disk utilization. The response time of a network not only depends on the throughput of the network but also on the application. It depends on both network and system performance. In a client/ server environment, the response time as seen by the client could be slow, either owing to the server being heavily used, the network traffic being overloaded, or a combination of both. Presently in the organisation performance statistics are not used in tuning a network, validating a Service Level Agreement (SLA). Two segment of the network may be connected by a gateway and excessive inter segment traffic could produce excessive delay. Error statistics on dropped packets on the gateway interfaces would manifest problems. The security management is both a technical and an administrative consideration in information management. In the present organisation security management cannot be called as satisfactory. Access into the network, access to the data stored in the network and manipulating the data stored and flowing through network cannot be ensured in the present system. Due to the above-discussed problems in the organisation, it affects the user in the following way: It increases the network traffic so the congestion in the traffic occurs which leads to more access time. There is staggering bandwidth hungry applications but organisation cannot increase bandwidth presently. Organisation presently cannot improve quality of services by upgrading current hardware and software leads to different types of problems to end users. It results in redundancies too. Organization needs to expand network, services to various distant locations, to increased number of customers and to provide them quality services without any hindrances with comprehensive security and cost effectiveness so that the profit margins can improve. Organisation needs to implement the FCAPS strategy for prudent networking management so that it can serve the customers effectively and efficiently. Reflective Commentary Part-B Organisation x has decided to Implement the FCAPS system in the following way: Fault management is normally associated with failure of a network component and subsequent loss of connectivity. Fault management involves a five-step process: I) Fault defection II) Fault Location III) Service restoration IV) Identification of the problems root cause and V) Problem resolution. After implementing the fault management, fault can be detected as quickly as possible by the centralized management system, before or at about the same time as users would notice it. Fault location involves identifying where the problem has occurred. Now service restoration has a higher priority than diagnosing the problem and fixing it. After identifying the problem, trouble ticket can be generated to resolve the problem. In an automated system trouble ticket could be generated automatically. However, identification of the root cause of the problem could be a complex process which uses either a polling scheme or by generation of traps. An application programme generates the Ping Command periodically and waits for responses. The frequency of Pinging and the present number of failure detection may be optimized for balance between traffic overhead and the rapidity with which failure is detected. The alternative detection scheme is to use traps. Traps has the advantage over polling is the failure detection and is accomplished faster with less traffic overload. By using fault management system, origin of the problem could be traced by walking down the network topology tree to where the problem starts. The next step is to isolate fault to the layer that is causing it. Error rates can be calculated from the interface group parameters IflnDiscards, iflnErrors, IfoutDiscards and ifoutErrors with respect to the input and output packet rates, which could help us, isolate the problem in the interface card. So by implying the well-structured fault management system organisation can easily and timely detect the fault and with out hindrance in services, it can locate, isolate and rectify the fault. By doing so the quality of services provided by the organisation will improve considerably and customers will be satisfied which enhance company image as well as revenue generation. Configuration management in network management is normally used in the context of discovering network topology, mapping the network and setting up configuration parameters in management agents and management systems. Network provisioning which includes network planning and design is a part of configuration management. After analyzing the situation and customer needs in the organisation, company must migrate from the legacy of LAN to 10/100 Mbps switched network for better throughput and install fibre at all the critical segments. Restructure LAN at locations for efficient switching using 10/100 Mbps Ethernet technologies for data transmission and CAT 5 cables so that the bandwidth requirements for the next few years can be supported. Because of the organization is spreading across, it can move to WAN setup that uses a shared leased line which will be cost effective but the problem with shared leased line is of security of data. If finances permits organization could move to a mix of VSAT links, leased links, frame relay links and dialups. According to volume of business and future scope of the organization it can invest in Web server. These servers should be equipped to share the volume of web requests and serve as a backup for each other. The organisation requires transmission of real time information, speed is a prime importance, and therefore an appropriate estimate of the bandwidth requirement based on the application bandwidth consumption should be taken into account. Since the entire infrastructure is being built, keeping in view the future requirements Gigabit UTP cables and gigabit connectors must be used. Configuration management have crucial role to play in network management. It must address the issues such as: I) Limiting application and/or uses in the amount of bandwidth they can access. II) Available queuing strategies. III) Availability of policy based routing, virtual private networks or priority queuing. IV) Use of QOS (quality of service) protocol. V) Need of gateway devices that limit the number of sessions per application. But the main problems arises in configuration management is: Accurately judging the future particularly when the change in technology is rapid is an extremely difficult task. User cannot predict the future in relation to network growth or technology. User also does not know what their requirements are likely to be in future. People use the network in innovative ways adding to the traffic on the network. Now accounting management in the organisation takes the prime importance. Cutthroat competition, number of service providers, better customer's service requires better resource management. To provide better services to the customer's organisation has to increase bandwidth, which needs money. Better application of cost management will help the organisation to achieve the following goals. Shorten lead-times for network expansion. Reduce monthly securing cost. Leverage existing network infrastructure. Put in place the right long term infrastructure by matching communication capacity to meet mission critical application requirements. Simplify operations and infrastructure by using fewer lines. Address both international and domestic capacity needs. Accounting management in the organisation needs to address the various issues such as if fault management system to be implemented, configuration of the network to be improved which needs some cost to the organisation. We need to analyze on the return on investment i.e. how much cost the management could save by improving the system and fault correction management system. Again cost and benefit analysis could be done to achieve an optimum solution for deploying the measure to protect and store data. So cost is the major factor in deciding all network management functions because almost all the organisation depends upon revenue generation, profit margins, cost cutting etc. Network performance is a nebulous term, which is hard to define or quantify in terms of global metrics. The purpose of network is to carry information and thus performance management actually is (data) traffic management. It involved data monitoring, problem isolation, performance tuning, analysis of statistical data for recognizing trends, and resource planning. The parameters, which affect network throughput, could have effect on performance of network. Bandwidth or capacity will be different in different segments of the network. An Ethernet LAN with a capacity of 10 Mbps can function with full capacity in a single workstation but reaches full capacity with a utilization factor of only 30 to 40% when it is densely populated workstations. In contrast, in a WAN, the bandwidth is full utilized except for the packet overhead. The response time of a network not only depends upon the throughput of the network but also on the application. By employing traffic flow measurements, meter observers network traffic flows and build a table flow of data records. Meter readers collect the data and managers oversee the operations. Performance related issues are detected primarily with trap messages generated by RMON probes. Thresholds are set for important SNMP parameters in the RMON, which then generates alarms when the preset threshold crossed. Performance management can do the performance related problem isolation; performance statistics are used in tuning a network, validating a service level agreement (SLA), analyzing use trends, planning facilities and functional accounting. Results obtained from performance statistics are used to tune the network for better performance. Due to nature of information and confidentiality that needs to be maintained at the corporate level organisation has to install an encryption system such as PGP. This would help ensure confidentiality of client report. Due to nature of the transactions a very high level security needs to be maintained. So setting up firewalls, an intrusion detection system and an encryption system to encrypt customer information sent across the network, is needed. Setting up a VLAN can provide additional security. This will not only help improve security but would also help reduce the broadcast domain. This would also help to improve the network response time. Now it has been obvious from the above discussion that all the five parts of the FCAPS are integrated to each other and change in anyone could affects all the other part of the network management. If fault management is to be improved then it needs the improvement in configuration, needs cost to improve, and results in the overall performance and security of the network. Cost is the factor, which affects almost all the components of the network and is a prime concern for the organisation also. To enhance the performance of the system needs enhancement in the security system, fault management and configuration of the system to be improved, which again need cost. So all the five parts of the networking management is integrated to each other. The ultimate aim of the networking management is to provide best services to the end users. Services include better and early fault detection and resolution without affecting the services. Quick readdresses to costumers complaints, minimum response time, best security and faith of the customer can improve the revenue generation, profit margins of the organization. So the company needs to change its present system on the above lines to achieve the goals set by the management. The above system is also capable of providing the entire requirement needed by the customer. *************** References: Subramanian Mani. "Network Management: Principles And Practice". Pearson Education, Inc., 2000. Read More