Service configuration

Overview

After the network devices, protocols, IP/MPLS components, and policies have been configured and established, network providers need to provision services to be used by end users. See Chapter 16, Device configuration management and Chapter 17, Network configuration management for more information about configuring devices and network objects.

A service is a means of transport for the application content required by end users. A service is owned by a service customer typically called the service provider. See Customer configuration in General service configuration for more information about how to use the XML API to create and configure the customers that require services for the end users and residential subscribers. See Residential subscriber configuration for more information about residential subscriber configuration.

Services provide Internet or VPN connectivity. VPN services can provide Layer 2 bridged service, or Layer 3 IP routing connectivity between a SAP on one router and another SAP on the same router (for local service) or another router (for distributed service). Each service in the network is uniquely identified by a service ID.

A distributed service on a supported NE uses SDPs to direct service traffic between service sites. Therefore, a service must be bound to an SDP to send traffic between sites. See Service tunnels in MPLS, LSP, and service tunnel configuration for more information about configuring SDPs.

The NFM-P supports the following service types:

VLL—a type of VPN where IP is transported point-to-point for the following:
- Epipe—a Layer 2 point-to-point VLL service for Ethernet frames
- Apipe—a point-to-point ATM service between users connected to routers on an IP/MPLS network
- Fpipe—a point-to-point frame relay service between users connected to routers on an IP/MPLS network
- Ipipe—provides IP connectivity between a host attached to a point-to-point access circuit with routed IPv4 encapsulation and a host attached to an Ethernet interface
- Cpipe—used to connect the far-end circuit for circuits encapsulated in MPLS
- Hpipe—a point-to-point HDLC service over an IP/MPLS network
VPLS—a Layer 2 multipoint-to-multipoint VPN where a number of sites are connected in a bridged domain over an IP/MPLS network
IES—a direct Internet access service where the customer is assigned an IP interface for Internet connectivity
VPRN—a Layer 3 IP multipoint-to-multipoint VPN service as defined in RFC 2547 bis
VLAN—a logical grouping of two or more nodes that are not necessarily on the same physical network segment, but share the same IP network address
Mirror—a type of service that copies the packets from a customer service to a destination outside the service for troubleshooting or surveillance purposes
Composite—a set of linked services
Optical Transport—a wavelength that traverses the network between two endpoints

The OSS applications can use the XML API to create, configure, and manage services based on the XML schema. The privileges associated with an OSS user account define which objects the user can configure. See the chapter on NFM-P user security in the NSP System Administrator Guide for information about assigning permissions to NFM-P user accounts and groups.

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