Value proposition

Automation

NSP uses automation to provide a faster, more flexible network management solution. This automation function spans multiple components in NSP, allowing for the provisioning of intelligent, adaptive services across multiple domains and use cases.

Service Management

Service management allows operators to provision a service based on service templates that are configured using intent types imported from network intents, which allows for faster service creation and deployment. It can also make use of operator-defined intent types for dynamic network resource selection and automated provisioning. These intent types utilize NSP’s real-time view of the network to map service connection requests to the best available tunnels/paths in order to meet the customer’s network efficiency goals.

Path Control

Path Control leverages complex algorithms, applied via policies, to automate the rerouting of service paths based on operator-specified constraints. This allows for the provisioning of services that automatically respond to network changes in order to maintain optimization targets.

Intents

NSP allows you to create and execute intent-based automation flows which let you implement network-level planning and design. Intents translate high-level goal to necessary network configuration, and the NSP generates and validates the configuration and continually verifies the state of the network.

Workflows

NSP allows you to create and execute workflows that can be used to define automated procedures and closed loop automation.

Optimization

The NSP unifies service automation with network optimization, allowing network operators to deliver on demand network services cost-effectively and with scalability. Real-time network path computation and optimization is centralized to leverage network-wide views and KPI driven to rapidly adapt to changing network conditions.

Service Management

NSP’s service management function allows operators to provision a service based on constraints and on an optimization target. The service is created along with the required infrastructure to fulfill these criteria. Operators can quickly and easily deploy services in a changing environment. Operators can change the optimization objective and PIR/CIR representing the bandwidth that will be used by the service.

Path Control

The NSP supports transport network optimization using path control. Path Control provides a view of the IGP topology and PCE LSPs. It also displays the status of the IGP network and provides functionality to optimize the network resources. This can be done globally or locally e.g. optimizing the LSPs passing specific links only.

Path Control leverages centralized, intelligent network control capabilities so that operators can rapidly adapt to changing demand and traffic patterns and run their networks more efficiently. It accepts path connection requests from OSS and orchestration systems, and from physical/virtual network elements. Path Control calculates optimal paths through the network for a given set of business and technical constraints by leveraging centralized views of all available assets/topologies and their current state.

Assurance

The NSP enables operators to report, supervise, and predict issues using different areas that provide an end-to-end view of any network. Report generation provides full visibility of network capacity and inventory, event correlation reveals the root causes of network problems, and automated troubleshooting and dynamic scaling resolves issues in real-time. In addition, a comprehensive REST NBI allows for integration of other systems.

Network Map and Health

Network Map and Health provides information for physical and virtual network elements, and can integrate with existing orchestration, OSS, and portal solutions, providing end-to-end visibility. Operators can explore IP/MPLS and Ethernet services through service topology maps and view details about service components such as SAPs, sites, and SDP bindings. Visualization tools combined with KPI data, alarm correlation, and event timelines help operators quickly identify problems as they emerge. Comprehensive monitoring with summarized aggregate KPIs enables fast problem detection and impact analysis; event timeline and alarm correlation focuses operator investigations on genuine root causes.

Object Troubleshooting

Object Troubleshooting provides extensive troubleshooting tools for selected equipment and services to resolve problems quickly.

Current Alarms

Current Alarms monitors alarms for IP/MPLS, Ethernet, optical, and integrated IP/optical network elements, both physical and virtual. Operators can drill down from top-level summaries of overall network health to individual element alarms, including root causes and impact analysis. Alarm information gathered in Current Alarms is integrated across the entire NSP, creating a single assurance solution for all network domains.

In an NSP deployment that includes the NFM-P, alarms are raised in response to NE SNMP traps. For MDM-managed devices, NE alarms are displayed if they are supported by the installed MDM adaptors.

Monitoring

The NSP monitors the managed network, internal system processes, and user activity to provide source data for applications and utilities.

Telemetry

The NSP uses SNMP and gNMI protocols along with accounting file collection to collect and process telemetry and accounting statistics from managed NEs. The NSP uses this data to provide monitoring, analysis, visualization, and baseline analytics functions. The supported telemetry types are defined using YANG in NE artifact bundles and translated to objects in the managed network using custom resource (CR) definitions.

The following NSP areas enable you to configure, manage, and review YANG-based telemetry data from NEs:

Internal system processes

An NSP cluster continually monitors the local server processes for errors and excessive resource consumption. The connectivity to other components and integrated systems is also checked regularly. NSP displays an alarm when a system process, resource, or connectivity fault is detected.

User activity

Users and Security displays session information for each NSP user, such as authentication success or failure, and the actions of the user.

You can also configure an NSP or NFM-P system to export the user activity logs in syslog format to a remote server.

Microwave awareness (MWA)

In networks where multiple Wavence UBT-SA devices are linked to a single 7250 IXR or 7705 SAR NE, the NSP provides microwave awareness. With MWA, the NSP considers the router and its linked UBTs as a single logical site, while still providing a management path for each of the UBT-SAs.

The UBT SAs are linked to their associated routers either by LLDP links in the NFM-P, or by physical links. Physical links may be created manually in the NFM-P, or by using a Nokia-provided workflow in Workflows. When the NSP detects MWA links, it automatically adjusts the display of the routers and their associated UBT-SA devices in the Network Map view.

Nokia also provides workflows that allow you to perform backup and restore, and software upgrades, on the UBT-SAs linked to a 7250 IXR or 7705 SAR. Contact your Nokia representative for more information about Nokia-provided workflows.

Network Slicing

End-to-end network slicing is a technology for concurrent delivery of differentiated 5G services and a key component of moving 5G use-cases toward a service-driven evolution that supports meeting SLAs deterministically across end-to-end network resources. Network slices are independent, logical self-contained networks representing common physical or virtual network infrastructure that extends from end devices to application servers and includes all intermediate functions and domains.

See the following documents for more information about network slicing: