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Norkring takes a leap forward with DataMiner

Skyline Communications, the global leader in end-to-end multi-vendor network management solutions, announces that Norkring has rolled out Skyline’s DataMiner NMS/OSS platform for the end-to-end management of its entire operation. Norkring, part of the Telenor Broadcast holding and a leading provider of broadcasting services in Norway, operates one of the largest networks in Europe. They offer a wide range of services, including DTT and DAB, along with tailored video contribution services and IP connectivity solutions. DataMiner spans across all Norkring’s operational platforms, providing a single pane of glass to manage and control every single active component and each of the many thousands of services.

The solution comprises 24 DataMiner virtual compute nodes, forming a single consolidated and highly available DataMiner System that collects data around the clock from over 16000 network and processing products and more than 1000 physical locations spread across a vast territory. This includes products and systems of more than 130 different types and brands and with a wide variety of protocol interfaces, including both industry-standard interfaces and vendor-specific interfaces. The enormous amount of continuously collected operational data is processed by DataMiner in real time for sophisticated fault and performance management. DataMiner Service Management provides on-the-fly translation into actual service impact information, by mapping the data dynamically on more than 5000 services running across all of the platforms. The solution provides the team of over 20 operators with an instant end-to-end service-oriented perspective on their entire operation, transparently across any vendor and technology boundaries.

From an OSS perspective, Norkring also settled for nothing less than the best. For example, the provisioning of the DataMiner System is entirely automated by means of a comprehensive integration with the Norkring centralized Inventory & Asset Management platform. As new assets are populated in the Inventory & Asset Management platform and evolve through different stages from a test to a live production status, they are fully automatically instantiated and enabled in the DataMiner platform. In addition, the Norkring Trouble Ticket platform and other OSS tools have been fully integrated into DataMiner, enabling a highly automated and very efficient operational workflow. As a result, with the single pane of glass provided by DataMiner, Norkring operators are able to manage their services end to end. They can also easily create and manage trouble tickets to drive the field staff, and they can see auxiliary data related to weather conditions on remote locations, the real-time on-site presence of field staff, upcoming planned activities, and much more. Furthermore, Norkring also leverages the DataMiner Automation Engine capabilities to automate and streamline operational procedures and to further enhance the availability of its network services. This covers a wide range of applications, such as automated procedures for DAB disaster recovery, DTT time synching, automated power cycles on failed products, etc.

“At Norkring, we operate one of the largest networks in Europe. Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about: our operators have to watch over 1294 DAB stations, 2542 DTT station services, over 1000 contribution station services, more than 1000 IP communication links connecting critical services (for mobile network backbones, for example), and much more. This also includes one of the world’s largest media networks, consisting of more than 800 nodes. And this across a vast territory, where we have to consider several factors, such as the effects of some very extreme weather conditions,” commented Inge Fagerbakke, COO and Operations Director at Norkring. “While designing and operating this kind of network is already a significant challenge and undertaking by itself, you also have to consider that at Norkring, when it comes to service quality and availability, we strive for perfection. The investment in this state-of-the-art end-to-end network management platform, which literally spans across our entire operation and also tightly integrates with all the key OSS platforms, underlines our firm commitment to our customers in terms of service quality and availability. We were very ambitious right from the start of this project, and a rigorous evaluation of the network management platforms available in the market demonstrated that Skyline’s DataMiner platform was the best solution to match our ambitions.”

“The Norkring operation is truly impressive, both in scale and in terms of technology, and it is a great honor for Skyline to be selected for this prestigious and ambitious project. It was a perfect opportunity for us to leverage and showcase a wide range of the exclusive features and capabilities of our end-to-end multi-vendor DataMiner network management platform,” added Ben Vandenberghe, CEO at Skyline Communications. “The result truly shines in its simplicity. Just think about it: one single screen provides operators with full real-time visibility on thousands of complex broadcast, data and IT services, running right across and through many thousands of products from so many different vendors across a vast geographical territory. With a few clicks, those operators can instantly drill down to every single reading and control on any of those services and products. And what’s more, within that same interface, they can manage trouble tickets and instantly consult contextual data, such as staff being on site, local weather conditions and much more. This implementation is a real benchmark for the industry and it demonstrates the tremendous added value of the cutting-edge multi-vendor DataMiner network management platform.”