SP-to-SP service ordering specification and its implementation

Network Management Forum (NMF) has defined a set of basic business processes dealing with major TMN service management functions such as performance management, fault management, billing and service provisioning. In addition to these, a service ordering process is defined as an important interaction with the end customers requiring services. The service order process provides an integration point for all major TMN functions and business processes. This paper presents an overview analysis for the service ordering process including the process definition, object modelling and process interaction. To verify the process definition and object modelling, we built a proof of concept implementation of the Ordering specification discussed here. The focus of this implementation is to demonstrate the interface defined between different service providers in a transaction of service ordering. It implements the major concepts of the NMF Ordering process such as pre-order, negotiation, order options and service level agreements. The implementation uses the same interface specification for the two interactions in a service ordering scenario: the customer-SP interaction, the main service provider (MSP) and sub-contracted service providers (SSP) interaction. The latter interaction can be propagated in a recursive manner when a supplier requires further order from other service providers as part of the original order. The prototype is built using Java