Operations and Maintenance Centre

An Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC ) is an operation and maintenance center for telecommunications networks. The OMC has the task of ensuring the operation of the network. The focus here is the traffic management.

Among the many responsibilities of a OMCs it belongs thereby to detect errors, prevent disruptions of the network and to any type of event (overload, failure of connections, etc.) to respond. Further uses OMC along with local staff, planning guidelines to. This includes, for example, the remote configuration of network components and other remote maintenance activities such as installation of new operating software from a distance. Likewise OMC collects statistics on the network traffic. These serve as a basis for future network planning. Last but not least a OMC operates mostly, systems for accounting.

For larger networks, hierarchical organizations are common, where multiple OMCs, each part (often a geographic region ) Manage a network, a Network Management Center (NMC ) are subordinate. The NMC permits a general view on the network and a higher-level management.

The duties of an OMC usually performed by operating personnel with computer support. Fully automatic OMCs are rare, not to say in many areas a utopia. Subtasks of OMCs can be automated and are often automated, but today is still the man, and needed his expertise in making decisions. Also automatic systems must be configured accordingly will be needed to make decisions. Due to the network configuration usually constantly moving, this requires constant maintenance of the automated systems.

The most important tool in an OMC are the so-called Operation Support Systems (OSS ). It means the computer systems for remote monitoring and control of network elements. Frequently uses a multiple OMC OSS. The main reason is that let the network components from one manufacturer often only fully manage the proprietary OSS from the same manufacturer. Capacity reasons are another reason for the use of multiple OSS in an OMC.

OMCs are safety- critical areas. In modern networks is practically each active component such as an open book before. Accordingly, OMCs are backed up. Even within a OMCs further safety measures are common. Employees are assigned to roles to which specific access rights - are bound - monitored by the OSS.

• Communication technology
• Computer Networks