Next Generation OSS Limitations

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.”
Ronald Reagan
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At any point in time, there will always be a next generation OSS. There will always be new vendors, new products, new services being released by the associated network product vendors (NPVs), so the OSS is always in a state of trying to keep up with every change in a CSP’s estate. Whew! What an enormous challenge.

There has been an interesting trend in recent years where most stand-alone OSS vendors (eg Telcordia) have been acquired by NPVs (eg Ericsson). There are few fully-fledged OSS solutions that are independent of NPV. There are obviously pros and cons to this situation, but as a CSP, this would seem to hinder next generation off-the-shelf OSS solutions for two reasons:

  1. OSS development is likely to follow the technology direction of the parent NPV, potentially limiting the intent to integrate with other NPV’s technologies
  2. Since most OSS are no longer NPV agnostic, if a CSP has multiple NPVs in their network, it may prove difficult for the OSS vendor to gain access to interface specifications and other essential information (ie the intellectual property of competing NPVs)

There is no doubt that the next generation OSS will exceed the previous generation, but the vendor agnostic situation may be an important consideration for CSPs to make when integrating multiple NPV technologies under a single OSS.

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