Optimizing Network Performance and Customer Experience
The fixed access network is the backbone of any broadband service provider, directly impacting customer satisfaction and financial performance. Maintaining a healthy and efficient network is crucial in today’s competitive and technology-driven environment. Nokia’s Fixed Access Health Index provides a holistic and precise evaluation of network health, helping service providers to optimize performance, improve customer experience, and achieve financial goals.
Service providers have invested heavily in their fixed access networks. The challenge now is to enhance operational performance for customers and financial performance for shareholders. The starting point for this journey is a comprehensive assessment of the current network, which will form the basis for an improvement plan to achieve these targets. The question arises: how do we measure what truly matters? If network performance increases by 5% but customer satisfaction drops by 3%, is the network genuinely moving in the right direction?
The Nokia Fixed Access Health Index addresses this by providing a clear, single score that reflects the network’s overall performance. This score is derived from around 200 criteria covering availability, configuration, security, and performance. Despite its comprehensive nature, the index’s simplicity sets it apart, providing a focused benchmark for all stakeholders involved. Whether used for an initial assessment or as a recurring measure of progress, it offers valuable insights and benchmarks against peer networks.
Benchmarking and Measurement Framework
Nokia’s Fixed Access Health Index is designed as a continuous improvement tool for access networks and services. It encompasses around 200 checks across various domains, such as availability, configuration, lifecycle, performance, reliability, scalability, and security. This framework allows service providers to tailor improvement programs to their needs, resources, and expertise.
The Index helps in:
- Identifying areas for improvement by evaluating the network against a standardized set of criteria.
- Benchmarking performance anonymously against other networks.
- Guiding future improvements based on comprehensive data analysis.
- Quantifying impact through regular evaluations.
Benefits of Nokia Fixed Access Network Health Index
Technological evolution is a constant in the lifecycle of broadband networks. Service providers must evolve their networks to deliver subscribers higher bandwidth and better quality of experience (QoE). The challenge lies in economically determining the optimal network evolution path while ensuring that current operations do not hinder service delivery.
Service providers need an end-to-end analysis with a service-specific measurement strategy to evaluate QoE for services like IPTV, VoIP, or high-speed internet. This approach offers insights into end-user perceptions but may need to pinpoint the root causes of service disruptions. Therefore, a network domain analysis is essential to determine if each domain operates or is configured correctly.
The Nokia Fixed Access Network Health Index offers several significant benefits:
- Simplifying complex monitoring tasks by consolidating multiple KPIs into a single, understandable score.
- Standardized benchmarking for self-improvement and peer comparison.
- Clear focus for stakeholders with a reliable point of reference.
- Guidance on technical and financial improvements tailored to the network’s needs.
- Detailed insights for personalized network optimization plans.
- Flexible application as either a one-time health check or a continuous improvement measure.
- Improving Network Health and QoE
Addressing Network Challenges
Maintaining a healthy fixed access network involves addressing issues that impact service delivery. These issues fall into two categories:
Service interruptions caused by failures at various network points, such as line cards, the outside plant, or customer premises equipment (CPE). These are typically well-monitored and can be resolved through root-cause analysis and preventive measures.
Degradation issues that do not cause immediate service interruptions but affect overall network performance. These are more complex to troubleshoot and require proactive internal audits alongside reactive troubleshooting.
Nokia’s Fixed Access Health Index helps service providers understand, monitor, and address both categories of issues. It complements reactive troubleshooting with regular auditing, ensuring a balanced approach to network health management.
Conducting a Health Check
The health check uses predefined checkpoints associated with specific platforms and access technologies. These checkpoints are clustered into performance, quality, and security categories, creating a summary view of network health. The results are scored and combined into a Health Index, providing a benchmark for peer comparison and internal improvement measurement.
Nokia’s health check process involves three main steps:
Health Check
Establishes a baseline view of network performance and configuration.
In-depth Analysis
Identifies optimization areas, uncover root causes of service interruptions, and expands on complex assessment areas such as quality of service (QoS).
Improvements
Implements operational or network improvements to support end-to-end customer experience assessments, upgrade the network, eliminate errors, or identify root causes of failure.
Benefits of Nokia’s Fixed Access Health Index
The Nokia Fixed Access Health Index offers direct and indirect benefits, optimizing return on investment (RoI) in broadband evolution programs. Direct benefits include improvements in network operations, cost savings, and enhanced quality, while indirect benefits relate to operational improvements and growth potential identification.
The health check enables service providers to:
- Reduce operational costs by identifying potential issues and optimizing troubleshooting tasks.
- Improve QoE by reducing the time needed to resolve and prevent customer complaints.
- Measure operational improvements through subsequent health checks and the Health Index score.
- Identify growth areas by correlating health check data with demographic or socio-economic data.
The Nokia Fixed Access Health Index provides a comprehensive tool for service providers to evaluate, benchmark, and improve their fixed access networks. By offering a single, clear score that reflects network performance, the Index helps providers focus on what matters most. Through expert recommendations and a standardized approach, service providers can enhance network health, optimize operations, and ensure the highest levels of QoE. This, in turn, fosters customer loyalty and positions providers for long-term success in a competitive market.
About Infinity Technology Solutions
Infinity Technology Solutions specializes in broadband and critical communications infrastructure development. We help our channel partners create and deploy private wireless, microwave backhaul, IP/MPLS, and optical networking technologies.
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