SOA in Telecom describes the benefits of SOA in a Business Domain. The initial section of this document covers the challenges faced by the Telecom Industry and how SOA benefits the industry.

1. SOA in Telecom
Wireless Media
SOA
Fixed Broadband

2. Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Telecom and SOA 3
Business Scenarios -Telecom 4
Fraud Management 4
Customer Management 11
Cost to Serve 11
Single View of the Customer 15
Service Provisioning 17
Summary 18

3. Introduction
Telecom and SOA
Over the last 3 years, adoption of Service-Oriented Architecture has advanced with the maturity of
the technologies, standardization of specifications, identification of challenges and establishment of
best practices. The benefits of adoption are also being demonstrated by several case studies put
forward by enterprises around the world.
However, very little literature based on experience is available on how SOA benefits a particular
business domain.
SOA in Telecom - is the first of a series of papers being released by Torry Harris that describes the
benefits of SOA in a Business Domain. The initial section of this document covers the challenges
faced by the Telecom Industry and how SOAbenefits the industry. The subsequent sections analyze
specific business scenarios and illustrate the role of SOA in each scenario. We hope this document
will assist in your quest for realizing the true benefits for SOA.
The Telecom industry of today is very proactive in offering innovative propositions by consolidating
their data and voice services both through fixed and mobile networks. The need is for innovative
services that enhance personal communication and entertainment. Entertainment through
Telecommunication medium is a fast growing area and has become the driving factor for the
introduction of new features in the phone. Equally important are the communication needs of the
business users who require seamless network connectivity, uninterrupted access to mails and
information.The high market demand for new services is also becoming price sensitive.
But more often than an enterprise would prefer, introducing new services dynamically is time
consuming and a high cost affair. The challenges present themselves as a discord between business
requirements to the solution delivered due to disparate systems integration (for 3rd party
connectivity), islands of integration spanning across the enterprise architecture, application bloat
and longer implementation duration.
This calls for an IT infrastructure that provides the agility to swiftly introduce new services
dynamically and amend existing services based on market uptake – at a lower cost to the enterprise
from an implementation and maintenance perspective. Apart from the IT Infrastructure, the
requirement is also for a common language between the business and the IT team. A successful
implementation of SOA delivers both the agility in the IT infrastructure and the enablement of IT to
deliver business services instead of just code.

4. Business Scenarios - Telecom
SOA when adopted across the IT infrastructure introduces innumerous possibilities and
opportunities to the operator to increase the revenue and deliver extreme customer service. For core
network operators it allows for 'renting' the applications to the MVNOs along with the networks, the
ability to share their existing IT assets as services to other operators (like providing Fraud
Management Capabilities), seamlessly integrate with new partners and dealers which could be from
physical retail dealers to leading online retail stores or efficiently outsource functions like inventory
management/shipping of handsets and much more.
The following sections illustrate scenarios in the business areas that can be benefited by the phased
approach adoption of SOA. The first section on Fraud Management also describes governance,
granularity, choice of partner and the implementation model, which are applicable for the other
business scenarios as well.
Fraud Management
Fraud Management System (FMS) a key system in the operators' IT Infrastructure to decrease the
revenue loss due to fraudulent activities is a potential candidate to SOAize. They play a role both
when signing up a new subscriber and also when the subscriber uses the services offered by the
operator. Whether bespoke (custom built) or off the shelf, these systems usually involve huge
investments from the operator with respect to both the infrastructure and development/support effort.
Through the adoption of SOA Principles in the FMS, the system can be potentially used across the
entire Telco Infrastructure and provide the capability to the operator to extend their Fraud
Management services to other operators/MVNOs. Further introducing changes in the business
process and rules across the infrastructure will be a seamless effort.
The typical workflow in a FMS is represented in the following diagrams,

5. The typical workflow in a FMS is represented in the following diagrams,
INPUT
a.) CDRs collected in (near) real time
b.) Changes to Subscriber Information
collected in (near) real time
c.) Configuration/Rules that govern the
FMS
PROCESSING
Based on the input data including the
governing rules and historical data, FMS
a.) comes up with the potential fraudulent
cases
b.) executes automated action if the
potential fraudulent case matches with
a predefined fraud scenario
OUTPUT
a.) All the potential fraudulent cases are presented to the Fraud Analysts for further
review
b.) Where manual intervention is required the Fraud Analysts execute the correction
action

6. One of the other benefits of adopting SOAin the FMS infrastructure is to deliver the technical enabler
for reusing the FMS across the IMS infrastructure. Abrief on IMS is as follows,
IMS & the Fraud Challenges
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is the transformational step in network development with the
potential to reshape and radically improve consumer experience, while reconfiguring the value chain
to the benefit of service providers. IMS is seen as a way of rapidly introducing services through
standardized interfaces, lowering the setup time and the cost of the equipment while maintaining the
quality of service and security. It is integrated with voice and data network and adopts many of the key
features of the ITdomain.
However, with the IMS architecture in place, the vulnerability of the networks to fraudsters increases
significantly. Threats like stealing data bandwidths, call hijacking, denial-of-service, etc might be
introduced. Only a comprehensive set of security functions, which can be seamlessly executed, will
be capable of addressing the above.
The SOAWay
SOA is almost always best realized through an evolutionary process – an ongoing conversion of
services that increasingly perform autonomously and thereby can be reused. This evolutionary
approach does not necessarily mean a long drawn out exercise, it simply means that a sequence of
steps have to be defined. The steps could be progressively larger and address a wider range of use
cases, as each successful installation is completed and seen to work.
1.) Model BusinessTasks & Processes
a. Typically the business functionalities of a Fraud Management System are both part of
another business process (like a new Subscription) or have its own business process (in
the case of Fraud Detection and Correction)
b. Either way, the existing business tasks & the processes for Fraud Management have to be
revisited to provision for the business requirements of the IMS infrastructure and potential
use by third parties outside the operator's network
2.) Create Services for Functionalities offered by FMS
a. Model Services from existing functionalities to map to the specific Business Tasks. For
instance in the 'Fraud Detection and Correction' business process mentioned earlier,
'Blacklisting a Handset' will be a business Task. The application functionality which
executes this task will be modeled as a service
b. Where a relevant functionality doesn't exist for a Business Task, new functionalities have to
be implemented and services modeled from them. For instance in the converged world,
where the subscriber might be using multiple offerings from the operator, new
functionalities (and services) might have to be created to suspend all the offerings

7. FMS
Business
Process
s
Sister
Concerns
OperatorMVNOs
a.The services created will be based on SOA Principles, vis-à-vis, loosely coupled,
composable, interoperable, discoverable, reusable and autonomous
b.A registry at this stage is key, as services are being developed. From a functionality
perspective, the registry stores the description of the service so that these services can be
discovered by incoming service requests (from other services or the orchestration layer)
2.) Create Services for Functionalities offered by IMS
a.To enable the seamless integration of the IMS layer with the FMS, services are to be created
to expose the functionalities of the IMS Layer
b.One of the mostly widely adopted approach is to use Parlay/X Web Services (the other is
SIPServlet based Web Service)
c.Parlay/X is a more comprehensive set of telecom based web services and is supported by a
multi-vendor consortium formed to develop open, technology-independentAPIs that enable
the development of applications operating across multiple, networking-platform
environments. Also, Parlay approach allows the service provider to provide sophisticated
services over a legacy network, thereby allowing a competitive capability while, through
network migration the network becomes IMS capable.
Web Services
Web Services

8. 3.) Make the Environment Scalable
a.Potential latency issues are to be examined as a result of re-use, dynamic composition of
services and content heavy XML.
b.Further the potential security issues in exposing functionalities as services to external
parties have to be analyzed
c.Based on the proposed system usage, projections on the transaction and throughput levels
have be to forecasted
d.These considerations will determine the classes and types of products to be used in the
enterprise architecture – both software and hardware
e.One of the benefits in adopting SOA path is the ability to add on hardware infrastructure as
required as the load increases
4.) Implement a RIA(Rich InternetApplication) based presentation layer for the FraudAnalysts
a.From Wikipedia – RIA are Web Applications that have the features and functionality of
traditional desktop applications.
b.In the market there are several vendors who provide solutions to deliver RIA
c.Though not a necessity for SOA, RIA will primarily assist the Fraud Analysts to dynamically
and efficiently configure the governing rules of the FMS through a thin client (a web browser)
Governance
The term “governance” has been emphasized in SOA. The purpose of SOA is to avoid conformity
between applications in the IT Infrastructure. Diverse users with varying priorities are now being
driven to re-use the same assets; hence it is logical that a federated structure be created. The tools
and products available in this category allow the creation of enterprise-defined repositories of the
services available, published within acceptable standards of discovery. Further Governance also
refers to the definition and enforcement of the policies that govern the execution of the Business
Processes (like the level of auditing, securities, etc).
Apart from the products used for Governance, it is essential to form a Governance Body that
comprises of the stakeholders in the organization. This body will be the one stop shop for defining
and monitoring the 'rules of the game', so as to say.
Granularity of the Services
Service granularity if often the most talked design aspect during the implementation of a SOA based
solution. The SOA Adoption in the Fraud Management System would have to be evolutionary with
benefits being delivered with every milestone. So, during the initial stages, the services can be
modeled as coarse grained and over time can be broken down into finer grained services.
If however during the initial analysis of current and foreseeable requirements, there is no need to
further break down a coarse service, then don't. There is a balance to be maintained between the
granularity of the services and optimum performance.

9. The four primary functionalities offered by a FMS are,
1.) Fraud Detection
2.) Fraud Investigation
3.) Fraud Prevention
4.) Fraud Measurement (Metrics)
In the initial phases of the SOA Adoption, coarse grained services can be modeled around these
functionalities. In subsequent phases, these functionalities can be further drilled down to form fine
grained services. Let us take 'Fraud Prevention' and examine how the services will be modeled over
time,
FMS
Fraud
Prevention
·Bar
·Terminate
·BlackList
·Audit Trail
FMS
Bar
Terminate
BlackList
1.) In the example, the business process which will be invoking the services will now have the
flexibility to just choose the specific functionality required instead of invoking a coarse service
which has the ability to deliver all the functionalities. Further, by separating the 'Audit Trail'
functionality into a separate service, enables its reuse as and when required by not only 'Fraud
Prevention', but might be even 'Fraud Detection' or the others.
As services are broken down into fine grains, the ability to 'mix and match' increases significantly
paving way for reuse and quicker implementation cycles.
Choice of Partners & Implementation
Being an evolutionary approach it is critical to choose the appropriate partners both from a product
and service (development partner) perspective. There are several products in the SOA World that
address similar needs, varying in the level to which these needs have to be addressed. For example,
some level of authentication and authorization functionality could already be built in your web
application server. An, ESB introduced at a later stage, for transformations and integration is also
capable of providing this functionality to a greater depth and range (for instance, enforcement of
security policies on every web services consumed).
Audit Trail

10. For the implementation, offshore service partners with the due credentials on SOA and the right size
for nimble and effective customer service would be good fits. Reason for offshore, is to bring in both
the cost effectiveness and value propositions as enterprises are looking for partners who will share
its business goals and go the extra miles required.
Having chosen the suitable offshore service partner, the model of execution will be similar to a typical
offshore/onsite with variations brought in by the requirements for service modeling, agility required
and changes in the test methodologies for SOA. For instance in SOA Implementation, Performance
Testing are also carried out earlier in the development cycle to cater for early detection of latency and
bottleneck issues. In the following diagram, the section marked in the translucent dotted area
represents the iterative process that will be involved while delivering the services for the identified
Business Process.
Business
Requirement
Specification
Technical Architecture
Document
Service Identification &
Documentation
High Level Design
Low Level Design
Business Process Implementation (logic,
integration, modernization, mediation,
orchestration)
Unit, Functional & Performance
Testing
Integration & Performance Testing
User Acceptance
Testing
Production
L2/L3 Support
Build Regression Test
Suite
Partner OffshorePartner
Onsite
Your Offices
Enterprise Wide
Document
Business
Processes
Define
Roadmap
Audit & Document IT
Assets
Governance (Design Time
Stds/Policies & Runtime
Policies)

11. Key Benefits
Apart from lowering operating costs, this will provide a one-stop solution to the challenges posed by
the increased activity on the network and also by the increased and new capabilities of the
fraudsters. By architecting the solution based on SOA, the integration between the FMS and IMS can
be made seamless. Further new business rules, security filters can be applied simultaneously across
the BSS and IMS layers, effectively and efficiently. From a revenue standpoint, the upgraded FMS
can be used to service MVNOs and geographically spread sister concerns.
Customer Management
Customer Management System is the crux of the BSS Layer. Within that, the two key areas of focus
are 'Cost to Serve' and 'Single View of Customer'. While the latter aims at increased customer
satisfaction and sales through up/cross selling, the former focuses on lowering the operational cost
and call centre optimization
There are several technical approaches to enable the realization of benefits from both 'Cost to Serve'
and 'Single View of Customer'. However, adopting SOA in your IT Infrastructure increases the
possibilities of introducing new services and marketing ideas dynamically reaching the customer
quickly and efficiently – at a lower operational cost.
Cost to Serve
'Cost to Serve' reflects the cost to serve and support a subscriber and lowering this cost increases the
ARPU. One of the avenues to decrease the cost is by empowering the subscribers with the ability to
manage their accounts by themselves – through the web channel or IVR and reducing the number of
calls made to the CSRs aiding in call centre optimization. Though a majority of the operators have self
service incorporated through the web channel, introducing amendments or new services to realize
the greater potential of the web self service is still a challenge – with respect to time to market and
high ITcosts.This is where SOAwill benefit.
The SOAWay
How to go about implementing SOA to optimize 'Cost to Serve' and improve the service quality? The
key steps to be undertaken,
1. Model Common Business Processes
a. In today's dynamic market conditions, Convergence is a given and being successfully
adopted by several operators worldwide. When operators start to offer converged services,
typically every individual offering (be it Wireless or Broadband or Fixed or Digital TV) will
have its own set of Business Processes and ITAssets
b. The goal is to 'converge' the IT assets also apart from the service offerings made available
to the end customers through the marketing channels. The consolidation starts Top Down –
to tie the Business Processes together

12. c. Apart from giving the Business Teams a single view of the operators' service offerings, this
step gives the flexibility and freedom to consolidate at the technology level as required over
a period of time. Further any changes on the technology side will have minimal or no impact
to the end users
2.Automation of Manually Intensive Processes
a. One of the challenges faced by CSRs is the frequent manual intervention required to
execute a business process. Manual intervention can be either due to the need to manually
traverse across multiple systems to complete a business process or for approvals. In
majority of the situations, it is the former. For instance the Upgrade Process (or 'Contract
Re-Sign') involves the use of several systems including your inventory management (like
an ERPsolution), customer management, billing, order processing and provisioning
b. Apart from delaying the response time to customers and getting them frustrated, the
manual intervention also inhibits the adoption of the Web Channel as an effective means of
customer self service
c. The goal is to analyze the business processes and remove manual interventions to the
extent feasible. In doing so, ITwould now be able to automate the execution of the process
One of the common analogies for demonstrating the benefits of SOA is how the Lego Blocks can be
constructed and remodeled by reusing the existing blocks. Constructing your Customer
Management system based on SOA will create the foundation blocks or services which then can be
combined in the order you want to create existing business process or new ones. These services
promote greater reuse of existing IT assets across business processes and will be shared by the
various channels to serve the customer, including CSR, Web, IVR or Dealer.
Let us take two business processes in Customer Management and see how they can be modeled in
SOA,
1. Registration of new Subscribers
2. SubscriberAccount Management
As illustrated in the following diagram, the two business processes share common services ('Update
Profile' & 'Update Billing Info') to deliver the functionalities of the respective process. Further in line
with the convergent solution, the business processes invoke both the wireless and broadband
services to provide the customer with a complete solution without having to deal with multiple
registration cycles. Now if the Marketing Team comes up with a promotion, wherein all pay monthly
subscribers who setup direct pay (direct debit/auto payment) are eligible for an additional bundle of
text messages, then 'Update Account Details' would have to just invoke an additional pre-existing
service 'Update Bundles'.

13. Business Process
Business Task
Service
Registration
Account
Management
Check
Registration
Eligibility
Create Customer
Account
Add Service
Plans
Activate Service
Update Account
Details
Profile
Check
Fraud
Check
Credit
Check
Update
Profile
Update
Billing Info
Provision
Wireless
Update
Tariff
Update
Bundles
Update
Broadband
Package
Provision
Broadband
CSR
Self -
Service

14. Being common services across the channels (Web,
CSR, etc) the reuse potential is very high. Security
Policies can be defined to control the access to the
various services through these channels.
With the foundation blocks (services) in place, the
possibilities of creating and amending business
processes are several with minimal development
dollars.
Taking a technical dive, the end to end customer
service fulfillment can be achieved by converting
the functions offered by the BSS and OSS layers as
services and modeling the data consistently. SOA
Product Vendors offer highly scalable service
delivery platform for BSS and OSS layer functions.
Key Benefits
1. Cost Reduction
a. When the web channels start to provide increased functionality and empower the
subscriber to manage their accounts and subscription on their own in a customer friendly
environment, the calls to the CSRs will reduce.This will aide in Call Centre Optimization
b. Once the foundation blocks are built as services based on SOA Principles, these services
can be used to implement a new business process or amend an existing one without
significant development cost
2. Greater Customer Satisfaction
a. By implementing converged Business Process, the operator is now able to offer a one step
process to sign up in one or more offerings. Though this might be a case in many operators,
SOAenables easier ITmanagement from an operators' perspective
b. With the use of technologies based on RIA, the user experience through the web channel
can be significantly elevated with user friendly navigation, controls and high end graphics
3. ShorterTime to Market
a.As evidences in the previous illustration, amending a business process or adding new ones
is relatively a simpler task, as there is a greater reuse of IT assets at a service level. This
lends itself to shorter development cycles for enhancements and modifications
b. With the business processes being modeled as common to the various channels (Web,
CSR, Dealers, etc), a change in an existing Business Process or a new one can be
introduced simultaneously across the channels
Business Processes to SOAize
Some of the common business processes and their services which can be modeled based on SOA
Update
Profile
Update
Billing
Info
Update
Bundles
Update Account
Details

15. Business Process
Registration of Subscribers
(or 'Customer Registration')
Account Maintenance
Subscription Maintenance
Upgrades ('Contract Re-Sign')
Service
Check Registration Eligibility
Profile & Fraud Checks
Credit Check (Contract Customers or
Pay Monthly Customers)
Create Account
Create Customer Profile
Update Tariff/Talk Plans
Update Additional Bundles
Activate Account/Services
Update Contract
Update Account Details
Update Customer Profile
Update Billing Details
Update Product
Change Telephone Number
Update Talk Plan/Tariff
Update Additional Bundles
Update Subscription
Activate Services
SIM Swap
Contract Renewal
Retention
Disconnection
Transfer Subscription
Check Upgrade Eligibility
Calculate Upgrade Fees
Evaluate Upgrade Rewards
Provide Upgrade Options
Fraud Check
Activate Services
Single View of the Customer
With the organic development of IT system over years and convergence with other services, it is
typical to have the customer related data spread across several IT systems. Further the data would
be replicated as required by the individual system to function, for instance several billing systems for
one operator is not that uncommon. This spread and replication of customer data is a challenge to
efficiently serve the customer and increase the sales through cross/up selling. There is increasingly a
need for a 'Single View of the Customer'

16. The business needs to respond quickly to the competition and market demands; the IT often ends up
developing multiple systems that perform the same tasks required through various channels within
an enterprise. To take the decisions at certain business processes, various levels of customer
information is required; sometimes the customer data is inconsistently created in different
operational data stores for each business unit. The customer service applications are developed to
build a seamless service delivery environment that connect to multiple backend applications and
databases.
The SOAWay
Like the previous example even in 'Single View of the Customer', there are non-SOAways to achieve
the objective of implementing a single view. But, where SOAhelps is to achieve the current objective
through integration of systems based on open standards and prepare the infrastructure for a
seamless introduction of new requirements in the future.
To model in lines with the SOAprinciples, the following steps have to be undertaken
1.Data & Data SourceAnalysis
a. Analyze and document the existing data and data sources with respect to their structure
(schema), dependencies, integrity, users and performance
2.Model Common Business Process
a. For instance lets consider the case of multiple Billing Systems be it for one service offering
(wireless) or multiple (wireless, fixed, etc), one of the essentials is to model a common
business process
b. Of course this common process will have business tasks that will be mapped to appropriate
services in each offering/billing system. But, having this common process will deliver a
single view of the customer
c. Apart from giving the Business Teams and the customer (in case of self service) a single
view of the customer this step gives the flexibility and freedom to consolidate and/or
reconcile the data sources if required over a period of time. Further any changes on the
technology side will ensure to have minimal or no impact to the end users
d. Similar to the common business process for the billing services, business processes can be
modeled for other customer related information (profile, subscription details, account
history, service usage trends, etc)
Key Benefits
1. Increase in Sales
a. With the ability to view the service (wireless, fixed, etc) usage trends, the operator will be
able to present to the subscriber either through the web channel (for self service) or CSRs,
the various offerings and discounts to aide in cross selling and up selling
b.For instance if the subscriber has a trend of heavy internet usage through the wireless
phone, then this information along with a sales offering of a new wireless phone that
performs better for internet usage along with an internet bundles package, if presented to
the subscriber will be more appealing for her/him. This usage information may have to be
obtained from different data sources to present a single view of the customer

17. 2. Greater Customer Satisfaction
a. Would a subscriber be thrilled to access all account information for wireless, fixed and
broadband through one portal without having to navigate several forms?
b. Would a subscriber be less stressed and more prompt to make one payment for all the
services obtained from the operator?
c. Would a subscriber be excited to receive usage reports from the various services obtained
and how he/she can save more or get better deals by opting for the most appropriate
packages?
d.These and more are the possibilities
3. MarketTrends & Forecast
a. With a single view of the customer, the reporting systems would be able to generate reports
more efficiently and quickly
b.Reporting multiple systems are utilized within CRM, it is possible for data sets to be
continually updated therefore latency issue will exist
4.Call Centre Optimization
a. It is quite prevalent for the CSRs to jump through several screens in their monitor while they
are addressing one subscriber request, be it upgrades, bill enquiry or adding additional
services. With a single view of the customer, the CSRs' efforts can be optimized while
increasing customer satisfaction by decreasing the need for them to wait for longer
durations to complete a request
Service Provisioning is the interaction between a mobile Telco's BSS/OSS Systems and core Carrier
Network - it encompasses the activation and subsequent modification of a subscription on the
network. Typically these events are handset activations and the modifications may be activation of
new services or deactivation of existing services that require a network or handset update.
With the capability offered by the high speed and high bandwidth networks (2.5G/EDGE & 3G
Networks), mobile operators have a wide spectrum of innovative services for the end users. But, the
challenges faced in provisioning new services include, longer time to market and high IT
implementation cost both of which rendered due to an inflexible siloed ITarchitecture.
There is an emergence of business models that calls for content and service combinations that
deliver a wide spectrum of capabilities across the networks including Triple & Quad Plays – there's a
need for dynamic service provisioning that is flexible, highly available and doesn't cost much. In the
SOAworld, Service Provisioning as a Business Process which will be composed of services from the
various BSS, OSS systems and Network Elements like, Customer Management, Billing, Activation,
Supply Chain Management, etc. With the automation of the manual interventions required for
provisioning and activation, new services offerings across the spectrum (wireless, fixed, broadband,
media service, etc) can be provisioned and activated without additional steps.
Service Provisioning

18. Apart from delivering lower operative costs and shorter time to market, architecting the provisioning
process based on SOA principles will future proof the infrastructure as the drive for IP based
standards are on an increase. Clearly an IP based infrastructure will enable seamless transition of
service across mobile, broadband, fixed lines and host of new services based on content.
Be it Single Play or Quad Play, Service-Oriented Architecture plays a key role in transforming the
Telecom Company's IT Infrastructure into an agile architecture enabling it to react quickly to the
dynamic market conditions.
This document describes the benefits in specific business scenarios when implementing SOA.
Service-OrientedArchitecture is about seamless integration through loosely coupled services.
Torry Harris Business Solutions Inc (THBS) is a US based service provider with development
facilities in India and China. The company has for several years delivered a large variety of
middleware services to enterprise clients around the world.
The company has remained focused on the Middleware & Integration space and implemented large
projects across Europe, Middle East and the Far East. The company is committed to Service-
oriented Architecture which it sees as the logical movement to follow the phenomenon of distributed
computing in the late nineties where THBS was clearly the market leader in terms of implementing
the offshore/onsite model. Further information can be found at www.thbs.com/soa.
Summary