Definition Of EMS & How Does it Work?

In simple terms, an Element Management System handles one or multiple Network Elements in Telecom. It manages the performance and functions within each network element (NE), but does not cater to the traffic between various NEs in the network. For supporting the traffic within itself and other NEs, it interfaces with a higher level network management system. This Element Management System (EMS) Tutorial provides a comprehensive understanding of the functions of EMS and its position in the telecommunications network architecture.

Typically, in a Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model, the EMS communicates with the Network Management System and/or Service Management System at one end, and interfaces with the critical network elements on the other end. It is important to note here that EMS is different from device management. While a device management refers to software that resides within the NE, an EMS refers to software on the server outside of NE. This High-level Element Management System Tutorial also discusses the basic functions of an EMS in the following key areas, known as FCAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, & Security):

Fault: This caters to alarm handling, alarm actions, alarm correlation, trouble detection & correction, test & acceptance, and network recovery.

Configuration: This includes management of software upgrades, network provisioning, system turn-up, backup & restore, database handling, auto discovery, and service activation.

Accounting: This refers to tracking service usage, bill for services, and call detail record collection.

Performance: This accounts for data collection, report generation, data analysis, data correlation, and threshold crossing alerts.

Security: This includes controlling NE access, enabling NE functions, user & group management, audit logs, access logs, and authentication, authorization, & accounting services.

Apart from the above-mentioned capabilities, the EMS also manages the inventory by enabling an NOC Administrator to maintain records about the type, status, and count of devices on the network.

All of the above functionalities have different tasks at each layer in the TMN architecture. There are a wide range of NEs from a massive number of vendors. Each NE communicates with its respective EMS via proprietary, open, standard, or northbound interface to a higher level of NMS that eventually provides an integrated multivendor network management system.

The role of NOCVue’s EMS is to control all critical aspects (physical & logical) of the NE and ensure maximum usage of the resources of the devices. It also extracts the relevant information and communicates it north-bound to a higher-level management system.

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