VSAT Manager of Managers (SatMoM)
The VSAT Manager of Managers (SatMoM) was created to address the operational needs of one of the largest satellite service providers in North America and has matured into a complete solution that integrates popular VSAT technologies used worldwide.
It utilizes DataMiner Experience and Performance Management (EPM) to manage large-volume systems, and it enables efficient data collection, transformation, aggregation, trending, monitoring, and reporting.
SatMoM also includes modules for planned maintenance, ticketing orchestration, sun outage prediction, and weather monitoring.
This solution empowers satellite engineers to optimize their network performance and deliver exceptional services to end customers.
Satellite Manager of Managers (SatMoM)
Because of the constantly changing landscape of VSAT offerings, satellite operators require a monitoring solution that can meet their business demands regardless of the technology and vendors involved.
Skyline Communications has developed an advanced DataMiner solution to address this need. Our Satellite Manager of Managers (SatMoM) has been successfully deployed and is currently operational with one of the largest service providers in America.
Since the program's inception in 2019, the Skyline team has been working on creating a digital twin that can understand, execute, and expand our clients' business logic to better support their VSAT service delivery to end customers.
At the heart of this integration is DataMiner Experience and Performance Management (EPM) and its VSAT solution for volume systems.
The entire solution is available to be deployed from our Catalog | EPM-VSAT. Detailed documentation can be found on DataMiner EPM VSAT | DataMiner Docs.
Technologies
The following VSAT offerings were integrated into DataMiner:
ST Engineering Evolution • ST Engineering Dialog • ST Engineering Velocity (integration in progress) • SES Skala • Intelsat Flex (integration in progress)
Future integrations: the current solution is fully based on GEO satellite communications. However, we have started the plans to integrate LEO/MEO in 2024. The top two technologies that will be integrated are OneWeb and StarLink (SpaceX).
Data Collection & Transformation
Using the various DataMiner capabilities for data collection, all technologies were integrated via connectors covering a variety of protocols (MySQL, SNMP, APIs, KAFKA, Virtual).
The results are a set of cohesive applications, which can exchange information up and down the business stack and translate raw data points into meaningful & actionable KPIs. Some of these KPIs are:
- Power
- SNR (signal-to-noise ratio)
- Traffic
- Errors
- Headroom
- Latency
- SLA (Service Level Agreement) Status
Data collection cycles vary based on parameter types. Events are recorded every minute, while performance data and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have a 5-minute interval. Additionally, native resolution, which is sustained at 20 seconds, is achieved through history sets. This feature enables DataMiner to backfill data into the storage tier, maintaining a delicate balance between data sources and application performance granularity. Configuration data is collected at 10-minute intervals.
Data Aggregation
While collecting data directly from the VSAT terminals is the first step of the process, it becomes equally important to be able to aggregate this data with other relevant entities. Below, some of the topology levels supported by the DataMiner EPM aggregation engine are listed:
- Customer
- Forward and Return Networks
- NMS (Network Management System)
- Teleport
- Linecard
- Chassis
- Protocol Processors
Trending
For more than 20K VSAT terminals, DataMiner is actively maintaining historical trend records for 20 KPIs at a 20-second resolution.
The system is gracefully handling around 10 million sets towards the storage tier every 5 minutes.
Monitoring
Monitoring events that directly impact the VSAT terminals and hub infrastructure is intense within this VSAT system because it is a critical part of the ticketing orchestration.
The system currently monitors over 14 distinct events across 20K+ VSATs, which amounts to an average of over 3,000 handled faults on a weekly basis.
Hysteresis is widely used to keep the number of actual faults generated in line with the service level agreements (SLAs).
Sun Outage
One of the critical natural events that impact VSAT systems is the annual periods of Sun Outage interruptions.
For this program, we used the DataMiner Sun Outage prediction and monitoring capabilities, which allows operators to incorporate sun outage diagnostics into their support structure.
The system currently tracks around 160K sun outage events on a yearly basis.
Weather
Weather inclemency poses the most recurrent impact on VSAT systems, which rely heavily on over-the-air transmissions.
For this program, we used the DataMiner Weather monitoring capabilities to bring key information about weather conditions, such as rain, snow, and corresponding precipitation intensity, into the solution when dealing with service interruptions.
The system currently tracks an average of 5,000 daily weather inquiries for a vast number of locations throughout the VSAT network.
Planned Maintenance (PLM)
As is the case for all service providers, the ability to schedule VSAT system components under planned maintenance is an important part of keeping the system running with the highest reliability possible.
Using the DataMiner PLM solution capabilities, operators can create PLM activities for VSAT terminals and the hub infrastructure as well as entire customer networks.
To date, our customers have scheduled over 3,000 PLM activities using DataMiner.
Ticketing Orchestration
Handling ticketing workflows is the most important task of DataMiner within the customer VSAT solution.
With the information collected and aggregated, native alarms are generated and handled through a set of advanced workflows that rely on the full stack of the VSAT DataMiner-based digital twin solution.
Orchestrating tickets involves the following workflows towards the placing of incidents under the predicted category:
- Weather – rain, snow, etc. category
- Sun outage – solar impact category
- Planned Maintenance (PLM) – scheduled PLM category
- Power analysis based on VSAT terminals uptime – power outage category
- Temperature analysis based on VSAT terminals reported temperature – overheating category
For all categories, DataMiner will either provide operators with the specific information from workflow results, suppress the incident altogether, or both, depending on the desired outcome, which is fully configurable.
With the use of this advanced level of automation and orchestration, VSAT support center can efficiently handle most of the issues impacting their customer's VSAT services and continuously improve their workflows using the vast trail of information generated by DataMiner.
Reporting
The ability to report on past, current, and/or predicted service KPIs or KQIs, as well as on the configuration state of the infrastructure, is crucial for service providers.
To meet the reporting demands of our customers, the solution is using DataMiner web apps, specifically the Dashboards app.
As of this writing, 14 dashboards are providing the necessary insights to meet the reporting requirements, and this number is only going to grow as DataMiner Dashboards allows users to create their own set of visualizations and reports to adapt to the different business needs.
Northbound Integrations & Web Services
VSAT operators also require the capability to share information already handled by DataMiner with external systems. This northbound integration can be accomplished using the DataMiner Web Services.
The specific methods employed revolve mainly around EPM (formerly CPE) web services, as they allow the retrieval of data using the logical hierarchical structure of the network (Customer -> VSAT Remote).
Conclusions
The VSAT Manager of Managers (SatMoM) solution, powered by DataMiner, is a comprehensive and adaptable solution that enables satellite operators to monitor and manage their VSAT systems efficiently and effectively. With DataMiner, operators can benefit from the following features:
- Freedom to choose: DataMiner supports various VSAT technologies and vendors, and will be able to integrate with LEO/MEO satellites in the future.
- SLA configuration: DataMiner allows operators to define and monitor service level agreements for their customers and VSAT terminals.
- Plannend Maintenance (PLM): DataMiner enables operators to schedule and track planned maintenance activities for VSAT components and networks.
- Automated ticket generation workflow: DataMiner automates the ticketing process by using advanced workflows that rely on data collection, aggregation, trending, monitoring, and reporting. DataMiner can also handle tickets based on weather, sun outage, power outage, and temperature analaysis.
- Customer portals & Billing interface: DataMiner provides operators with dashboards and reports that can be shared with customers and billing systems, as well as web services for northbound integration.
- Automation leads to savings: DataMiner reduces the total cost of ownership by optimizing network performance, improving customer satisfaction, and minimizing human intervention. According to a leading service provider using the solution:
- 85% of our created tickets are self-handled by SatMoM without human interactions.
- Managed hubs generate more than 6,000 actionable events a week.
- The total number of events per week averages about 100K.
Contact Skyline Communications today to learn more about how SatMoM can help you achieve your business goals.
DataMiner for Satellite Networks
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WTA Research Report
Service Automation and Orchestration for Teleport Operators
In this report, which cites DataMiner as key technology for the future, WTA examines the growth of automation and orchestration of network operations in the satellite and teleport sector. They explore the extent to which satellite and teleport operators have embraced automation and orchestration, the benefits, the barriers and challenges it presents, the opportunities it creates and what the future might hold.
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