Assurance and QoS management
Operators have different needs for demarcation devices in the network. They may want to monitor a service that a wholesale operator is providing to them, or that their wireline business is providing . Or the wholesale operator itself may want to be able to monitor the different services it is offering. An operator may also want to monitor and assure SLAs on its own services – say to enterprise customers.
A Network Interface Device (NID) is often integrated into a network equipment manufacturer’s site equipment, either as an embedded device, as a plug-in, or now as a virtual image. The proposed advantage of this approach is that it enables operators to gain visibility into classes of service across different access technologies, and L2/L3 backhaul.
NIDs can carry out testing of configuration and can integrate with timing (synchronisation) infrastructure in the network. Carrier Ethernet standards such as IEEE 1588v2 and/or Sync-E technologies are supported, as well as ITU-T Y.1564 the service activation and monitoring methodology.
