Impacts: Network operation team & IT Team (OSS & NMS) (CTO and his/her reporting line)

The challenge: Telcos are missing a reference model to adopt an open converged access domain across multiple access domains irrespective of the type of access – Cable, FTTx, Wireless. This would reduce the high cost of ownership and reduce the high cost of operational change to the network as access technologies evolve. It would enable the convergence of multiple access technologies that are open and standardized, reduce vendor lock-in, ease integration and operational management, and improve business agility. This architecture model would result in a unified, coordinated, multi-access and multi-vendor converged network. A solution is needed to further hasten time-to-market as standardization across multiple access technologies would improve business agility and interoperability across multiple applications and systems.

Proposed solution: The idea is to create an open architecture for fixed and wireless converged access domain, integrating TM Forum Open Digital Architecture (ODA) NaaS with industry access standards to transform the existing multi-vendor, multi-access technology complex monitoring systems to a simplified & unified access domain management layer, which can traverse across the heterogeneous access network architecture. This would also help demonstrate a simplified, Open & Converged Access Model integrated with ODA in order to establish the foundation for a TM Forum-specific standardization of the Converged Access Model.
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Success measures: As a part of the Catalyst initiative, we would develop a prototype that the Champions can test and validate in a lab environment. The Catalyst will demonstrate capabilities that will eliminate multiple management systems supporting the different access technologies in lieu of a unified converged access model. It will further provide seamless integration of standard TM Forum Open APIs on NBI and BBF/O-RAN-specific APIs on SBI for the converged access model in NaaS architecture aligned to ODA, enabling the convergence of multiple access technologies (one in wireline and one in wireless) for the Catalyst. A moonshot would be to have this Catalyst adopted as an evolution strategy roadmap by our Champions and this can get aligned with related industrial bodies such as BBF, O-RAN, 3GPP, etc.