NEEX – Network Extractor

Network Extractor, or NEEX, is a tool developed to make it easy to automate the collection and updating of network data and to turn it into highly useful information for typical network planning and operations processes.

Data extraction from Network Management Systems (NMS) or directly from network elements using net crawlers
Support for multiple access methods (SNMP, CORBA, TL1, CMIP) and integration interfaces (REST, SOAP and RPC APIs)
Support for legacy network systems such as SDH, WDM, PTN, etc.

“Companies that want to stand out in the market face the challenge of managing the dynamics of Telecommunications Networks, where many vendors and technology generations coexist. Maintaining a large, constantly evolving volume of data coming from different access methods and technologies is crucial. Although network inventory systems may seem adequate at first, the difficulty lies in keeping them consistent throughout the network’s lifetime. It is therefore essential that these systems provide automatic, easy and complete visibility of physical and logical assets, optimizing network operations and planning to ensure a return on investment.”

NEEX automatically supports continuous updating of the database, capturing the constant evolution of the network. This makes it possible to build strategic, complex use cases. Automatic synchronization of the inventory with the live network is crucial to overcome challenges in an operator’s network operations and planning, so NEEX ensures return on investment, competitiveness, speed, high quality of service and customer satisfaction over time.

Benefits

Control

Keep your network inventory up to date

Data-first

Data collection from multivendor, multi-technology networks

Integration

Automatic synchronization with the live network

Turn your network data into valuable resources for your engineering team.

30% faster turnaround on new requests.

Clients

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the differences between a Telecom Operator’s Telecommunications Network and a Company’s Network?

A Telecom Operator’s Telecommunications Networks are inherently far more complex because of their geographic reach, the sharing of resources and services among customers, and the coexistence of many technologies and equipment generations. They are extremely dynamic networks, where several vendors and technology generations interact with one another, and they have thousands of pieces of equipment installed and in operation.

Why do inventory system databases so often become outdated over time?

With the dynamism of the live network, its continuous growth, new technologies, many vendors and new services being provisioned to serve customers, the inventory system gradually becomes outdated relative to the live network. As a result, the response to and accuracy of planning and operations requests are directly compromised.

How are inventory system implementation projects carried out at a Telecommunications operator?

When a network inventory project is deployed, a massive initial load of the available data on the networks in operation is performed, and this data is modeled to be inserted into the inventory databases.

That is why these projects require large investments of money and time. Right after the project is completed, there is generally a strong match between the inventory data and the live network, providing broad visibility of the live network and good, highly accurate responses to planning and operations requests.

What are a Telecom Operator’s Inventory Systems for, and what is their main challenge?

Telecom Operators’ Network Inventory Systems are very important because they become one of the main sources of information for a large number of systems that support network operations and planning activities.

They are generally systems with massive databases covering data on thousands, or tens of thousands, of pieces of equipment that make up the network. Keeping the data already collected in inventories up to date, given the permanent evolution of the live network, is a major challenge — especially considering the variety of access methods, from legacy platforms to current generations of equipment and management systems.

How can the growing obsolescence of inventory system databases over time be fought and solved?

It is essential that network inventory systems use automatic synchronization mechanisms with the live network, providing greater accuracy for network operations and planning and ensuring return on investment over time.

How does NEEX work?

Network Extractor, or NEEX, makes it easy to automate the collection of network data and its transformation into high-value information for planning and operations processes, in 3 phases: Collection, Modeling and Processing.

How does NEEX collect network data?

During Collection, NEEX scans network data wherever it is — in Management Systems, databases or even directly in files. After collection, NEEX Models this data, creating a unified, synchronized source and establishing an appropriate logical architecture so the data can be related to each other.

Besides collecting network data, what else does NEEX do?

Once data is collected and modeled, NEEX processes and enriches it with additional information, such as business rules, supported services, site/station details and contracts, producing at the end of the process a Multivendor, Multi-Technology Logical Knowledge Base.

With this consolidated information base, NEEX supports a continuous, automatic update process that captures the permanent evolution of the live network. This makes it possible to build complex, high-strategic-value use cases and keep them valid over time — Inventory Synchronization, Alarm Correlation, a unified view of networks and services, among others.

What are Net Crawlers?

Net Crawlers are the components of the NEEX solution responsible for communicating with management systems or network equipment and collecting the necessary data. They “speak” the same language as these devices and translate the collected data so it can be used by NET-P or other systems.