Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

Well, every user of public network communication services should have that feeling, at least to a small degree. Telecommunications is a business of reliability. Things such as price and service variety are becoming more important when choosing a service provider. But: The benchmark for reliability was set long ago-it involves a bunch of nines set up in single file: 99.999% reliability. The whole industry has to stick to that mark. Stumbling on reliability can immediately make you the second choice to prospective customers.

The newness of networks is no excuse to stray either. New carriers are in a hurry to expand markets and sign up subscribers. Some are even rushing to build a national presence.

Such ambition is admirable and even a matter of survival for some, but you need to have the weight to back it up. That weight can be conveyed through a centralized network surveillance system, allowing carriers a watchtower view over their sprawling facilities.

Vendors such as Harris Corp., Tekelec, Clear Communications and Teradyne are concentrating on bringing more intelligent and centralized monitoring and testing to market.

In recent months, several carriers have made their first purchases of network monitoring systems: Birch Telecom, Thrifty Call, Ovation Communications (now being acquired by McCleod USA), Lufkin-Conroe Communications, Time Warner and others.

Investing in a surveillance strategy will ensure that reliability is measured through every part of the network: Different network elements such as switches and cross-connects, SS7 network layers, Sonet gear, routers, digital loop carriers and other equipment. Having a centralized approach-rather than a call-us-if-you-have-a-problem policy-is the best policy for customers, but also for carrier organizations.

Many small, new carrier organizations are strapped for personnel in several areas. In network operations centers, or what qualifies for NOCs in networks that aren't finished yet, a skeleton crew of operations and management staffers can easily be stretched too thin as network expansion and customer sign-up propels forward.

At Thrifty Call in Austin, Texas, Tekelec's MGTS Sentinel system will give the carrier's NOC staff needed oversight in managing its SS7 network, and the Sentinel's automated functioning will improve overall productivity, says Neil Parker, director of network operations.

"CLECs might have one or two people who are knowledgeable about SS7. These people are running around trying to keep an eye on things," adds Dan Bantukul, senior marketing manager at Tekelec.

Hiring new people quickly could be another solution to that problem. However, that path isn't too cost-effective given the present telecom job market: A fisherman's paradise. "Demand is bigger than supply right now, and other companies could end up hiring your own people away," says Bantukul.

In addition to a shortage of people power, young carrier operations are often disheveled by radical change in their business models. It's a problem almost every carrier faces while building a business: Moving from a resale business model in which they didn't have to worry so much about network maintenance into a facilities-based model where they suddenly have to be responsible for everything.

Birch Telecom, based in Kansas City, Mo., faced that kind of trial by fire. It leased fiber to get an early start in the competitive market but had to start building its own facilities to address explosive customer growth. A further stress on its operations is an ongoing merger with independent reseller Valu-Line.

The carrier deployed Harris Corp.'s HNM network management system partly because the system could provide ongoing intelligence about a growing network and customer base, according to Colleen Pekrul, enterprise manager for BirchTelecom. HNM monitors the carrier's Lucent switches, Tellabs cross-connects and other equipment.

"The new way of managing networks is not to buy a management system from every vendor. Carriers don't want to get locked into a single infrastructure vendor," says Jim Odom, VP of network management for Harris. "A common platform that interfaces with any equipment lets you see what's connected to what and where a problem is coming from."

Facing up to that challenge is hard for some carriers. They haven't wanted to deploy switches more than one at a time and haven't wanted to build SS7 networks because of the complexity. Bantukul says they just need to find the right management approach: "CLECs, given the right opportunity to build infrastructure, will do it."

The inexperience of these organizations, however, has pressed vendors to provide more help through training. New carriers do not even have great expertise in assembling trouble tickets, provisioning circuits and other daily activities.

Any training that vendors provide must be more intensive than standard because carrier personnel eventually will need to operate monitoring systems at their own sites on a daily basis without anyone looking over their shoulders.

With traditional passive monitoring systems, this hasn't been so much of a problem because they are simpler to run. However, recent-generation monitoring systems have intrusive management functions that allow users to not only drill down and view a problem at circuit level, but also take action by rerouting circuits or halting transmissions.

Bantukul: "Passive is too reactive for most CLECs. They want to anticipate problems before they happen."