Application of object-oriented database management systems in the telecommunications industry

Companies engaged in the supply of telecommunications services, as well as sellers of equipment, face serious problems when working in the modern telecommunications market. The reason for this is the huge number of constantly changing requirements and a very high level of competition in this area of ​​the industry. Networks are increasing both in size and in complexity, influenced by the expansion of business industry requirements and new technologies: from wireless communications and optical fiber to computers themselves, multimedia, and other technologies used in building networks. As the number of competitive companies increases, it is becoming increasingly important for telecommunication service providers and equipment vendors to be able to respond to changes quickly and efficiently, while maintaining the highest level of performance and reliability.

One of the most important means of achieving such goals is the ability to effectively model, manage, and optimize the next generation of telecommunications equipment and services. Telecommunication networks in terms of speed and reliability are one of the most demanding industries, and, as a result, telecommunication companies place increased demands on database management systems. The next generation of telecommunications applications will require a new generation of database technology. A technology that relies on the experience of previous-generation database management systems, connecting them with the latest software achievements. A database management system, specially designed for the highest possible level of speed and reliability, to work in the most complex multiplatform environments (with a high level of parallelism and distribution) with extremely high data storage requirements.

OZUBD Versant just such a product. The latest version of Versant is the sixth generation of database management systems, combining direct modeling of complex data using leading (to date) object programming languages. From the start, Versant was designed to achieve the highest levels of speed and reliability in parallel, highly distributed, open system environments, and support them 24 hours a day, seven days a week (24 x 7). As a result, the Versant OODBMS allows telecommunications service providers and network equipment vendors to solve problems they were unable to solve using old data storage technologies.

The Versant OODBMS is already used in many important telecommunication applications and technologies, such as:

• Integrated Digital Loop Carrier (IDLC) Management;
• ATM / SDH / SONET Elementary Management Systems:
  • ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode (standardized ITU fixed-length packet switching technology; asynchronous in the sense that packets from individual users are transmitted aperiodically; provides efficient transfer of various types of data (voice, video, multimedia, LAN traffic) over long distances);
  • SDH:
    • Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, synchronous digital hierarchy, SDH standard (European standard for fiber-optic data transmission);
    • Synchronous Data Hierarchy European standard for the use of optical cables as a physical medium for high-speed transmission networks over long distances;
  • SONET - Synchronous Optical Network Synchronous Optical Network:
    • fiber optic technology that provides data rates of more than one gigabit per second;
    • a standard that determines the speed, signals and interfaces for synchronous transmission over fiber optic links;
• Advanced Intelligent Networks Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN);
• Additional and intelligent peripherals;
• Central office collectors and billing systems;
• Operational support systems;
• Providers of electronic connections between different types of armed forces.

The numerous advantages of the Versant architecture and its ability to reliably process and store complex data structures (as well as connections) in parallel, highly distributed system environments have led many telecommunication companies around the world to solve network storage management problems using the Versant database engine. Proof of this is the fact that Versant's OOSUBD was selected by five of the six best telephone companies and four of the eight best switch manufacturers. Versant allows telecommunication companies not only to develop applications that allow increasing revenues, it allows them to achieve their goals in a very short time!

Developers of telecommunication applications have historically adopted one of two methods for storing information: flat file or RDBMS. Although flat files can store arbitrarily complex data, they lack concurrency, distribution, and integrity compared to traditional database management systems. Although relational systems do offer these benefits in database management, their table-oriented data model is not capable of modeling complex data and relationships, and therefore does not provide high speed, conforms to the modern requirements of information environments, and is unable to store application objects in the natural for them to form. In practice, it often happens that the second generation CODASYL tools are easier to use for modeling complex (for example, having a graph structure) data than the relational technology of database management systems, which has replaced them.

Object-oriented database management systems offer a third way, which far exceeds both previous ones. OOSUBD provide flexibility, so necessary for modeling and storing arbitrarily complex data. In fact, due to the complexity of modeling networks in non-object-oriented systems, many telecommunication standards themselves are defined in object-oriented terms. For example, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for network management, including Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects (GDMO) and the Common Control Information Protocol (CMIP) are defined in object-oriented terms. In addition, many Bellcore technical standards ("TR" publications of type TR-303 for IDLC protocol (used when integrating a digital system into a local digital communication channel)) are defined in object-oriented terms. Versant allows you to simulate such standards directly, without writing a mapping code for transferring the object schema to the RDBMS, and without sacrificing the performance resulting from the appearance of slow-working mapping transformations.

Unlike other OOSUBD, Versant has such important features as blocking at the object level, transparent distribution of data within the network, online addition of data volumes, dynamic online schema development, and online compression and movement of objects. These features mean that Versant, with its proven "24x7" architecture, can provide superb performance in parallel, highly distributed, zero-chance telecommunications environments for a wide range of applications that require working with complex data types and complex relationships.

Versant is extremely well suited for telecommunication applications because of its inherent advantages in speed and the ability to work effectively in high-demand environments, which is not found in other object-oriented databases. Of course, achieving the optimal level of performance depends on how the application is developed and implemented. Recognizing this, Versant offers the most comprehensive set of training, training, education, counseling and support services.

Since telecommunications applications strongly require concurrency and packet data, reducing concurrency conflicts is critical to their success. Versant's concurrency control mechanism uses blocking at the level of individual objects, which maximizes separation and ensures better performance. All other object-oriented databases use blocking mechanisms at the page or container level, severely limiting parallelism to "full" for the simple reason that a given page or container can only be updated by one user at a time. Such a reduction in parallelism is simply unacceptable, given the requirements of telecommunications environments.

Versant's transparent data distribution model makes it easy to build distributed applications because it eliminates the need to track the physical location of the object database on the network. The transparent distribution of Versant data is achieved by using logical object identifiers (LOIDs) that are used throughout the network, unique, and inherently unchanging object identifiers that are automatically assigned to each object. Versant objects on one node of the network can be transparently associated with objects on other nodes, and objects can be moved from one node to another transparently without breaking the code of an existing application, and without the need to change the definition of classes or pointers. In addition, the standard protocol Versant (with two-phase transaction confirmation) ensures data integrity during distributed transactions.

Versant maintains maximum performance by dynamically redistributing objects. LOIDs allow Versant to support physical clustering of stored data and the locality of links, and provide efficient load management, effectively operating objects according to needs. All these features minimize the load on the disk, allowing you to achieve the highest level of performance. The performance of other databases that lack storage management, as compared to Versant, may deteriorate over time. Such databases should be periodically taken offline for the redistribution of data and their reclusterization in order to restore the required level of performance, which is simply unacceptable, taking into account the requirements of the telecommunications industry.

In any system switching, changing configurations, network development and changing OSS (Operator Service System), the ability to change the database schema gracefully and without interruption is the most important requirement. Versant's lazy update scheme overcomes the limitations of earlier technologies by automatically supporting multiple schema versions of objects of a given class. When a class schema needs to be changed, each instance of the class moves from the old schema to the new schema when it is accessed (that is, only when necessary). These “lazy changes” are being made online — a critical factor in telecommunications environments. This approach allows not to move all instances of the class at once, but for a long period of time.

LOID-based Versant logical architecture supports extremely large databases. While some relational databases have architecture limits of eight to ten million rows in a table, Versant can support up to 2 ^ 48 objects (2.81 tera-objects) in each database, and more than 65000 databases in a network.

Versant provides such features as backup (which supports both full and partial data copying) and replication to support urgent backup actions. All of these features, along with features such as dynamic schema change, physical memory reclustering and its reuse, allow Versant to support 24 x 7 telecommunications applications to solve critical, demanding tasks that no other database on the current market can.

Application of Versant in the Systems of Integrating the Digital System of the Operator into the Local Digital Communication Channel (IDLC Systems)

The market for integrating the operator’s digital system into a next-generation local digital communication channel is evolving with increasing competition, especially in the United States. Deregulation and the emergence of digital services such as interactive entertainment, Internet usage and personal communications services (PCS) all create unprecedented opportunities not only for local telephone companies and owners of information exchange lines (telecommunications companies that own long-distance lines circuit-switched, packet-switched or leased lines), but also for large cable companies. The key point in the development of such infrastructures is the application of the integration technologies of the operator’s digital system into a local digital communication channel, which is the most effective method of increasing (expanding) access to the central office switch. These remote digital terminals reduce subscriber access to a growing number of digital services.

Remote digital terminals (RDT - Remote Digital terminals) operate in environments with a very high level of parallelism. Monitoring systems and multiple OSS are constantly working with a huge number of objects. Object-level locking Versant provides optimal performance in environments with high levels of parallelism by eliminating concurrency conflicts inherent in other architectures. Transparent data distribution Versant allows many different systems to exchange objects between groups of remote digital terminals via a network. 24 x 7 capabilities, including the addition of online data volumes and their compression to reduce overhead, are all built into the Versant architecture to maintain the highest level of performance at all times.

Versant plays a key role in the development of the next generation of the operator’s digital system integration into the local digital communication channel. Versant is used in the elements of these networks to support the TR-303 information model, implementing the Management Information Base (MIB), and providing a controlling system to manage both the RDT and the external interfaces of the OSS. The TR-303 information model describes the functions of a remote digital terminal in terms of classes, objects, attributes, and methods — a natural description for Versant.

Using Versant, TR-303 information models can be placed directly in the database, without writing any complex interface code that any other storage technology is needed.