Generally, after start up of EPON system, Voice service, Ethernet service and TV service are sent by OLT equipment in the Central Office to optical network unit installed in different houses. In order to ensure normal operation, telecommunication service providers should have a complete quality system specification programme that guides technicians to complete daily maintenance of FTTH system and to complete in shortest time repairing of the system when accident occurs, so that users suffer lowest losses.

1. Standard system for daily maintenance

Standard system for maintenance work of FTTH optical network can lower frequency of accident. And good network element management system can help improve the technician’s managing efficiency.

1) Mechanism for technician’s role assigning.

Technician’s role assigning guarantees that every technician’s work in system management and maintenance is completed under control. The role assigning should avoid happening of “super administrator”, and should apply mechanism of hierarchical management and separation of power. In this mechanism, routine maintenance administrators are allowed to look over network element device’s state, link state, performance parameters, warnings and other information in the system and not allowed to modify the parameters, system configuration Administrators apart from having all the permissions of a routine maintenance administrator are allowed to modify and configure system parameters, but not allowed to modify and delete log documents, and log auditors are allowed to do audit on routine maintenance administrator and system configuration administrator’s operation according to the log documents in the system. In mega FTTH network for large number of users, administrative permissions can be further divided following above principles. This mechanism can can effectively guarantee the normal operation of the system, the timely process of warning info and performance deterioration notifications. The optical distribution network of passive optical network are build with passive parts, which doesn’t require frequent maintenance and management, though considering performance deterioration caused by weather or other factors, scheduled checking and maintenance, for example, cleaning of devices, repairing of protection facilities etc., must be done with corresponding maintenance records. The audit work of technicians can be assigned to log auditors.

2) System document management system

Log documents are saved to guarantee traceability of events and data. document saving includes paper and electronic document saving. Electronic documents saving include saving of warning information, performance data and log documents. Paper documents saving includes include records of technician’s scheduled check and maintenance and records of checking plan documents and checking records during internal quality period.

3) Proof check system

To guarantee the effective implementation of the mechanism for technician’s role assigning and the system document management system, which ensure the quality operation of system, telecommunication providers should also establish proof check system to send inspectors to check the completeness of saved documents and check different technicians’ work according to the content of the document to find out problems. Once problems are found, report shall be sent to responsible department or technician and urge them to fix problems in given time.

2. Working content and requirements of technicians

1) Routine maintenance administrators

Working content: They are mainly involved in routine maintenance of PON network system and OLT equipment, including real time monitoring network elements’ working state, performance parameters, warning information, and regular maintenance of OLT equipment under it’s territory.

Requirements: Routine maintenance administrators must have some understanding of basic telecommunication theory. They must be familiar with functions of all components of EPON system as well as their working principles, are able to use network management system freely, do basic trouble shooting according to related performance parameters and warning info, and send report quickly to system configuration administrators. They must also be rigorous, meticulous, and patient because this kind of work takes a lot of time.

2) System configuration administrator

Working content: they participate in the parameter configuration of network system. Modify system parameters according to reports from routine maintenance administrators, so that the system works normally.

Requirements: System configuration administrators must have professional knowledge of basic telecommunication theories, be expert in component of EPON, and function of each component and full understanding of parameters and instruction code. They should be familiar with working principle of EPON system and can finish in short time the configuration of system parameters, and backup and upgrade of administration system. They should be able to shoot the trouble quickly when it happens and solve it quickly with Network Management Command Code. In case of failure in solving the problem with command code, analysis report on the trouble should be send to relative department in shortest time. System configuration administrators must be good at logic analysis, coordination and organization, accurate expression while also be rigorous, meticulous, and patient because this work requires technical skills and responsibility.

3) engineerings

Working content: projects technicians can be divided into two types based on their working object. One works on the daily maintenance of ODN, and locating and repairing of problems in ODN accident; the other works on the maintenance of user’s ONUs.

Requirements: Apart from knowledge of basic telecommunication theory, engineerings must also be familiar with standard connection steps and maintenance standard of passive parts in ODN network. They should be able to quickly complete the establishment of ODN network, and be expert in using optical testers and splicers so that they can quickly locate and fix the problem when it occurs. They should be familiar with operation and debug of ONU. They should have good logic reasoning ability and problem analysis and fixing ability and be rigorous, meticulous, and patient.

4) Log auditor

Working content: log auditor’s work can be divided into two types according to their job responsibility. One includes regular review of logs in network administration system, and audit on routine maintenance administrator and system configuration administrator’s work according to the records documented in logs. The other includes regular checking of ODN and maintenance of log documents, and audit on engineering’s work.

Requirement: Log auditors must have understanding of basic telecommunication theory, and must be familiar with the structure of the system and function of each part so that they can operate the system expertly. This log auditing is an important work. It’s recommend to appoint technical leaders as log auditors. They should have awareness of big picture and management ability and should be easy-going, rigorous, meticulous, and patient.

5) Quality inspector

Working content: according to quality standard documents and working content of above job, quality inspector shall following the inspection plan, conduct periodic inspection on routine maintenance administrators, system configuration administrators and log auditor’s work and then give report. If problems are found, disqualification report shall be submit with advise on solutions and time limits for correction.

Requirements: Quality inspector shall have good understanding of basic telecommunication theory, be familiar with the point to multi-points structure of the system and operation state and provisions in quality standard documents as well as in ISO 17025 standards. They should be able to do effective communication and have good vision of overall situations.

6) Quality standards and regulations administrator

Working content: The administrator have full responsibility of the establishment and operation of the quality standards and regulations; they are the organizer of the composing, proof reading, and amendment of the quality standards and regulation system; they make up the internal quality inspection plan, organize the inspection work and assessment work on the inspection work; they are fully responsible for organizing and managing work of quality inspection and quality assurance.

Requirements: The administrators should have very good understanding of basic telecommunication theory, be familiar with the running state of the whole system as well as the provisions in relevant regulations and ISO 17025 standards. The job shall be take by leaders in technical team. The administrators should have good overall vision, have good organizing ability and managing ability. They should also be rigorous, meticulous, and patient.

3. Standard program of repairing

Good routine maintenance work guarantees the maximum capacity of the system running. Factors like device quality, stability of power supply, nature conditions, man-made mistake, etc. will cause problems to the system and affect the system’s service business. To minimize the loss due to system faults and to ensure recovery of system in shortest time, telecommunication providers shall standard program of repairing.

Below preparation work shall be done in advance in case of urgent situation.

A. Install backup equipment so that when unrepairable malfunction happens, they can replace the malfunction equipment in shortest.

B. System configuration administrator shall regular back up network administrative system, so that recovery can be done in shortest time.

C. Engineers shall regularly check the usage of testing equipment, optical fiber fusion splicer and optical consumables, so that repairing working can be done without wasting time on preparation of these tools.

Program of fixing malfunction:

A. Pin down the origin of the malfunction. This is to know which department found and reported the malfunction. Malfunctions are usually reported by technician or users. Malfunction warnings in network administration system should be registered and reported by routine maintenance administrators. The report shall include occurring time, location, level of malfunction, etc., and should be sent to system configuration administrators for further analysis. If malfunctions are reported by users, user reception department shall do the reporting of the malfunction, which shall list the malfunction time, users address, user’s description of the malfunction, user’s contact, etc., and then send report to engineering technician department for further analysis.

B. Definition of malfunction level and time limit of fixing. Definition of malfunction level is artificial classification of malfunctions based on the extent and scale of their influence on current network service to make the response time limit and malfunction restoring time limit.

Level 1 malfunction. Current network shut down, or end user’s network service are severely influenced, for example, network unavailable or business interrupted.

Level 2 malfunction. Large decline occurred to the operational performance of current network, which poses critical impact on network service to end users.

Level 3 malfunction. Network operational performance is impaired, but the vast majority of users has normal network service, for example, network service is working properly, but administrators are unable to do remote configuration of certain network element through administrator system.

Responding time limit sets the max time it takes since the happening of malfunction to complete the report of it to upper administrators. If malfunction is reported by users, the time is calculated from the time of user’s reporting.

Recovery time limit sets the max time it takes since the report of malfunction to complete the restoring of the network.

Central network malfunction includes malfunctions happened to OLT equipment in Internet Data Center and backbone fiber optic cable connecting OLT in the Internet Data Center and the ODN network. Uses’ malfunction includes malfunctions happen to the ONU equipment and the optical distribution network close to user’s end. Generally, the restoring should be completed within time limit as shown in below table.

C. Standards practice of malfunction restoring and repairing.

Malfunction found by technicians. After finding malfunctions in their responsible network. Routine maintenance administrators shall report the malfunction to system configuration administrator covering the happening time, location, malfunction type and level and reporter’s name. System configuration administrators analyze the malfunction and reckon the possible causes for the malfunction, and give feasible solutions for it. If the malfunction can be fixed by configuring parameters of the network, the restoring work shall be carried out immediately, and the cause and solutions shall be recorded to the malfunction history book. If the malfunction need to be processed by engineering technicians, system configuration administrators should reflect their judgement on the cause and solution on the malfunction in their report to engineering technicians with their signature, submit the malfunction history book to engineering technicians. Based on the report and malfunction history book from system configuration administrators, engineering technicians can do live test to fix the malfunction, then record the fixing in the malfunction history book.

Malfunction reported by users. After malfunctions are reported by users, submit to system configuration administrator shall be made according to user’s tel number with submitter’s signature. System configuration administrators should first confirm with routine maintenance administrators whether relevant warnings occur in the administration system. If warnings occurred, the system configuration administrators should rule out the causes and fix the problem according to above steps. If warning didn’t occur, system configuration administrators should work with engineering technicians to do live test and fix the problem, then record their activity in malfunction history book.

Note: If the malfunction can’t be solved by administrators, the provider shall contact equipment provider for support.

D. Confirmation of fixing of malfunction. After the fixing of malfunction, the system malfunction history book shall be reviewed and preserved by an independent staff. The purpose of review is to guarantee the truth and content completeness of the record, proper and timely handling of malfunction. The records is preserved in order to guarantee the traceability of the malfunction. If the malfunction is reported by users, telecommunication provider shall contact the user again to see whether the problem is solved and the contact details shall be saved.