First Advisor

Blake, Brad

College

College for Professional Studies

Degree Name

MS Software Engineering

School

School of Computer & Information Science

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Number of Pages

143 pages

Abstract

The billing system is a critical component in a Telecommunications service provider's suite of business support systems - without the billing system the provider cannot invoice their customers for services provided and therefore cannot generate revenue. Typically billing systems are hosted on a single large Unix/Oracle system located in the company's data centre. Modern Unix servers with their redundant components and hot swap parts are highly resilient and can provide levels of availability when correctly installed in properly managed data centre with uninterruptible power supplies, cooling etc. High Availability clustering through the use of HP MC/ServiceGuard, Sun Cluster, IBM HACMP (High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing) or Oracle Clusterware/RAC (Real Application clusters) can bring this level of availability even higher. This approach however can only protect against the failure of a single server or component of the system, it cannot protect against the loss of an entire data centre in the event of a disaster such as a fire, flood or earthquake. In order to protect against such disasters it is necessary to provide some form of backup system on a site sufficiently remote from the primary site so that it would not be affected by any disaster, which might befall the primary site. This paper proposes a cost effective business continuity solution to protect a Telecommunications Billing system from the effects of unplanned downtime due to server or site outages. It is aimed at the smaller scale tier 2 and tier 3 providers such as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and startup Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) who are unlikely to have large established IT systems with business continuity features and for whom cost effectiveness is a key concern when implementing IT systems.

Date of Award

Fall 2008

Location (Creation)

Colorado (state); Denver (county); Denver (inhabited place)

Rights Statement

All content in this Collection is owned by and subject to the exclusive control of Regis University and the authors of the materials. It is available only for research purposes and may not be used in violation of copyright laws or for unlawful purposes. The materials may not be downloaded in whole or in part without permission of the copyright holder or as otherwise authorized in the “fair use” standards of the U.S. copyright laws and regulations.

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