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Network Operations Management-Back on Track
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Integrating OMS and mobile enabled WMS: Synergies and challenges
Integration Strategies
The following case histories, compares and contrasts two different integration scenarios. The
advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed, and conclusions and recommendations are
presented.
Case 1 : Integration of Smallworld PowerOn 1.5 with MDSI Advantex
PowerOn is a constraint based object oriented outage management system, which sits on top of
Smallworld GIS. The MDSI Advantex system is a transaction based MWMS systems. Both systems
offer APIS and mechanisms for integration that are IPC based.
Tasks:
- A C language sockets based broker/listener program was written to handle the transaction traffic
between Advantex and PowerOn.
- A SW Magik transaction engine was written to accept and process incoming and outgoing
transactions from PowerOn
Results:
- A large number of transaction types were addressed/supported. This allowed for a moderately
high degree of integration between the two systems.
- Working at the IPC socket level means that the programmers must take into account low level
details that are addressed by newer technologies.
Case 2: Integration of Smallworld PowerOn2.5 with MDSI RM
In this case the major difference was the adoption of MQ series as the messaging component. Also the
system utilized 3 standard message types which in turn broke down into 10 transaction based on status
information.
Tasks:
- A ProC MQ Series compliant listener program to handle message traffic between the MQ and
the Oracle DB.
- A SW engine to process messages incoming and outgoing messages stored in the Oracle DB.
Results:
- Utilizing MQ eliminates the need for the programmer to worry about low level details. Message
delivery and availability is guaranteed.
- Fewer number of transactions means that the systems are not tightly coupled and could more
easily get out of sync. This could be remedied by ‘enriching the message content’ (i.e. support
for more error codes, status codes etc.)
Conclusions
The following lists some useful observations and guidelines for the prospective integrator.
- Relying on technology such as messaging will be very helpful in that the programmer need not
worry about low level details, however, other factors may dictate what technology and tools are
available for the job
- Integrated systems that support a large number of transactions may appear to be desirable
however they will require longer time to implement, test and deploy.
- A message based integration effort offers additional flexibility in that the informational content
of messages (status codes) can be modified without incurring the additional overhead of
supporting new transaction types.
- Good design practices are essential when specifying transaction between systems. Semantic
differences between the two systems could have undesirable side effects. Utilizing design
techniques such as state transition diagrams and use cases can be very helpful.
- The importance of thorough testing cannot be overstated. Begin testing early and often. Test
while development is ongoing and preferably against the actual systems and not stubbed
functions or simulators if possible.
References
- Gunton, N., SOAP: Simplifying Distributed Development, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, #328, September 2001,
pp 89-95.
- Hume, R., Short Message Services Dr. Dobb’s Journal, #329, October 2001,pp 62-70
- MDSI, Wireless Enablement 101 for Service-Oriented Companies, April 2001, 4p
- MDSI, Wireless Empowerment and Single Source Simplicity,April 2001,11pp
- Motorola, 1995, Wireless Data Communications: An Overview, 16 p.
- Motorola, 1995, Wireless Data Communications: The Choices, 27 p.
- Olofson, C.W., Kusnetzky D, and Hwang D., 1997, Putting the Enterprise in the Palm of Your Hand:
Occasionally Connected Database Technology from Sybase: An IDC White Paper, 98 p.
- Schultz, T., Mobile Geospatial Applications a New GIS Paradigm, GITA Annual Conference XXXIII,
March 2000,9p
- Sessions, R., 1998, COM and DCOM: Microsoft’s Vision for Distributed Objects, 492 p.
- Shapiro, A. L., 1996, The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and
changing the World, 284 p
- Wireless Application Protocol Architecture Specification, WAP-210-WAPARch-20010712,
- Wong, H., Jini and Network-Enabled Devices: Dr. Dobb’s Journal, #301, July 1999,pp 21-25.
- Wood, D.,1992, The Power of Maps, 248p.
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