The present invention relates to the exchange of message traffic between components in a network and, more particularly, to the exchange of messages between components of a complex system such as an operational support system in a communication network.
As complex converged telecommunication networks designed to provide a wide range of services to customers become more prevalent and grow in size, the need for ensuring the accurate exchange of information between the components of those systems becomes ever more important. For example, operational support systems (OSSs) in telecommunication systems have many different elements that require frequent updates and improvements when new services are introduced to customers. As used herein, the term Operational Support System is defined as a system performing support functions, such as order management, design and engineering, carrier interconnection, service provisioning, inventory, service activation, billing, customer care and service assurance functions for a telecommunication service provider and its associated networks. One skilled in the art will recognize that OSS systems may perform a variety of different functions.
Typically, in such OSSs, the components performing these functions are able to interact directly with each other and various other components and networks and also must be able to accept input from and provide information to external elements, such as sales, engineering and technician personnel. Accordingly, such systems are complex and require careful configuration control. Typically, such systems are designed with interfaces and data input/output designs tailored specifically to particular components and specific applications hosted by those components. Accordingly, inserting a new component of a system, such as a billing component or other component, or otherwise reconfiguring the network in any way to add or remove applications hosted by such components, is expensive due to the fact that such reconfiguration typically required complex integration activities to allow message traffic to flow between proprietary interfaces.