Data model for Telecommunications Network Inventory

Release version: Washingtondc

Updated February 1, 2024

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Summary of Data model for Telecommunications Network Inventory

The data model for Telecommunications Network Inventory illustrates the relationships among network assets, infrastructure, and services, enabling organizations to provision new services, modify existing ones, maintain the network, and forecast growth. It captures details such as equipment configuration, port availability, and bandwidth allocations, which are essential for managing and maintaining network infrastructure.

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Key Features

Network Inventory Records: Store and track information about network assets, ensuring a comprehensive view of the infrastructure.
Extension Classes: Utilize the Network Inventory extension classes that enhance the CMDB, ensuring alignment with industry standards like TM Forum and MEF.
Network Site Records: Provide insights into the physical locations of network equipment, helping to monitor and manage network operations effectively.
Telecommunications Network Inventory Classes: Include various classes such as Network Site, Equipment Holder, and Telco Equipment, each serving specific purposes in managing network assets.

Key Outcomes

By implementing this data model, ServiceNow customers can efficiently manage their telecommunications networks, leading to improved service provisioning, enhanced visibility of network components, and better operational management. The model supports identifying network faults, optimizing service delivery, and facilitates automation in network design and creation.

The data model for Telecommunications Network Inventory displays the relationships between your network assets, infrastructure, and services. With this information, you can provision new services, modify existing services, maintain the network, and plan the forecast for the network growth in your organization.

Overview

The data model contains the details about your network assets, such as the elco equipment configuration data, port availability of a framework, and bandwidth allocations between your sites and services. This data model enables you to build, manage, maintain, and allocate the network infrastructure and services. Further, this data model provides a for the automation of design and creation of your network equipment and connections that support the customer service orders and internal network orders.

The assets, services, and the relationships of your network inventory defines the infrastructure of your telecommunications networks. With this information, you can plan and forecast your network. You can store the data of the asset in a network inventory record.

The Telecommunications Network Inventory application uses the Network Inventory extension classes that extend the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Configuration Item (CI) class hierarchy. These extensions enable the CMDB to store your network inventory information. Also, these extension classes provide the standardization and consistency that are aligned with the telecommunications industry standards bodies such as TeleManagement (TM) Forum and Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF). To learn more about the Network Inventory (NI) extension classes, see Telecommunications Network Inventory extension classes.

The following diagram shows the extension classes in the data model for the network inventory.

Infographic for network Inventory extension classes. For the details of extension classes, refer to the Network Inventory extension classes section. — Figure 1. Network Inventory data model

Network site and Network location

Network site records in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application provide information about the physical location of your network equipment and resources. You can use network site records to:

monitor from where your network connections originate and terminate
monitor the network centers, buildings, floors, and rooms where your network assets are located
track the operational status of your network sites
map your network sites in your service topology
link your physical locations to your network sites for a better visualization
Identify network faults and outages

A network site is a configuration item (CI) in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application that's derived from the equipment and connections within the network site, while a location is simply a physical address.

Telecommunications Network Inventory extension classes

The Telecommunications Network Inventory application uses the generic configuration item (CI) classes that extend the CMDB class hierarchy as shown in the following table. The following table describes the classes that are used within the application.

Table 1. Network Inventory (NI) extension classes
Telecommunications Network Inventory class	Extends generic CI class	Description
TNI CI Attributes [tni_entity]	Non-CI class	TNI CI Attributes record. Represents a collection of the common Telecommunications Network Inventory attributes. Use the TNI CI Attribute record to create the relevant common attributes relevant for Telecommunications Network Inventory and makes a relationship with the CI record. To learn more, see TNI CI Attributes form.
Network Site [cmdb_ci_ni_site]	Site [cmdb_ci_site]	Network Site. Captures and maintains the location-specific attributes for each network site, including the network centers, buildings, floors, and rooms where the equipment is located. The network site records enable you to view all the equipment at a location. You can filter the locations by the assigned type, role, or function categories. To learn more, see f1b3f2626d03129f81409b4bede27ed22bd1cadb.dita.
Equipment Holder [cmdb_ci_equipment_holder]	Hardware [cmdb_ci_hardware]	Equipment Holder Represents the physical units that contain the telecommunications equipment, including the cages, bays, cabinets, slots, and relay racks. An equipment holder can contain the other equipment holders. For example, the line-ups contain the individual relay racks and each relay rack contains the equipment shelves. Use the equipment holder records to track and manage your network assets. To learn more, see b2cfd5fdc294e4fee6e3e2572f23ddfd85b26448.dita. To learn more about the extension classes of the equipment holder, see Equipment holder extension classes.
Telco Equipment [cmdb_ci_ni_telco_equipment]	Network gear [cmdb_ci_netgear]	Telco Equipment Represents a device that provides the technical functionality in a network. Examples include the routers, modems, mobile devices, optical cables,relays, and switches. The equipment can have slots, cards, or ports. The equipment can exist within an equipment holder or by itself because not all equipment is rack mounted. Use the equipment record to track and manage the details of your telco equipment. To learn more, see Create a telecommunications equipment instance. To learn more about the equipment extension classes, see Equipment extension classes.
Network Interface [cmdb_ci_ni_interface]	Network Port [cmdb_ci_ni_network_port]	Network Interface Captures and maintains the equipment-specific attributes for the network interfaces. To learn more, see Define the network interface details.
Interface Card [cmdb_ci_interface_card]	Network gear [cmdb_ci_netgear]	Network Interface Card Represents the interface cards that are stored in a network. Cards can occupy more than one slot and can contain other cards. They can be the equipment ports that are physical or logical (virtual). Each port is assigned a bandwidth value. The bandwidths are consumed when you use the ports in the network design. To learn more, see Define the interface card details.
Physical Connection [cmdb_ci_ni_physical_link]	Network Link [cmdb_ci_network_link]	Physical Connection Represents the physical port connections on the interface cards in your network. To learn more, see Define the physical connection details.
Logical Connection [cmdb_ci_ni_logical_path]	Network Circuit [cmdb_ci_network_circuit]	Logical Connection Represents the logical or virtual port connections on the network interface cards. A logical connection typically represents the multiple physical connections on an interface card. To learn more, see Define the logical connection details.
Topology [cmdb_ci_topology]	Network Topology [cmdb_ci_network_topology]	Network Topology Represents the grouping of the network elements such as nodes (equipment), edges (connections), and termination points (interfaces), how they are organized and connected to each other. To learn more, see Visualization of network topology.