Wednesday April 11,  8:30 – 5:00pm

The focus for the majority of this month's meeting was the impact of NPAC Release 3.0 software on incumbent LEC SOAs.

The NPAC/SOA interface inadequacy is not a new problem, but the problem has worsened markedly with the NPAC's improved handling of "range" transactions in Release 3.0. The result is compression of time periods during which range operations are processed at NPAC and the resulting notification messages become ready for broadcast processing, for delivery to the involved SOAs. That is, the broadcast itself is no faster; it is the interval from receipt at NPAC of range operation to preparation of notification messages ready for broadcast to SOA this is shorter. Thus backlogs are much larger under release 3.0 than with release 2.0 and other "work" can be caught behind much larger queues. The problem shows up at the incumbent LEC's SOA because, unlike a CLEC's SOA, the incumbent LEC is involved in most ports.

Short Term Solutions - Release "3.1"

Bundle range operation's notification messages themselves into a range

NANC 179 changes the current practice of sending notification messages even for range operations as individual per-TN notification messages. About half the TNs ported involve ranges (about 3-4 percent of the operations are ranges), so this change would cut the notification message volume nearly in half. Neustar has explained that while this is a fairly significant change, they will attempt to bundle it with the other change orders in release 3.1, to be available in early 4q01, rather than building it in a separate 3.2 release which probably could not be implemented until 1q02.

Reduce or delay notification message traffic

NANC 329 allows notifications messages to be handled on SPID-specific basis. The sorting is done based on the type of notification and based on the trigger for that notification. The sorting allows notifications to be turned off, or, if left on, to be delivered based on priority selected. The on-off toggle is expected to be SPID-specific, but the prioritization is expected to be used at regional level. While an individual SPID can have unique set of prioritization choices, different from the region's overall choices, this will be discouraged because of the administrative complexity. By assigning only certain notifications -- such as when other SP creates a pending SV -- there will be no perceived delay in working with other SP to allow "same day" port. (This is case where CLEC has asked incumbent to do immediate create (concurrence), but incumbent is waiting for indication that new SP create has been done. Today with release 3.0, the new SP create notification to the old SP is caught behind backup of notification messages awaiting broadcast.)

A downside of this proposal is that it complicates recovery process for an SP who's SOA goes off-line. The SP is required to specify time-period for recovered data; it will be unclear how long a period must be specified since there may have been undelivered notifications before the SP's SOA when off-line. This remains open item for discussion.

Eliminate auto-cancel when new SP Create not received by before T2 expires

NANC 240 eliminates the current process of automatically canceling a pending SV when only old SP create has been received when T2 timer expires. This will eliminate need to start over when CLEC has not intended that the port be canceled so has modest reduction in message traffic. Real reason this is being proposed is to improve the Operations situation; the message traffic reduction is a second-order effect. The auto cancel message no longer is needed and is replaced with T2 timer expiration notification message. This is one of the notifications, incidentally, that can be turned off/prioritized by NANC 329.

Allow a Create message to use due date that has passed

NANC 294 will allow concurrence with a past due date. Most immediate impact is avoiding the confusion with SPs using local time and NPAC processes using GMT which occurs on the final six hours or so of the due day. Like NANC 240, this change reduces need to regenerate Create messages but its main impact is on operations personnel; the message traffic reduction is a second-order effect.

Unrelated Change Order in Release 3.1

A change order unrelated to the NPAC/SOA interface issue, NANC 328, provides for expansion of tunable due date/times needed by wireless industry in 2002. This change order will be included in release 3.1 as well.

Plans to Compete the Change Order Work

Neustar plans to issue drafts of these change orders by June 22nd, for discussion by conference call on June 28th. Final review of the change orders will be done at the July meeting in Ottawa. Regional priority default values for each notification message is to be determined at the July meeting as well.

Long Term Solution

Change interface specification to substantially increase required SOA-NPAC transmission rate, currently listed as two TNs per second. A substantial increase is required because of incumbent SOA involvement in a disproportionate fraction of ports. The NPAC/SOA broadcast rate must be high enough to be consistent with NPAC/LSMS interface rate, today specified as 25 TNs per second (albeit temporarily superseded by Master Contract Exhibit N which permits lower NPAC/LSMS rate provided it is sufficient to meet industry demand). Discussion of this will begin at next month's LNPA-WG meeting in Ottawa. An interface change affects the carriers' systems too, so actual implementation of new NPAC/SOA interface specification appears literally years away.

Thursday April 12, 2001, 8:00 – 12:00 pm

Change Order 240

Documentation provided by Jean Anthony. Review of changes to change order from May meeting.

            Action Item: New T2 timer associated with requirement 1 (Final Create Window Expiration Notification) will be added to notification list by Neustar and the list republished.

            CO 240 considered final after discussion. Changes will be redistributed.

New Business:

            1)  Future Meeting Situation

Neustar will determine and provide information next month on location for October meeting.

2)       MINIMUM CONNECTIVITY

Rob Coffman asked if there were any additional questions or concerns regarding the requirements. There were no additional questions therefore no need for a follow call. If any member has any concerns please pass to Charles Ryburn and he will forward those concerns to Neustar. Any concerns must be in by August 1, 2001.

NPAC 3.0 Conversion Plan - Backout             

No outstanding questions for a continued discussion on the backout plan, Neustar has a write up on the conversion plan and steps that can be requested from Charles Ryburn.

NANC Report: To be reported at next month

PIM Update.

Short and long term 3.0 solutions

Next Meetings … July 10 - 12 

Canadian Consortium,  Ottawa CA2001 meeting schedule:  

LNPA WG:                                Host:                                                   

July 10 – 12                               Canadian Consortium, Ottawa

August 14 - 16                           AT&T, Seattle                                       

September 11 - 13                     Verizon, Baltimore                                

October 9 – 11                           SBC, San Antonio

November 13 - 15                       Neustar, New Orleans

December 11 – 13                      Qwest, Phoenix