High-speed Conversion Accelerates DSL Services

He recently led a Telcordia team on a project for Verizon to convert 15,000 fast-packet data circuits — representing $100 million worth of billing — in a single weekend. The conversion would enable Verizon customers in New Jersey to receive advanced digital subscriber line (DSL) services — which allow you to download data from the Internet at very high speeds (up to 45-million bits per second) while talking on the same "phone" line.

The effort required 1,600 steps, including such things as backing up systems, extracting data and loading it into a master file.

After completing the 1,600 steps, Telcordia sent all the fast-packet data to its network configuration manager system (which links next-generation networks and automates their management) and the data was automatically integrated with a DSL network during the live cutover. This helped activate the advanced services, such as DSL Business and DSL Gold, in the New Jersey "footprint."

Telcordia achieved 98% efficiency on the conversion. In fact, the effort was "the best work ever on any conversion to date," according to Christine Ivers, Verizon's program manager on the project. This initiative will help Verizon compete against cable and other companies in providing fast Internet access services.

Everything was coordinated precisely within the Telcordia team and with Verizon. A few surprises on the project involved data configurations that were not expected in the embedded systems and required innovative approaches to ensure the data would be carried over successfully into the new systems.

Telcordia also jointly developed a strategy with Verizon to help ensure that pending orders for advanced services would not get lost during the transition. This involved marking and tracking the service orders, and then later staging a mini-conversion to pick up all the information in the orders and integrate it into the new system.

Today, Verizon has a system that enables its New Jersey customers to receive advanced DSL services. Telcordia and SAIC are also helping replace one of Verizon's systems by putting data stored in a maintenance system into the network configuration manager system.

Telcordia has the capability to move telco data from system to system almost flawlessly. It can extract, manipulate, and load data in a different format successfully. The data migration work done at Verizon can be applied to any discipline since data is universal. So, whether circuit information, medical information, or oil reserve data is being moved, the same procedures apply.