Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications > Setting Up Network Ordering >

About Network Ordering

The network order entry process is used to configure products that are too large to be configured in real time with Siebel Configurator.

Large telecommunications networks might have 500 nodes and 1,000 connections, with each of these components having about 30 attributes.

Siebel Configurator can be used for small telecommunications networks, up to about one-hundredth of the size mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, Configurator validates configuration in real time, and configuring large networks requires so much processing that real-time validation is not possible.

Network order entry solves this problem by:

• Partitioning the network into a number of components.
• Using Configurator to validate configuration of individual components in real time.
• Using the Compound Product Validation Engine to validate cross-component rules only at key times, such as when the user clicks the Validate button.

For example, Figure 39 illustrates part of a network that uses a frame relay as its network product and several ports and PVCs as its components. The network and its components are all defined as separate products. A foreign key field in the component products relates them to the network product. Configurator can be used to validate the configuration of the individual network product and component products. The Compound Product Validation Engine validates the network across products.

Figure 39. A Network and Its Components Are All Defined As Separate Products

The Compound Product Validation Engine validates the network across components by applying rules, such as:

• A multipoint service must have at least two Ports and at least one PVC.
• There can only be one connection between any two Ports.
• The To and From Ports for a connection must exist in the multipoint service.
• The sum of the bandwidth attribute for all PVCs connected to a Port cannot exceed the speed attribute of the Port.

Network order entry partitions the network into multiple components:

• Siebel Configurator handles intra-component validation rules.
• Business services handle validation rules for the entire multi-component network. These business services are run by workflows that can be customized.