Frameworx Shared Information/Data Model

Shared Information/Data Model or SID is a unified reference data model providing a single set of terms for business objects in telecommunications. The objective is to enable people in different departments, companies or geographical locations to use the same terms to describe the same real world objects, practices and relationships.

The TeleManagement Forum's Frameworx Shared Information/Data (SID) model provides the telecommunications industry with a common vocabulary and set of information/data definitions and relationships used in the definition of NGOSS architectures, now known as Frameworx. The SID is an object model, which uses Unified Modeling Language (UML), a data and process modelling language, to define entities and define the relationships between them, as well as the attributes and processes (termed methods) which make up the entity or object.

The SID, as the Frameworx information model, provides an information/data reference model and a common information/data vocabulary from a business as well as a systems perspective. The SID uses UML to formalize the expression of the needs of a particular stakeholder viewpoint.

The SID provides the common language for communicating the concerns of the four major groups of constituents (stakeholders) represented by the Frameworx Viewpoints - Business, System, Implementation and Deployment, as defined in the NGOSS Lifecycle. Used in combination with the eTOM business process and activity descriptions and the Telecom Application Map (TAM) the SID make it possible to bridge between the business and Information Technology groups within an organization by providing definitions that are understandable by the business, but are also rigorous enough to be used for software development.

The SID model takes inspiration from a wide variety of industry sources, but its principal origins are the Alliance Common Information Architecture (ACIA) created by a team led by Bill Brook from AT&T and BT and the Directory Enabled Networks - next generation (DEN-ng) model created by John Strassner.

When initially released in 2000, the SID model covered the business (BSS) arena well, and also the device management field well, but was insufficient in its ability to represent logical networks and capacity. These deficiencies are being addressed through revision of the model to include concepts such as topologies, but the history has resulted in poor utilisation of the model in certain telecom fields, notably inventory management.

Domains

There are a number of domains referenced in the SID-model:

ABEs: Competitor, Market Segment, Market Strategy Plan, Marketing Campaign, Sales Channel
ABEs: Product, Product Offering, Product Specification, Product Usage, Strategic Product Portfolio Plan
ABEs: Applied Customer Billing Rate, Customer, Customer Bill, Customer Interaction, Customer Order, Customer Problem, Customer Service Level Agreement, Customer Statistic
ABEs: QoS Service, Service Bundle, Service Business, Service Level Specification, Service Maintenance, Service Management, Service Order, Service Package, Service Role, Service Specification, Service Specification Role, Service Usage
ABEs: Resource, Resource Management, Resource Order, Resource Role Specification, Resource Specification, Resource Usage, Value Network Role Entities
ABEs: Supplier/Partner, S/P Interaction, S/P Order, S/P Bill, S/P Payment, S/P Plan, S/P Product, S/P SLA
ABEs: Agreement, Base Types, Business Interaction, Location, Party, Policy, Project, Root Business Entities, Time, Trouble Ticket, Usage
ABEs: Enterprise Risk, Process, Process Definition

References

The TMF Reference page: [1]