Field officers, technicians, maintenance staff and supervisors from carriers, contractors or other service providers apply the skills and knowledge in this unit. It applies to maintenance staff who are responsible for monitoring equipment rooms, having both physical access to local alarms and remote access to alarms where the equipment is externally located.

ELEMENT

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

1. Plan response to network alarm

1.1. Determine alarm severity and specific network elements affected from presentation of alarm

1.2. Assess the likely impact to the client and network of the alarm

1.3. Notify the NOC and other relevant parties of alarm condition

1.4. Prioritise the actioning of alarms according to existing service level agreement obligations and enterprise policy

1.5. Assess the impact of any outage issues and major customers affected

1.6. Provide information to and seek advice from other relevant parties in identifying the problem and cause of the alarm condition

1.7. Diagnose the likely cause of the alarm condition using established methodical strategies

1.8. Escalate diagnosis to higher level fault clearance unit according to enterprise policy where necessary

2. Arrange rectification of network problem

2.1. Implement enterprise policy relating to outages as required

2.2. Rectify network problems when appropriate capability and time constraints can be met

2.3. Enact escalation procedures according to enterprise policy

2.4. Make available all alarm data and diagnosis to other areas with responsibility and jurisdiction for network restoration

2.5. Provide clear and concise instructions to field staff to facilitate all repair efforts

2.6. Monitor the progress of the network repair effort

2.7. Apply enterprise policy in relation to alarms requiring no further action

3. Complete alarm clearance tasks

3.1. Reset alarms following network restoration

3.2. Notify all relevant parties of problem rectification

3.3. Undertake appropriate cause and effect studies to prevent re-occurrence of problem

3.4. Complete administrative tasks and recommend any changes required by the enterprise quality assurance system

Required skills

analytical skills to review alarm information and make judgments to inform operational decisions

communication skills to provide advice and guidance to others and to liaise with technical personnel working across different levels and in different contexts

initiative and enterprise skills to identify improvements to alarm resolution and troubleshooting

learning skills to keep up to date with new technology

literacy skills to read complex technical data and procedures

numeracy skills to interpret levels, readings and numerical data

problem solving skills to address complex problems from a remote location

research skills to source technical information from enterprise website or manufacturer's technical documentation

technical skills to undertake diagnosis and repairs on a range of networks

Required knowledge

escalation procedures

installed telecommunications systems and equipment

path protection

telecommunications networks

test equipment and test procedures

typical problems and challenges that arise in NOCs and in the field

typical systems and procedures

The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit

Evidence of the ability to:

monitor and analyse a range of network alarms including use of fault history and ranking of likely causes

undertake and monitor network repairs

plan and coordinate the actioning of network alarms.

Context of and specific resources for assessment

Assessment must ensure:

sites on which local and remote monitoring and analysis of network alarms may be conducted

manufacturer's technical documentation.

Method of assessment

A range of assessment methods should be used to assess practical skills and knowledge. The following examples are appropriate for this unit:

direct observation of the candidate performing remote diagnosis of network alarms, ranging from common to complex

direct observation of the candidate preparing an action plan in response to a range of network alarms

oral or written questioning of required knowledge.

Guidance information for assessment

Holistic assessment with other units relevant to the industry sector, workplace and job role is recommended, for example:

ICTTEN4081A Locate, diagnose and rectify faults

ICTTEN4086A Undertake routine maintenance of the telecommunications network

ICTTEN4087A Undertake remote diagnosis and repair of network faults.

Aboriginal people and other people from a non-English speaking background may have second language issues.

Access must be provided to appropriate learning and assessment support when required.

Assessment processes and techniques must be culturally appropriate, and appropriate to the oral communication skill level, and language and literacy capacity of the candidate and the work being performed.

In all cases where practical assessment is used it will be combined with targeted questioning to assess required knowledge. Questioning techniques should not require language, literacy and numeracy skills beyond those required in this unit of competency.

Where applicable, physical resources should include equipment modified for people with special needs.

The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.

Alarm may include:

computer screen alarm information sourced from network management system

physical indicator lamps on:

equipment circuit cards

equipment rooms

racks

subracks

suites.

Network elements may include:

equipment utilised in the following networks:

cellular

data

fixed radio

hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC)

mobile radio

satellite

voice.

Impact may include:

customer impact:

degradation of service

disruption of service to residential customers

intermittent performance

loss of revenue to an enterprise customer

loss of service to an enterprise customer

network impact:

congestion

drop out

excessive latency

limited coverage

no transmission

poor grade of service

poor signal quality

routing problems.

NOC may include:

engineering unit within a carrier responsible for:

coordinating repairs or changes to the network

monitoring the network

performing diagnostic tests.

Relevant parties may include:

customer

design engineer

NOC

on site technical staff

other installations sharing same network traffic

project manager

specialist technical support staff.

Outage may include:

loss of service to customers due to a network fault or upgrade

planned, in the case of network upgrades or unplanned in relation to faults.

Methodical strategies may relate to:

analysing test results and previous fault history

conducting tests

coordinating the actions of upstream and downstream maintenance personnel

isolating fault progressively to eliminate probable causes

reloading software

remotely interrogating hardware

scheduling diagnosis for low traffic times

substituting hardware.

Escalation procedures may include:

greater involvement from the NOC

progressive shifting of network restoration responsibility to more capable areas.

Administrative tasks may include:

checking correct labelling of all equipment and amending where required

completing job orders and submitting to appropriate enterprise organisational unit

completing test sheets according to specification and logging test instrument usage

following quality control procedures

handing over installation briefs, documents and equipment manuals to operational staff

recording test results and updating appropriate databases

updating design specifications and returning to design area as required by enterprise requirements.

Quality assurance may include:

acting on logs, reports and other data to guide ongoing quality improvements

updating logs and reporting on installation or maintenance activities.

Unit sector

Telecommunications

Telecommunications networks engineering

This unit contains employability skills.