Network engineering staff who coordinate fault rectification and restoration of service following network outages apply the skills and knowledge in this unit.

This unit applies to network engineers, managers or senior operational staff who have high level technical skills and appropriate authority to coordinate the activities of maintenance personnel. It addresses compliance issues associated with service level agreements.

ELEMENT

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

1. Prepare for restoration of client services

1.1. Evaluate relevant data to determine the nature of the fault and the extent of the outage

1.2. Assess impact of the fault on network and clients and establish priority of actions to be taken

1.3. Analyse alarm and other network data and record the details according to contractual agreements and enterprise policy

1.4. Prepare an action plan to manage the fault rectification and restoration to minimise impact on the network and affected customer

1.5. Provide a central point for all rectification and restoration activity and information to coordinate action and progress

1.6. Prioritise service restoration based on assessment of contractual arrangements, including service level agreements with clients

1.7. Negotiate with client's account manager regarding repair arrangements where service level agreements cannot be met

2. Implement action plan for fault rectification and service restoration

2.1. Notify all relevant personnel and departments involved in the outage according to enterprise policy

2.2. Isolate affected alarms and monitor all associated alarms to confirm no additional problems occur

2.3. Locate and rectify fault following action plan backed up by contingency plan according to enterprise policy

2.4. Manage repair activity with appropriate technical support and adjust resource allocations or escalate if required to ensure effective restoration of network services within a specified timeline

2.5. Reset alarms and restore services to normal network configuration

2.6. Test and monitor network activity upon recovery to certify effective fault clearance and service restoration

3. Finalise administrative tasks

3.1. Complete administrative tasks according to enterprise instructions

3.2. Notify customers of fault rectification and service restoration according to service level agreement

Required skills

analytical skills to interpret test equipment settings and readings

communication skills to liaise and negotiate with clients and internal staff to ensure requirements are known and can be met within specified timeframes

literacy skills to read and interpret technical specifications and related documentation

PC skills to communicate with network and enterprise database

planning and organisational skills to ensure timely updates and information are communicated to appropriate parties

problem solving skills to account for unexpected faults or equipment incompatibilities

research skills to gain and maintain relevant and current technical product knowledge

technical skills to operate and configure equipment

Required knowledge

alarm conditions and the areas of the network or service they impact

connections to carrier infrastructure or equipment

customer care policies

electrical and optical principles

escalation procedures and appropriate tier level contacts

legislation and licensing surrounding installation of telecommunications equipment

network and transmission equipment

occupational health and safety (OHS) requirements and work practices relevant to fault rectification

power requirements and electrical safety

protection switching

telecommunications applications and related equipment

test equipment

transmission hierarchy and switching principles

typical performance parameters and faults that may be encountered

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:

prepare an action plan to manage fault rectification and service restoration

coordinate implementation of action plan and manage repair activities

apply escalation procedures.

Context of and specific resources for assessment

Assessment must ensure:

sites where fault rectification and restoration of service may be conducted

use of testing equipment currently used in industry

manufacturer's and enterprise 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 planning and conducting coordination tasks for fault rectification

review of service restoration plans completed by the candidate

oral or written questioning to assess required knowledge.

Guidance information for assessment

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

ICTTEN6045A Implement planned network changes with minimal impact to the customer.

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.

Relevant data may include:

alarm urgency

client reports

environmental factors

historical data

industry and vendor

network operations centre (NOC) reports

service level degradation

technical reports

test results from remote interrogation.

Nature of the fault may include:

distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack

failure of transmission equipment

fibre cut

radio frequency interference

return path amplifier failure in hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network

satellite transponder failure

uninterruptible power supply (UPS) failure.

Impact may include:

customer impact:

disruption of service to residential customers

intermittent performance

loss of service and revenue to an enterprise

network impact:

call drop out

congestion

errors

excessive latency

limited mobile phone coverage

no transmission

poor grade of service (GoS)

poor signal quality

routing problems.

Details may include:

duration of outage

geographical footprint of service problems

initial time of outage

outcome of automatic switch-over to standby equipment

services impacted.

Action plan may include:

contingency plan

engage additional services

engage additional technical support

manual switchover to redundant path

monitor and amend procedures

provision of standby equipment.

Central point may include:

network operations centre

network operations manager

outage coordinator.

Service level agreements may include:

amount of scheduled maintenance

compensation

guaranteed uptime

levels of availability

performance

technical response to faults.

Relevant personnel and departments may include:

client

design engineer

NOC

on site technical staff

other installations sharing same network traffic

project manager

specialist technical support staff.

Outage may be:

planned outage in the case of network upgrade

unplanned outage as a result of a network failure or emergency disruption to service.

Escalate may refer to:

greater involvement from the NOC specialist personnel

requesting vendor specialist technical support.

Test and monitor may include:

alarm monitoring

congestion activity report

fault incidence report

network management report

traffic flow measurements.

Administrative tasks may include:

analysing trending data

completing test sheets

logging test instrument usage

recording problems identified during repair process

undertaking cause and effect studies

updating database or system log with repair details.

Unit sector

Telecommunications

Telecommunications networks engineering

This unit contains employability skills.