Hughes Europe Network Operations

The Hughes Europe Network Operations team is based out of our purpose built NOC in Griesheim Germany, with a resilient Satellite back-up NOC in Fucino Italy. The NOCs are connected to the Hughes European network management backbone with redundant high speed links connecting through two Hughes POPs in London, two in Frankfurt, and another in Warsaw, Poland. The Hughes European backbone further connects redundant high speed Internet breakouts in both London and Frankfurt as well as redundant connection into different Telco backbone infrastructure in multiple countries for the provision of DSL private networks.

Our network monitoring management has been designed with two independent global monitoring systems for redundant data collection, two independent access points to all core devices for increased monitoring availability and resilient global and local authentication systems for secure device and network access. The Hughes European NOC provides three different services:

1. Hub & Network Engineering - Network Design, Test, Evaluation, Release Deployment, Capacity and Security Management and Availability & Business Continuity Management

2. NMC - Network Incident Management, Monitoring, Tool Administration, Change Management, Problem Management

3. Service Desk - 1st/2nd level Helpdesk, IMACs, Dispatches, Request Fulfilment, Reporting

Change Management (Controlling Progress) - Designed to minimise service downtime during changes through centralized platform for all IT changes within the company. Change management is controlled by a dedicated Change Manager and CAB meetings and performed using standardised methods and procedures. There is permanent communication with all stakeholders involved in any change with all CI changes reflected in our configuration management systems.

Event Management (Taking the Pulse of the Networks) - The status of the entire HNS infrastructure is permanently monitored with data collected in real-time from both central NOC devices, as well as from each individual VSAT, DSL or 3G/4G device. All events are analysed and evaluated by automated tools in real-time with events outside the agreed thresholds generating exceptions, which are propagated as alarms to the central monitoring system. Each alarm is evaluated by a human operator and processed according to the agreed procedures for resolution. Real-time graphic tool for network performance monitoring and the ability to gather historical data provides trend analysis.

Incident Management (Minimising Downtime) - Designed to restore service as quickly as possible. Troubleshooting is supported by dedicated procedures and tools alongside 24/7 on-call engineering for 2nd and 3rd level support. All incidents are centrally logged and tracked through their entire lifecycle with a clear technical and management escalation scheme in place based on incident impact. All incidents are periodically reviewed by a dedicated team to evaluate troubleshooting efficiency and improve the process. Incidents can be reported by an internal monitoring systems for event management via our online ServiceNow ticketing system or via Phone or Email. 

Problem Management (Finding the Root Cause) - Designed to avoid recurring incidents. All problems are logged and documented in the dedicated HNS Problem Management System. Engineering teams are automatically involved whenever a problem record is created by the Service Desk with the resolution either a permanent fix or a workaround published in our knowledge base for future reference. Our change management process is involved to implement required fixes to minimise or prevent any network downtime. The problem management process provides vital feedback to the Hughes Europe design teams for improving future solutions and products.

Custom Solutions – In addition to our standard tools Hughes Europe can build a customer solution to meet individual company needs using In-house designed tools for monitoring, troubleshooting, administration and communications. Information is collected in real-time from network devices or terminals with data statistically processed and aggregated. Information is presented in a user-friendly way through a single interface for monitoring, troubleshooting and administration. Custom-built dashboards can be individually designed to statistically aggregate complex data from large number of sites or devices.