What is Fault Management?

What is fault management in telecom?

Fault management is the process of detecting, isolating, diagnosing and resolving faults across a telecommunications network and related systems. Its primary purpose is to 

1. Maintain network and service availability
2. Protect service quality and
3. Minimise disruption or performance degradation for customers

Within telecom OSS, fault management is one of the core assurance functions, alongside performance management and service quality monitoring. It also relies on network inventory, configuration management and workforce processes to provide a complete view of network and service health.

Several concepts are closely connected to fault management. Although they are sometimes used interchangeably, they represent different technical conditions, data records and operational activities:

• A log is a timestamped record generated by a network device, application or management system. Logs provide evidence such as authentication attempts, configuration commands, interface status changes or software errors. For example, a router log may record that an optical interface lost signal at 14:03
• An event is any detected change or occurrence in the network, whether or not it represents a condition of concern. Examples include a device restarting, a configuration being updated, an interface changing state or network utilisation crossing a predefined threshold
• An alarm is raised when an event suggests that attention may be required. For example, if an interface remains inactive for longer than an acceptable period, the monitoring system may generate a critical alarm for the network operations team
• A fault is the underlying technical problem responsible for one or more alarms. Several loss-of-connectivity alarms, for instance, may all be caused by a damaged fibre cable, a failed power supply or an incorrect network configuration
• An incident is an unplanned interruption or degradation of a network or service that needs to be restored. For example, if a fibre break disconnects several mobile base stations, the resulting service outage would be managed as an incident
• A ticket or trouble ticket is the operational record used to track work through to completion. An incident ticket may include the affected resources and services, severity, assigned team, actions taken, restoration time and resolution details. Tickets can also be created for problems, changes or field tasks
• A problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents, particularly when the cause is unknown, recurring or requires deeper investigation. For example, repeated router failures may be linked to overheating in a particular equipment cabinet or even a design defect on a device that warrants a recall. The immediate incidents can be resolved in parallel, while a separate problem record is used to identify and remove the recurring cause
• A change is a controlled modification to the network, system or configuration. A change may be introduced to resolve a fault, prevent recurrence of a problem or improve performance. Examples include replacing faulty hardware, updating software, rerouting traffic or correcting a configuration error

Together, these concepts can form a typical operational chain: logs provide technical evidence, events record changes, alarms flag conditions that may require attention, faults identify technical failures, incidents describe service disruption, tickets coordinate resolution, problem records investigate recurring or unknown causes and approved changes implement corrective action. However, in practice, they’re not always sequential. Operators may create and update several of these records in parallel.

How network fault monitoring detects problems

Network fault monitoring continuously observes equipment, applications and services across access, transport, core and cloud infrastructure.

Alarms may be generated by routers, switches, radio equipment, optical systems, servers, applications or environmental sensors. Common examples include equipment failures, power interruptions, signal loss, configuration errors and threshold breaches.

In a multi-vendor environment, alarms often arrive in different formats and use inconsistent terminology. The fault management platform therefore normalises them and enriches them with topology, location, equipment, service and customer context. This allows the OSS to understand not only what happened, but also which resources, services and customers may be affected.

 

The 8-step fault resolution process

1. Establish normal network behaviour - Operators need baselines for availability, latency, utilisation and error rates. These baselines make it easier to distinguish genuine faults from temporary fluctuations
2. Detect and collect fault events - The OSS or specialised Fault Management platform gathers alarms and events from network elements, probes / collectors, applications and service platforms
3.  Normalise and enrich alarms - Raw, vendor-specific messages are translated into a consistent format and enriched with network, service and customer data to ensure cross-domain coherence
4. Suppress duplicates and transient noise – Repeated, low priority or short-lived alarms are filtered so that operations teams are not distracted by non-actionable events
5. Correlate related events - Alarms are grouped according to timing, location, topology and dependency. This can reduce hundreds of symptoms to a small number of correlated alarm groups and, where service is affected, a single actionable incident
6.  Identify the root cause and assess impact - The system determines the likely originating fault and identifies the resources, services and customers that may be affected.
7. Resolve the fault to restore service - The incident must first be assigned to the correct team. Resolution may involve remote remediation, next-best action (NBA) decided, which may consist of a configuration change, equipment replacement or dispatching field personnel, amongst other possibilities
8. Verify recovery and prevent recurrence - The operator confirms that the network and affected services have returned to normal. The incident ticket is then updated and closed. If the cause is recurring or not fully understood, a problem record may be opened for further investigation. A knowledge record may also be created to assist / accelerate future diagnosis and resolution

Why alarm correlation is critical

A single physical failure can generate hundreds or even thousands of downstream alarms.

For example, a fibre break may cause multiple network elements to lose connectivity, trigger service failures and create alarms across several management systems. Without correlation, each alarm may appear to represent a separate fault or unrelated issue.

Topology and dependency data allow the OSS to recognise that these alarms share a common cause. Instead of investigating every symptom, the operations team can focus on the damaged fibre route.

This makes accurate Network Inventory data essential. Operators often need to understand how equipment, links, locations and services are connected before they can identify root causes reliably.

SunVizion Network Inventory Management provides a centralised view of network resources and relationships that can support faster diagnosis.

 

How automation improves fault management

Network automation can accelerate every stage of the fault resolution process.

Alarms can be validated, classified and correlated automatically. Known fault patterns can trigger incident creation, escalation or remediation workflows without waiting for manual intervention. Automated next-best action identification can also help initiate remediation workflows.

Integration with configuration data can help operators identify unauthorised modifications, configuration deviations or failed implementations of approved changes. SunVizion Network Configuration Manager supports control and visibility across network configurations.

When physical work is required, automated workflows can also route tasks to the correct field team. SunVizion Workforce helps coordinate assignments, resources and field activities.

Automation does not remove people from fault management. It reduces repetitive analysis and gives specialists more time to investigate complex faults, assess customer impact and implement permanent solutions.

Turning network alarms into action

Effective fault management in OSS connects network monitoring with inventory, service data, configuration control and operational workflows.

The objective of Fault Management is not to collect more alarms, but to determine which conditions matter, what caused them, who is affected and what action should follow. Accurate network data and coordinated OSS assurance functions can reduce alarm noise, improve root cause analysis and shorten service restoration times.

To explore how SunVizion can support network visibility and more effective fault resolution, visit:

https://www.sunvizion.com/contact