Interconnect Gateway Platforms Can Help Just as equipment suppliers replaced device-specific supervisory systems with generic element managers, built upon network management development platforms, so too can CLECs leverage the emerging crop of interconnect development platforms. They can extract the content conveyed by each transport and map between data formats, and perhaps already know the formats employed by common ILEC systems and databases. Transaction logs, audit trails, and appropriate security measures for authentication, message integrity, data privacy, and non-repudiation of transactions. The ability to run on reliable, scalable computing platforms. Or at least that's the objective.
Interconnect gateway platforms, like any other kind of product, differ from one vendor to the next.
Commercially available platforms include those in the attached chart . Among the products included on the chart, for example, Northpoint Communications and HarvardNet both chose NightFire's SupplierExpress to automate flow-through service order processing with Bell Atlantic North. But Interconnection Still Isn't Easy Bell Atlantic developed its CLEC service order processing interface using Netscape's ECXpert platform. Unfortunately for the CLECs who must rely on Bell Atlantic's ECXpert system to coordinate cut-over on local exchange service orders, operability and performance have degraded since the FCC ruling. Simply put, this ECXpert-based system has not operated reliably under heavy load, with problems ranging from slow response time to dropped service order acknowledgements.