For both public and private organizations, managing network infrastructures requires a structured approach. With the increasing amount of data being transferred, a dedicated team is necessary to ensure smooth operations. This is where the Network Operation Center (NOC) comes in, serving as the control center that monitors and maintains the network infrastructure.

What is a Network Operation Center?

If you're unfamiliar with the term NOC, it refers to a Network Operations Center. NOCs are specialized sites that manage and control communication networks, which can be local or national and include the Internet, satellite, and television networks. Many NOCs are situated throughout many countries and are responsible for monitoring and controlling these networks.

Privately owned companies predominantly operate Network Operations Centers (NOCs), with a few owned by states. The centers' primary responsibility is to monitor networks continuously, detect and respond promptly to any failure, and redirect traffic loads as necessary, regardless of the cause, at all times.

It's essential to maintain a network to avoid transportation and power grid failures, among other performance parameters. This is particularly crucial for a country's continuous operation, including its basic sectors of the economy, services, and information traffic.

The Network Operation Center (NOC) was established in the late 1970s by telecommunications service providers to monitor circuits, routers, and switches. Today, the NOC also covers cloud services, energy systems, infrastructure, and traffic or minutes-related services.

The operation of a NOC today

The operation of a NOC at present can be distributed as follows:

Monitoring

The objectives of monitoring an NOC include detecting important conditions in configuration items, tracking and recording their status, and providing relevant information to involved parties.

Event management

When it comes to event management, organizations rely on the NOC or Network Operations Center to keep a watchful eye on everything. The NOC is responsible for monitoring and identifying any state changes that are defined by the organization as an event. Once the importance of the event has been determined, an appropriate response is initiated. All relevant information about these events is recorded and passed along to the parties involved.

Service Management

In service management, uptime, performance, and visibility play a key role. Within service management, we can include version management, incident management, implementation management, information security management, or service continuity management.

Inside a Network Operations Center

A common curiosity regarding a Network Operation Center is what it is like inside or what type of professional profiles work in it. Let's clarify:

Who works in a NOC?

In a Network Operations Center (NOC), there are several professionals who play vital roles, but perhaps the most important is the NOC engineer. This skilled individual possesses in-depth knowledge of the system and can efficiently analyze and solve problems with their analytical skills and experience.

What is a NOC like inside?

A NOC inside is a space in which you will basically find screens of two types:

• Large screens: they are essential to share the most important indicators such as the status of the nodes or traffic. These screens display data from multiple sources obtained from the monitoring system, so it is essential that they be large enough to be viewed by many people.
• Small Monitors – These are part of the operator's desktop and are used to query more specific items.

In addition to the screens, on the engineers' operating table, we can find other resources and instruments that may be necessary. We are talking about phones to contact support or field staff, computers with software to prepare reports and use email, television screens that show news, or software tools for remote access, among others.

Along with all the technical material, it is common to find ergonomic office furniture to favor the comfort of NOC engineers, spacious workspaces to promote mobility and airflow, or adjacent break rooms where there may even be kitchen facilities that engineers can use during their breaks or when they need to stay on duty longer in emergency situations.

As you can see, a NOC has essential functionality for the operation of companies and organizations. Thanks to them, it is possible to have greater availability and performance of technological services and systems, helping to solve incidents as quickly as possible.

Voiped Telecom offers 24/7 technical support via our NOC (Network Operation Center) for all clients. Contact us.

Jan 17, 2023