Design of availability, reliability, and restoration for a telecommunications access network guided by customer demand for quality

This paper describes a method for choosing the appropriate parameters and budget for the reliability and restoration of a telecommunications access network. The performance versus cost trade off is approximated using a simple model of the relationships between end-to-end availability and the reliability and restoration of components, and the associated capital and operational expenditure. The design of the access network is guided by a simple measure of customer preference, in terms of demand for quality. Hence, the design of the network is optimized with respect to the customer perception of value. The result is a design for an access network with optimally assigned performance targets for reliability and restoration, and corresponding annual budgets.