Optimizing an Architecture of a Message Transmission System for a Mobile Network

Summary

The mediation device had to automatically enable mobile number portability, which refers to the ability of mobile telephone users to retain their existing phone numbers when changing from one mobile phone operator to another or adding new customers to the operator’s database.

The need

The outdated architecture of the existing mediation device could not satisfy the requirements of the integrator’s customer, a large mobile phone operator. First, the telecom provider wanted to automate and synchronize their internal mobile switching centers, SMS, mobile carrier, intelligent network, and other internal services with the nation-wide phone number portability database. Second, the code structure of the application was outdated with poor architecture, which created obstacles to adding new modules, integration, and testing. Therefore, the company also decided to conduct the refactoring of the existing code.

The challenges

One of the key goals of the company was to enable a telecommunications hardware provider to enter the Norwegian telecommunication market and therefore introduce hardware support to the customer’s system. So, we had to ensure a solution that would enable utilizing the existing base transceiver station instead of building network facilities from scratch. The standards and a set of commands were different from those in the customer’s system.

The initial project worked with a FOCUS-based database and we had to update the requests to it by using Hibernate to keep to the latest technologies and increase the product’ performance.

The solution

From the very beginning, Altoros and the customer’s teams worked in close collaboration in order to specify the project requirements. The customer assigned a project manager, while Altoros screened, selected, and assigned software developers with expertise in the required area, who worked onsite together with the customer’s in-house team in Oslo.

To achieve the main goal—redesign the mediation device architecture—the team suggested developing a new module to be integrated into the customer’s system. Since the application consisted of several parts (services), each part was rewritten to enable the system to automatically maintain the transmission of messages between the nation-wide portability database and a variety of customer’s internal mobile services. The team conducted the refactoring of the code, which facilitated better performance and scalability of the complex architecture. To provide access to the different types of databases, developers created the missing Data Access Object (DAO) layer by implementing the generalizing method.

Since the application was originally programmed using Java, the selected technologies included the Spring Framework and Hibernate.

The outcome

The Altoros team controlled the timeframes of the development process, meeting all of the deadlines set by the customer.

The engineers at Altoros delivered the application’s source code to the customer coupled with all required specifications and other documentation. The customer has managed to start supporting another telecommunications hardware provider utilizing the ready-to-use infrastructure, which was less costly, and reduced time-to-market.

Due to optimized project architecture, we achieved great performance results. To ensure the business logic's correctness, we covered the projects with tests and provided for an ability to restore the data at any time.

By leveraging Altoros’s expertise in Java and databases, the customer was able to:

• Automate data transmission between the existing mobile services.
• Successfully conduct refactoring of the existing code.
• Reduce R&D costs.
• Focus on core business activities—marketing, sales, service delivery, and product management—while Altoros managed software architecture, development, and integration.