Service provisioning involves all the operations involved in fulfilling a customer order for a specific service. The first check is to verify if the existing inventory can offer the service. The inventory management system is used to identify and allocate appropriate resources to be used in the network. Next the network is provisioned, which would involve con- figuring the network elements in the network. The appropriate software and patches are loaded on the network elements and the parameters for proper operation are set. The backup and restore settings are then made. Once each network element is ready, the interconnections between the elements are made to make up the network. Service activation is the final stage when the network and elements in the network start oper- ating to offer the service placed in the order. Activation signals are sent to a billing subsystem to generate billing records on the service used and the order is completed. (see Figure 4.1). Order management subsystem Service provisioning subsystem Network provisioning subsystem Network elements Figure 4.1 Steps to complete a customer order for a service. EMS Functions Most of the operations involved in service and network provisioning need sup- port from the element management system. Let us consider the EMS functional- ities involved in provisioning: Using an auto discovery process, the EMS identifies its resources and updates its data base. This information is synchronized with the inventory manage- ment system SO that the inventory management application can identify and allocate appropriate resources for a service. Installing software and patches for a network element is done by the element management application for the specific network element. Backup and restore is part of configuration management in FCAPS function- ality of element management system. Configuration of a network element for stand-alone operation and after inte- gration with other elements is performed by EMS. Generating billing records after provisioning and on service 