Q&A - TL 9000 Categories

The Contact Us function at the top of every page on the tl9000.org website is the preferred means for asking questions and receiving answers from the subject matter experts of the TIA QuEST Forum. Over the last few years many questions have been answered through this means. The number of each question is the ticket number in the Contact Us tracking system.

These questions generally relate to the assigning products and services to various categories.

Question 9478 — As per the category definitions, category family 7.3 excludes maintenance services provided by OEMs for their product. If we sort the list of certified companies in category family 7.3, there are number of companies that are not providing the maintenance services as per the definition. Is it because they are providing maintenance service for their products even after warranty?

Answer — You are correct in that category family 7.3 specifically excludes warranty and standard maintenance activities performed by an OEM in support of their product. However, it does not preclude an organization from offering regular multi-vendor network maintenance services, NOC center operations, or operating a multi-vendor spares depot for a customer. Such activities would allow them to become certified in one or more of the 7.3 categories. A review of the list of organizations currently certified in 7.3 does not reveal anyone that definitely does not provide one or more of those types of services. If you believe this is not the case, please let us know and we will discretely follow up with the organization and their certification body. The source of the question will not be revealed.

Question 10022 — I am looking for guidance on determining the category and OC-1 equivalence of a new product. The product does not readily fit a single TL9000 category. Product description: “The Packet ONP provides the modular, chassis-level fusion of Connection-oriented Ethernet, ROADM-on-a-card, and SONET transport technologies built on a single addressable optical network class element. It fulfills network aggregation and transport infrastructure needs, delivering high bandwidth, high quality packet-based services in today’s multi-protocol packet environment. The Packet ONP is the first type of network element that delivers both: (1) Packet aggregation agility, traditionally found only in more costly, feature-rich service elements, and (2) bulk transport scalability combined with the operational stability that has defined optical networking.” We checked with two other companies with similar product situations and were told by one they were using SONET and the other was using DWDM. I have been told internally that some of the product’s SONET units have an OC-1 equivalence of 192 OC-1s and 384 OC-1s for other units. Table A-4 and A-5 of the TL Handbook do not list an OC-384.

Answer — A product that combines the characteristics of an optical transport system and a DWDM system would by definition belong in category 3.2.2.1.2.3 Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (ROADM). The normalization units would therefore be the number of optical channels. The OC capacity of each channel would not matter in determining the number of normalization units.

Question 10046 — What is the category of a Wireless module that is used in a notebook computer? Our proposal is 8.2.3.

Answer — At the time this question was asked 8.2.3 was the appropriate category for a wireless modem. In Release 4.2 of the Category Tables category, 6.2.3.2, Wireless Modems was established for this product, so the correct category now is 6.2.3.2.

Question 10302 — What category does Lawful Intercept equipment belong in? Lawful Intercept enables telecommunications network operators to comply with government regulations for lawful interception of telecommunications, including voice, data, VoIP, etc. Is a new category needed?

Answer — Category 3.4.2, Lawful Intercept, was added starting with Release 4.2 of the Category Tables.

Question 10355 — Our product scope is: Design and manufacture of combiners, splitters and radio frequency amplifiers used for cellular mobile telecommunications devices. I'd like to confirm again with our category: we are registered in 3.3.2.1 and 3.3.2.2.

Answer — Categories 3.3.2.1 Basic (Base Transceiver System) and 3.3.2.2 Advanced (Base Transceiver System) are intended for fully equipped terminals and/or repeaters. These categories are not intended for the components or sub-assemblies used to construct those terminals or repeaters. Combiners, splitters, and RF amplifiers would belong in the 8.2.x Electronic Assemblies category family. Which specific 8.2.x category applies would depend on the complexity of the assemblies you supply.

Question 10460 — What is the difference between category 7.7.3 Cable Assembly and category 8.3 Cable Assemblies?

Answer — 7.7.3 is for contract manufacturers while 8.3 is for design, build, sales, and support organizations.

Question 11517 — What category best applies to die-cast metal parts designed for telecommunications applications?

Answer — Simple die-cast metal parts would belong in category 8.1.4 Mechanical and Electromechanical.

Question 11687 — I am trying to understand the differences between Categories 7.1.1.1 and 7.1.2. What is the difference between Installation and Provisioning?

Answer — 7.1.1.1 Physical Installation involves the initial installation of a system, expansion or upgrade of that system, or removal of the system. The equipment being worked on is not in service. 7.1.2 Provisioning involves the in-service configuring of system such as assigning phone numbers to specific lines, setting up or changing cross connections, or activating specific services for given customers. 7.1.1.1 Physical Installation is typically performed by the OEM or a third party on behalf of the OEM. The work is made up of a discrete set of tasks leading to the turning over of the equipment to the customer for acceptance testing. 7.1.2 Provisioning is typically performed by the service provider or a third party on behalf of the service provider. It is performed on a continuing basis.

Question 11931 — In trying to determine which category our products should be associated with (6.2.3.1 Wired Modems or 6.2.3.2: Wireless Modems) we make the conclusion that the difference is made on the basic connectivity of our gateway with the network of the provider. Currently all of our products connect to the network of the provider via wired DSL access. Based upon this, we believe that the products that we report on at this time are all to be considered “Wired” and as such follow the guidelines within 6.2.3.1 Wired Modems. Please advise if this seems like a logical conclusion.

Answer — Yes, if the connection between your product and the provider network is a physical cable connection, then the correct category is 6.2.3.1 even if the box itself provides a local wireless network. If the network connection is RF, then category is 6.2.3.2.

Question 12178 — What would be the preferred category for a Contract Manufacturer (CM) producing Optical Components and Assemblies? While 8.5.2.x is a better description of the devices they produce, it is my understanding that all CM work should be in 7.7.x categories, however other than cables (7.7.3) none of these reference any optical devices and the note in Table A-2 does not redirect 8.5.x products back to 7.7.x (it only includes 8.2.1 through 8.4).

Answer — Depending on the complexity of the items being assembled, this CM would fall under 7.7.1 small assemblies or 7.7.2 Printed Circuit Board Assembly.

Question 12507 — For the mobile phone production, which category could be defined? 6.2.1.2.2 or 7.7.4?

Answer — If the registration that makes the mobile phone is a contract manufacturer, then the category is 7.7.4.

If the registration that makes the mobile phone sells the phone on the open marker under its name then the category is 6.2.1.2.2.

Question 12515 — Category 7.2.1.2 has the example "RF Design Engineering (Asset /Arieso)". What is Arieso?

Answer — Arieso is a service company whose end user experience optimization testing has become a quasi-standard within the RF Design and Engineering industry.

Question 12613 — For the category 8.1.2 and a silicon wafer manufacturer, it sells the 12-inch wafers for customer. Could you tell me if the NPRs shall be quantity of wafers or die (chips) delivered on wafer in past a year?

Answer — 1. If the company is making blank silicon wafers and selling blank wafers, then there is not a category for them, and they cannot have a TL 9000 registration. They can be certified to ISO 9001.

2. If the company is making silicon wafers and creating integrated circuits on that wafer and sells the entire wafer uncut to another company that packages the integrated circuit, then there is not a category for them, and they cannot have a TL 9000 registration. They can be certified to ISO 9001.

3. If the company is making silicon wafers, creates integrated circuits on the wafer, cuts, the integrated circuits from the wafer, then packages the individual circuits and sells the individual circuits, then their category is 8.1.2. The NPRs in this case is the count of the individual integrated circuits and is not the count of the wafers.

4. If the company buys wafers with integrated circuits on the wafer, cuts, and packages the integrated circuits, then sells the integrated circuits then their category is 8.1.2. The NPRs in this case is the count of the individual integrated circuits and is not the count of the wafers.

Question 12829 — Please instruct me on the measurements for TL 9000 categories 7.7.5.1 and 7.7.5.2; what is an “order” for NPR data and how does this differ from a "shipment"? Also, can you provide a sample calculation for TL 9000 categories 7.7.5.1 and 7.7.5.2 “order” NPR data? I am confused because it does not appear that orders are counted over the last 12 months and it is not equivalent to units shipped (this is what all of our other TL 9000 categories use).

Answer — The word “order” here refers to a purchase order in your accounting/ERP system. A given order could be fulfilled with one or multiple shipments. Each TL 9000 category has normalization factors appropriate to the category. For logistical services, the size/quantity of shipments is not as important a factor as the total number of orders processed.

Question 12929 — Need some guidance on 7.3.1 & 7.3.2. Please consider a managed services organization responsible to maintain customer network that also operates a customer owned NOC. ALL problems arising in the network are recorded by NOC (as tickets) and they follow-up with field maintenance teams for closure of the issue. This organization is also responsible to perform regular preventive maintenance of NE's (but the organization is not the OEM). For such organization, both 7.3.1 & 7.3.2 are applicable. Please guide what data is actually to be measured against various TL measurements for 7.3.1 & 7.3.2 for this organization.

Answer — The measurements required for the categories are listed in Table A-2 of the category tables. For 7.3.1 and 7.3.2, the required measures are NPR, FRT, OFR, OTD and SSO. For 7.3.1, SQ is also required SQ is also required, and for 7.3.2, MTRS and IRR are also required. The number of problem reports, fix response time and overdue fix responsiveness are fairly straight forward. Any problem report against the service being provided would be included in NPR. FRT would be measured against objectives in place with the customer. On time delivery for 7.3.1 is typically determined based on the SLA agreement in place with the customer for field maintenance actions. This would likely include both scheduled and unscheduled events. For the NOC, most of the work is 24 by 7 monitoring of the network and OTD measurement is not as straight forward. Most organizations will define response time objectives to various types of events in the SLA with their customer. These can then be used for OTD reporting. SQ for 7.3.1 is simply the number of times a second visit is needed to correct a problem. For 7.3.2, MTRS is the mean time to restore service after network outages. IRR is similar to FRT, but measures the closure rate of incidents instead of problem reports.

Question 13085 — Could you please indicate in which category should we consider these kinds of products? They are Baseband Units, Compact Intelligent Optical Transports, Intelligent Optical Transport Platforms and Compact multi service edge optical transport platforms. The process that we perform at our facility is basically to assemble the different circuit packs (that are provided directly by our customer) into the final Racks, then test the finish goods and ship to our customer. Please, help us by indicate under which category these products should be considered.

Answer — Your company is a well-known contract manufacturer and I assume from your description that you are performing this assembly work under contract with your customer.

If that is true, then there are four categories that apply to contact manufacturers, namely, 7.7.1, 7.7.2, 7.7.3, and 7.7.4. Based on your description I would say you belong in 7.7.4, Electromechanical Assembly but you should verify that by referring to Table A-1 of the TL 9000 Measurements Handbook. This table is available online at https://tl9000.org/handbooks/pct.html. Please open the most recent version of the PCT and scroll to category 7.7.4 in Table A-1 to read the description.

Question 13110 — Is there a category that reflects Network Terminating Equipment? I have a customer asking that we submit under that category, but I can't find anything listed in the book.

Answer — There is no single category for “Network Terminating Equipment”. That attribute could be associated with several of the product categories. Does the customer have a more complete description of the category or possibility the category number that they believe your product belongs in? Doing a quick examination of the general product information available on your web site and comparing it to the categories listed on your TL 9000 certification, it is not obvious that anything is missing from your current category selections.

Question 13188 — Our company produces a software product that takes outputs from a network management system (on-line non-critical) and characterizes the Customer Experience in an attempt to improve network understanding and performance. What category would best fit this site?

Answer — There currently is no TL 9000 category for this product.