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Infrastructure building and operations
(dark fiber, net devices, server-rooms, POPs, servers)

Core equipment vendor/make, approx numbers

Deployed network (Optical/Ethernet/IP)

Network type (IP only, hybrid, switched/transmission only, LAN only)

Acquiring and managing dark fiber

Acquiring, management and operation of dark fibre.

Management of fibers - with segments from different providers

Network services: IPv4/IPv6/multicast IPv4/multicast IPv6/VPNs/QoS/etc

Network, users & Core/Access nodes
- how to treat different users and different parts of network

Reaching your network from anywhere

Out-of-band access to our network

Out-of-band systems (MRV using GSM/GPRS)

Survey for our services, what to ask and how?

Services managed by the NOC.

Services operated (from lambdas to large scale e-mail accounts)

What scope of services does the NOC support? Networking?
Servers? Value added services like DNS, web hosting, etc.? HPC?

Providing VPS service

Responsibilities (e.g. monitoring, configuring/provisioning,
direct or indirect repairs, DNS updates, RIPE updates,
POP access and deliveries, reporting);

Responsibility of your NOC: how far does it go?

What other services than the network does your NOC operate
and how do they differentiate from the network service?

Which services and incidents are covered by the NOC?
How do you deal with requests/incidents that are outside your NOC's scope?

Connected networks: Types of organization and approx numbers for
subscribers, peers and upstream IP providers- Roles and responsibilities
(structure, who does what)

Operation of CERT team and security policies

Number (approx) of ticket mail lists the NOC is on,
and approx number of tickets received on these lists

Staffing, internal escalations, handover and schedule

NOC activities/coverage and staff (network, services, community details)

24x7x365 service support

24 x 7 NOC cover. Do you provide it? What SLA?
How do you hire staff and plan rotas, etc?
Is there a real client demand for it?

How is the 24x7x365 NOC service guaranteed?

Hours of operation (office and on-call)

How operation is done outside working hours including weekends

Pros and contras for dedicated NOC personnel

How common experience is handled: specialized vs. universal team members

A network knowledgeable tier-one Service Desk that can
assess network issues intelligently and can provide engineering
with helpful information as they begin troubleshooting.

NOC organization and procedures: Tier1-N functions,
# of persons in shifts and in total, work quality control, peak hours

Structure and roles in a multi-layer NOC operating multi-type networks
(campus network, international research network, internet exchange point)

Staff organization, i.e. services support strategy
(per person/team/NOC) with their respective pros/cons

Global Research NOC Service Desk provides 24x7x365 technical call center
support, trouble ticket management, and workflow support. The service desk
is housed in a state-of-the-art call center in Indiana University's Informatics
and Communications Technology Complex (ICTC) on Indiana University's
Indianapolis campus. This call center features a fully customizable 30-foot
screen used to monitor and troubleshoot the current health of the various
networks supported.  We provide NOC support for the most advanced
research and education networks in the country.

With R&E networking moving towards having more regional connectedness
between smaller networks, RON's, universities, etc, are you planning for a
new phase in networking where specific operational differences between
NOC's may negatively affect the reliability of the services provided?
(for example: different response levels from hardware and fiber vendors,
vastly different maintenance windows, NOC's not being 24x7, etc.)

Technical structure (DWDM, switches, routers) and its influence to
NOC structure, organizational structure: Layer 1,2 (NOC) and
Layer 3 (IP NOC), employees and their functions

Distributed NOC's (as opposed to a NOC on a central location): pro's & con's

Optical NOC differentiated from IP NOC?

Transforming 2 layer network support into 3 layer support with outsourcing

Organisation and roles of NOC members. Number of levels.
Outsourced vs. staff-in NOC. Pros and cons. Functions.
Experience with externalized NOC.

Tiers, and which tiers are in-house or outsourced

Partially outsourced NOCs (24x7, weekends,...): what kind of information
do you give them, how do they interact with you and your users?

Managing an outsourced NOC

Branding of an outsourced NOC

Lessons learned from outsourced incident & change management

Good & bad experiences with outsourcing

Knowledge sharing

Knowledge management and NOC staff training

NOC staff job description

How are staff hired for the NOC? Skillsets? Interview processes?

NOC key performance indexes
- how to measure/to improve?

How do you assign value to what the NOC does?
 Do you cross charge for projects that will be handed over to the NOC?
 How to you prove to upper management that the NOC is good value for money?

Procedures used in the NOC - the good and bad things

Presentation of the NOC's current procedures &
 who is responsible for maintaining them

Workflows

How do you deal with performance issues/incidents and e2e issues
regarding traffic that flows through your network.

What kind of routines are used in regards to change management
(e.g. in planned maintenance)?

Do you have/use a fixed maintenance window?

How are new services and users provisioned?

How does your NOC take care of incident handling?

(D-)DoS - how to detect network attacks

What are your target repair times?

How to work proactively in NOC (active/passive monitoring)

How are new services and users provisioned?