Network Operations Center

A network operations center (NOC, pronounced like the word knock), also known as a "network management center", is one or more locations from which network monitoring and control, or network management, is exercised over a computer, telecommunication or satellite network.

Early versions of NOCs have been around since the 1960s. A Network Control Center was opened in New York by AT&T in 1962 that used status boards to display switch and route information, in real-time, from AT&T's most important toll switches. AT&T later replaced their Network Control Center with a NOC in 1977 in Bedminster, New Jersey.

NOCs are implemented by business organizations, public utilities, universities, and government agencies that oversee complex networking environments that require high availability. NOC personnel are responsible for monitoring one or many networks for certain conditions that may require special attention to avoid degraded service. Organizations may operate more than one NOC, either to manage different networks or to provide geographic redundancy in the event of one site becoming unavailable.

In addition to monitoring internal and external networks of related infrastructure, NOCs can monitor social networks to get a head-start on disruptive events.

Computer environments can range in size from one to millions of servers.

In telecommunication environments, NOCs are responsible for monitoring power failures, communication line alarms (such as bit errors, framing errors, line coding errors, and circuits down) and other performance issues that may affect the network, and in telecom sector have to track details about the call flow.

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