Architecture for operational support system

• US 10,027,554 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2017
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.), Amdocs Systems Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.), Amdocs Systems Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: Mishra, Richard, Buchner, Markus, Glendinning, Johnston Harden Graham, Geyer, Manfred, Pope, Adan K., Ettle, David Roy
• Primary Examiner(s): Lagor, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Vu V
• Application Number:
  US15/601,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20170257279A1
• Time in Patent Office: 421 Days
• Field of Search: 726228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level

Abstract

A network management system for management of a communications network is disclosed. The system comprises an inventory database storing a network inventory comprising information representative of network resources of the communications network. The system comprises means for receiving a change request specifying a modification to be made to the network, and an inventory update component adapted to modify the network inventory in response to the change request. The system also includes an implementation component adapted to access the inventory database, identify modifications made to the network inventory, and transmit configuration data to the network to implement the inventory modifications in the network.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-readable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:

storing a network inventory comprising information representative of a plurality of modeled entities, where each of the modeled entities represents one or more entities of a communications network;

receiving at an inventory update component a plurality of change requests from a plurality of different network management applications of the system;

modifying one or more of the plurality of modeled entities stored in the network inventory by the inventory update component in response to the change requests;

outputting from the inventory update component to a network implementation component a plurality of change records including a first change record and a second change record based on the modification made to the network inventory in response to the change requests, where each of the plurality of change records defines a change made within the network inventory to one of the plurality of modeled entities responsive to the change requests, and where;

the first change record specifies a first modeled entity of the plurality of modeled entities, and a first modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests, and

the second change record specifies the first modeled entity, and a second modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests;

accumulating the plurality of change records;

processing the accumulated change records responsive to a predefined event, the predefined event being the plurality of change records having a threshold number of change records, and the processing including generating at the network implementation component a set of network configuration actions that correspond to the plurality of change records, the set of network configuration actions including configuration commands, the generating including;

configuration action based on a determination that both the first change record and the second change record are associated with the first modeled entity, where the single network configuration action includes specific instructions in a predetermined format specific to the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity that are to be implemented for configuring the entity of the communications network;

transmitting the set of network configuration actions to the communications network;

implementing the set of network configuration actions at the communications network, including carrying out the specific instructions associated with the entity of the communications network to perform one or more changes to the entity of the communications network and in response to carrying out the specific instructions, transmitting an acknowledgement to the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received including;

(i) when the one or more changes to the entity are successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed, and

(ii) when the one or more changes to the entity are not successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were not completed; and

awaiting receipt by the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received and that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed before proceeding with further network configuration actions that include modifications that are dependent on the one or more changes.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more entities of the communication network include at least one of:

a device of a communications network, topology data of a communications network, and service data of a communications network.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity is a device of the communications network.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different network management applications include at least one of:

a network design application, a network resource management application, a network planning application, a service provisioning application, and a reporting application, and each of the change requests specifying a modification to be made to the communications network.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different network management applications include a network design application, a network resource management application, a network planning application, a service provisioning application, and a reporting application, and each of the change requests specifying a modification to be made to the communications network.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first modification specified by the first change record is of the attribute of the first modeled entity and wherein the second modification specified by the second change record is of the attribute of the first modeled entity.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration commands are for the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the acknowledgement that the specific instructions were received are transmitted from the entity to the network implementation component.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein (i) includes:

when the one or more changes to the entity are successfully completed by the entity, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed, and

wherein (ii) includes;

when the one or more changes to the entity are not successfully completed by the entity, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were not completed.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein utilization of network resources in the communications network is analyzed, and changes to the communications network are planned in dependence on the outcome of the analysis.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the analyzing and planning comprises:

measuring the utilization of the network resources in the communications network over time;

analyzing the measured utilization over time of the network resources to determine a utilization trend;

predicting future utilization of the network resources using the determined utilization trend; and

planning changes to the network in dependence on the predicted future utilization.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising:

storing a service inventory, the service inventory being derived from the network inventory and containing information used for provisioning of services in the communications network; and

provisioning services in the communications network using the service inventory.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein provisioning a service comprises:

modifying the service inventory in dependence on the service being provisioned; and

configuring the communications network to provide the service in dependence on the modified service inventory.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein provisioning the service comprises generating configuration information in dependence on the service inventory modification, and transmitting the configuration information to one or more of the network resources in the communications network to configure the network resources to provide the service.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising updating the service inventory in response to changes in the network inventory.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the network resources are associated with a plurality of connection resources between a plurality of network locations of the communications network, the configuration data defining changes to the connection resources.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the network inventory stores service-related data for determining utilization trends, the service-related data received from the service inventory each time a new service is provisioned.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein accumulated change records are processed in a batch process in response to a predefined event, such that the net modification of the first modification and the second modification is implemented in the communications network and the communications network is matched with the network inventory in response to the predefined event.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the network implementation component is adapted to generate the configuration data in dependence on the latest configuration of the first modeled entity retrieved from the network inventory stored in an inventory database.

20. A system, comprising:

memory storing an inventory database, the inventory database storing a network inventory comprising information representative of a plurality of modeled entities, where each of the modeled entities represents one or more entities of a communications network;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing an inventory update component for;

receiving a plurality of change requests from a plurality of different network management applications of the system;

modifying one or more of the plurality of modeled entities stored in the network inventory by the inventory update component in response to the change requests; and

outputting to a network implementation component a plurality of change records including a first change record and a second change record based on the modification made to the network inventory in response to the change requests, where each of the plurality of change records defines a change made within the network inventory to one of the plurality of modeled entities responsive to the change requests, and where;

the first change record specifies a first modeled entity of the plurality of modeled entities, and a first modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests, and

the second change record specifies the first modeled entity, and a second modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests;

the network implementation component for;

accumulating the plurality of change records;

processing the accumulated change records responsive to a predefined event, the predefined event being the plurality of change records having a threshold number of change records, and the processing including generating at the network implementation component a set of network configuration actions that correspond to the plurality of change records, the set of network configuration actions including configuration commands, the generating including;

combining the first change record and the second change record into a single network configuration action based on a determination that both the first change record and the second change record are associated with the first modeled entity, where the single network configuration action includes specific instructions in a predetermined format specific to the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity that are to be implemented for configuring the entity of the communications network;

transmitting the set of network configuration actions to the communications network;

implementing the set of network configuration actions at the communications network, including carrying out the specific instructions associated with the entity of the communications network to perform one or more changes to the entity of the communications network and in response to carrying out the specific instructions, transmitting an acknowledgement to the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received including;

(i) when the one or more changes to the entity are successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed, and

(ii) when the one or more changes to the entity are not successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were not completed; and

awaiting receipt by the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received and that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed before proceeding with further network configuration actions that include modifications that are dependent on the one or more changes.

21. A method, comprising:

storing a network inventory comprising information representative of a plurality of modeled entities, where each of the modeled entities represents one or more entities of a communications network;

receiving at an inventory update component a plurality of change requests from a plurality of different network management applications of the system;

modifying one or more of the plurality of modeled entities stored in the network inventory by the inventory update component in response to the change requests;

outputting from the inventory update component to a network implementation component a plurality of change records including a first change record and a second change record based on the modification made to the network inventory in response to the change requests, where each of the plurality of change records defines a change made within the network inventory to one of the plurality of modeled entities responsive to the change requests, and where;

the first change record specifies a first modeled entity of the plurality of modeled entities, and a first modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests, and

the second change record specifies the first modeled entity, and a second modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests;

accumulating the plurality of change records;

processing the accumulated change records responsive to a predefined event, the predefined event being the plurality of change records having a threshold number of change records, and the processing including generating at the network implementation component a set of network configuration actions that correspond to the plurality of change records, the set of network configuration actions including configuration commands, the generating including;

configuration action based on a determination that both the first change record and the second change record are associated with the first modeled entity, where the single network configuration action includes specific instructions in a predetermined format specific to the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity that are to be implemented for configuring the entity of the communications network;

transmitting the set of network configuration actions to the communications network;

implementing the set of network configuration actions at the communications network, including carrying out the specific instructions associated with the entity of the communications network to perform one or more changes to the entity of the communications network and in response to carrying out the specific instructions, transmitting an acknowledgement to the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received including;

(i) when the one or more changes to the entity are successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed, and

(ii) when the one or more changes to the entity are not successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were not completed; and

awaiting receipt by the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received and that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed before proceeding with further network configuration actions that include modifications that are dependent on the one or more changes.