Method and system for realizing an aggregator in a management operations center implemented in a global ecosystem of interrelated services

• US 20020165745A1
• Filed: 03/29/2002
• Published: 11/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EKMK Limited Liability Company
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Global LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Singh, Sanjiv, Greene, William S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,428,723 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4553 Object oriented directories, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA] name server
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 : received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 : Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 : Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 : Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 : Database or file accessing

Abstract

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an aggregator service is presented for a management operations center (MOC) implemented in a global ecosystem of interrelated services. Essentially, the aggregator service associates/correlates a primary event with related events and bundles them together, determines what other related information in needed and builds a work document from the bundled events and the other related information, runs rules to determine the cause of the problem, and controls the life of the work to be done. The aggregator service receives an event from an information bus where said event relates to a state change or a problem with a telecommunications network, subnet, extranet or some component thereof. The aggregator service correlates primary events with related lesser events it receives by applying rules that deal with the understanding or categorization of the problem and binds the events together to produce a work document according to a predetermined organization of work integration. The rules are held in a easily-modifiable form in a rules service and runtime loaded to the aggregator service, thus the rules can be updated or modified at any time by expert problem-solving personnel and not developers. The aggregator service contains the templates for different documents associated with different primary events that are based on different problem-solving criteria, such as different functional areas/teams. The aggregator service simultaneously builds multiple work documents; therefore, a single event might be bound into several work documents. Associated corporate business objects that are useful, or somehow related to an event, are also bound into the work document. Finally, the aggregator service looks for milestones for the events. Additionally, many different aggregators may exist and run simultaneously providing different work documents to different teams.

Claims

1. A data processing implemented method for aggregating events related to an enterprise comprising:

receiving an event, wherein the event is related to one of a state change and a problem within the enterprise associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

analyzing the event;

correlating the event to rules for processing the event, wherein correlation is based on the event;

incorporating the event into a work protocol based on the rules;

incorporating other information related to an event into the work protocol based 11 on the rules;

analyzing the work protocol based on the rules;

receiving a plurality of subsequent events;

processing each subsequent event of the plurality of events by;

analyzing a subsequent event for a relationship with the event, wherein a relationship is based on the rules;

binding the subsequent event to the event incorporated into the work protocol based on a relationship with the event;

analyzing the work protocol with the subsequent event based on the rules; and

determining closure conditions based on the analysis of a subsequent event.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein subsequent to analyzing the event, the method further comprises:

determining whether rules have been selected for processing the event; and

selecting rules for processing the event based on determining that rules have not been selected for the event.

3. The method recited in claim 1, wherein subsequent to analyzing the event, the method further comprises:

determining whether rules have been selected for the event; and

using previously selected rules for processing the event based on determining that rules have been selected for processing the event.

4. The method recited in claim 1, wherein analyzing the event further comprises:

determining whether the event is a primary event; and

treating the event as a subsequent event based on the event not being a primary event.

5. The method recited in claim 4, wherein analyzing a subsequent event further comprises:

culling the subsequent event based on no relationship with the event.

6. The method recited in claim 1 further comprises:

publishing the work protocol.

7. The method recited in claim 1, wherein determining closure conditions based on the analysis of a subsequent event further comprises:

analyzing the work protocol based on classification rules; and

determining whether the work protocol classifies as a primary event.

8. The method recited in claim 1, wherein correlating the event to rules for processing the event further comprises:

selecting a rules agent based on the event;

accessing configuration information for the rules agent, wherein the configuration information includes an address of a rules service;

sending a request to the address of the rules service requesting rules for processing the event; and

receiving the rules.

9. The method recited in claim 1, wherein analyzing the work protocol with the subsequent event further comprises:

detecting a milestone for the event, wherein the milestone is incorporated in the work protocol; and

firing the rules based on an occurrence of a milestone for a state change.

10. The method recited in claim 1, wherein analyzing the work protocol with the subsequent event further comprises:

detecting a cause of said one of a state change and a problem associated within the enterprise; and

incorporating instruction related to the cause into the work protocol.

11. A data processing implemented method for aggregating events related to enterprise operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of events, wherein each event is related to a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

determining a classification for each of the plurality of events, whether an event is classified as a primary event or not;

processing each primary event by;

determining whether a primary event correlates to rules for processing the primary event;

incorporating the event into a work protocol based on the rules;

incorporating other information related to an event into the work protocol based on the rules;

analyzing the work protocol based on the rules;

processing each event not classified as a primary event by;

analyzing an event for any relationships with any of the primary events, wherein a relationship is based on rules for processing the respective any of the primary events;

binding the event to at least one primary event incorporated into a respective work protocol based on a relationship with the at least one primary event;

analyzing work protocols for the at least one primary event based on rules for processing the respective at least one primary event; and

determining closure conditions based on the analysis of an event.

12. The method recited in claim 11, wherein determining whether a primary event correlates to rules for processing the primary event further comprises:

selecting rules for processing the primary event based on determining that rules have not been selected for the primary event.

13. The method recited in claim 11, wherein analyzing an event for any relationships with any of the primary events further comprises:

culling events, wherein the culled events have no relationship with a primary event.

14. The method recited in claim 11 further comprises:

publishing the work protocol.

15. The method recited in claim 11, wherein determining closure conditions based on the analysis of an event further comprises:

recognizing that an event indicates a change in one of a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise.

16. The method recited in claim 11, wherein determining whether a primary event correlates to rules for processing the primary event further comprises:

selecting a rules agent based on the primary event;

accessing configuration information for the rules agent, wherein the configuration information includes an address of a rules service;

sending a request to the address of the rules service requesting rules for processing the event; and

receiving the rules for processing the primary event.

17. The method recited in claim 11, wherein analyzing work protocols for the at least one primary event further comprises:

detecting a milestone for the at least one primary event;

incorporating the milestone into the work protocol; and

firing the rules based on an occurrence of a milestone for a state change.

18. The method recited in claim 11, wherein analyzing work protocols for the at least one primary event further comprises:

detecting a cause of said state change associated with the at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise; and

incorporating instruction related to the cause into the work protocol.

19. The method recited in claim 16, wherein subsequent to sending a request to the address of the rules service, the method further comprises:

supplementing rules in the rules service, wherein the supplemental rules are created by expert personnel responsible for handling problem events.

20. The method recited in claim 11, wherein the work protocol is a work document embodied in one of XML document, Java objects and an agreed-upon form.

21. A data processing implemented method for aggregating events related to an enterprise comprising:

receiving an event, wherein the event is related to a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

analyzing the event;

determining whether the event corresponds to an existing workitem;

selecting a work template from a plurality of work templates for a workitem based on the event not corresponding to an existing workitem, wherein each of said plurality of work templates defines control for processing work associated with a workitem;

binding the event to the workitem based on the event corresponding to the workitem;

determining whether the event represents a milestone for the workitem; and

firing a rule based on the event representing a milestone for the workitem.

22. The method recited in claim 21 further comprises:

receiving a subsequent event, wherein the subsequent event is related to a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

analyzing the subsequent event;

identifying which existing workitem the subsequent event corresponds to;

binding the subsequent event to the workitem based on the subsequent event corresponding to the workitem;

determining whether the subsequent event represents a milestone for the workitem; and

firing a rule based on the subsequent event representing a milestone for the workitem.

23. The method recited in claim 21, wherein analyzing the event further comprises:

determining whether the event is a primary event; and

treating the event as a subsequent event based on the event not being a primary event.

24. The method recited in claim 23, wherein analyzing a subsequent event further comprises:

culling the subsequent event based on no relationship with the event.

25. The method recited in claim 21 further comprises:

publishing the workitem.

26. The method recited in claim 21, wherein firing a rule based on the event representing a milestone for the workitem further comprises:

concluding the workitem based on the milestone representing closure conditions for the workitem.

27. The method recited in claim 21, wherein the rule relates to one of understanding and categorizing the at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise.

28. The method recited in claim 21 further comprises:

creating an additional work template, wherein the additional work template defines control for processing work associated with an additional workitem; and

adding the additional work template to the plurality of work templates for workitems

29. The method recited in claim 28, wherein creating an additional work template further comprises:

defining an additional milestone for the additional work template; and

associating a rule with the additional milestone.

30. The method recited in claim 29 further comprises:

defining an additional rule for the additional work template;

storing the rule in a remote server location; and

associating the additional rule with the additional milestone.

31. A data processing system implemented program product embodied on a processing system readable medium for implementing a method for aggregating events related to telecommunication operations, said program product comprising:

instruction for receiving an event, wherein the event is related to one of a state change and a problem within the enterprise associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

instruction for analyzing the event;

instruction for correlating the event to rules for processing the event, wherein correlation is based on the event;

instruction for incorporating the event into a work protocol based on the rules;

instruction for incorporating other information related to an event into the work protocol based on the rules;

instruction for analyzing the work protocol based on the rules;

instruction for receiving a plurality of subsequent events;

instruction for processing each subsequent event of the plurality of events comprising;

instruction for analyzing a subsequent event for a relationship with the event, wherein a relationship is based on the rules;

instruction for binding the subsequent event to the event incorporated into the work protocol based on a relationship with the event;

instruction for analyzing the work protocol with the subsequent event based on the rules; and

instruction for determining closure conditions based on the analysis of a subsequent event.

32. The program product recited in claim 31 further comprises:

instruction for determining whether rules have been selected for processing the event; and

instruction for selecting rules for processing the event based on determining that rules have not been selected for the event.

33. The program product recited in claim 31 further comprises:

instruction for determining whether rules have been selected for the event; and

instruction for using previously selected rules for processing the event based on determining that rules have been selected for processing the event.

34. The program product recited in claim 31, wherein the instruction for analyzing the event further comprises:

instruction for determining whether the event is a primary event; and

instruction for treating the event as a subsequent event based on the event not s being a primary event.

35. The program product recited in claim 34, wherein the instruction for analyzing a subsequent event further comprises:

instruction for culling the subsequent event based on no relationship with the event.

36. The program product recited in claim 31 further comprises:

instruction for publishing the work protocol.

37. The program product recited in claim 31, wherein the instruction for determining closure conditions based on the analysis of a subsequent event further comprises:

instruction for analyzing the work protocol based on classification rules; and

instruction for determining whether the work protocol classifies as a primary event.

38. The program product recited in claim 31, wherein the instruction for correlating the event to rules for processing the event further comprises:

instruction for selecting a rules agent based on the event;

instruction for accessing configuration information for the rules agent, wherein the configuration information includes an address of a rules service;

instruction for sending a request to the address of the rules service requesting rules for processing the event; and

instruction for receiving the rules.

39. The program product recited in claim 31, wherein the instruction for analyzing the work protocol with the subsequent event further comprises:

instruction for detecting a milestone for the event, wherein the milestone is incorporated in the work protocol; and

instruction for firing the rules based on an occurrence of a milestone for a state change.

40. The program product recited in claim 31, wherein the instruction for analyzing the work protocol with the subsequent event further comprises:

instruction for detecting a cause of said one of a state change and a problem associated within the enterprise; and

instruction for incorporating instruction related to the cause into the work protocol.

41. A data processing system implemented program product embodied on a processing system readable medium for implementing a method for aggregating events related to telecommunication operations, said program product comprising:

instruction for receiving a plurality of events, wherein each event is related to a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

instruction for determining a classification for each of the plurality of events, whether an event is classified as a primary event or not;

instruction for processing each primary event comprising;

instruction for determining whether a primary event correlates to rules for processing the primary event;

instruction for incorporating the event into a work protocol based on the rules;

instruction for incorporating other information related to an event into the work protocol based on the rules;

instruction for analyzing the work protocol based on the rules;

instruction for processing each event not classified as a primary event by;

instruction for analyzing an event for any relationships with any of the primary events, wherein a relationship is based on rules for processing the respective any of the primary events;

instruction for binding the event to at least one primary event incorporated into a respective work protocol based on a relationship with the at least one primary event;

instruction for analyzing work protocols for the at least one primary event based on rules for processing the respective at least one primary event; and

instruction for determining closure conditions based on the analysis of an event.

42. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the instruction for determining whether a primary event correlates to rules for processing the primary event further comprises:

instruction for selecting rules for processing the primary event based on determining that rules have not been selected for the primary event.

43. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the instruction for instruction for analyzing an event for any relationships with any of the primary events further comprises:

instruction for culling events, wherein the culled events have no relationship with a primary event.

44. The program product recited in claim 41 further comprises:

instruction for publishing the work protocol.

45. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the instruction for determining closure conditions based on the analysis of an event further comprises:

instruction for recognizing that an event indicates a change in one of a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise.

46. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the instruction for determining whether a primary event correlates to rules for processing the primary event further comprises:

instruction for selecting a rules agent based on the primary event;

instruction for accessing configuration information for the rules agent, wherein the configuration information includes an address of a rules service;

instruction for sending a request to the address of the rules service requesting rules for processing the event; and

instruction for receiving the rules for processing the primary event.

47. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the instruction for analyzing work protocols for the at least one primary event further comprises:

instruction for detecting a milestone for the at least one primary event;

instruction for incorporating the milestone into the work protocol; and

instruction for firing the rules based on an occurrence of a milestone for a state change.

48. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the instruction for analyzing work protocols for the at least one primary event further comprises:

instruction for detecting a cause of said state change associated with the at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise; and

instruction for incorporating instruction related to the cause into the work protocol.

49. The program product recited in claim 46 further comprises:

instruction for supplementing rules in the rules service, wherein the supplemental rules are created by expert personnel responsible for handling problem events.

50. The program product recited in claim 41, wherein the work protocol is a work document embodied in one of XML document, Java objects and an agreed-upon form.

51. A data processing system implemented program product embodied on a processing system readable medium for implementing a method for aggregating events related to telecommunication operations, said program product comprising:

instruction for receiving an event, wherein the event is related to a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

instruction for analyzing the event;

instruction for determining whether the event corresponds to an existing workitem;

instruction for selecting a work template from a plurality of work templates for a workitem based on the event not corresponding to an existing workitem, wherein each of said plurality of work templates defines control for processing work associated with a workitem;

instruction for binding the event to the workitem based on the event corresponding to the workitem;

instruction for determining whether the event represents a milestone for the workitem; and

instruction for firing a rule based on the event representing a milestone for the workitem.

52. The program product recited in claim 51 further comprises:

instruction for receiving a subsequent event, wherein the subsequent event is related to a state change associated with at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise;

instruction for analyzing the subsequent event;

instruction for identifying which existing workitem the subsequent event corresponds to;

instruction for binding the subsequent event to the workitem based on the subsequent event corresponding to the workitem;

instruction for determining whether the subsequent event represents a milestone for the workitem; and

instruction for firing a rule based on the subsequent event representing a milestone for the workitem.

53. The program product recited in claim 51, wherein the instruction for analyzing the event further comprises:

instruction for determining whether the event is a primary event; and

instruction for treating the event as a subsequent event based on the event not being a primary event.

54. The program product recited in claim 53, wherein the instruction for analyzing a subsequent event further comprises:

instruction for culling the subsequent event based on no relationship with the event.

55. The program product recited in claim 51 further comprises:

instruction for publishing the workitem.

56. The program product recited in claim 51, wherein the instruction for firing a rule based on the event representing a milestone for the workitem further comprises:

instruction for concluding the workitem based on the milestone representing closure conditions for the workitem.

57. The program product recited in claim 51, wherein the rule relates to one of understanding and categorizing the at least one of an operation, function, policy, process and a component thereof related to the enterprise.

58. The program product recited in claim 51 further comprises:

instruction for creating an additional work template, wherein the additional work template defines control for processing work associated with an additional workitem; and

instruction for adding the additional work template to the plurality of work templates for workitems.

59. The program product recited in claim 58, wherein the instruction for creating an additional work template further comprises:

instruction for defining an additional milestone for the additional work template; and

instruction for associating a rule with the additional milestone.

60. The program product recited in claim 59 further comprises:

instruction for defining an additional rule for the additional work template;

storing the rule in a remote server location; and

instruction for associating the additional rule with the additional milestone.