Help desk systems and methods for use with communications networks

• US 20030056140A1
• Filed: 10/29/2002
• Published: 03/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Caron, Jonathan P., Taylor, David K., Bosa, Patrick A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,281,170 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5074 Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A network management system includes a fault diagnosis system, a topology mapper, an impact analyzer and a help desk system. The a help desk system includes a user interaction module, and a fault diagnosis interaction module. The user interaction module is constructed and arranged to automatically communicate with a user. The fault diagnosis interaction module is constructed and arranged to communicate with a fault diagnosis system.

Claims

1. A help desk system, comprising:

a user interaction module constructed and arranged to automatically communicate with a user; and

a fault diagnosis interaction module constructed and arranged to communicate with a fault diagnosis system.

2. The help desk system of claim 1, wherein said user interaction module is further constructed to receive fault information from said user and automatically provide said fault information to said fault interaction system.

3. The help desk system of claim 2, wherein said user interaction module is further constructed to receive fault data information from said fault diagnosis system and notify said user about the corresponding fault.

4. The help desk system of claim 3 further comprising a help desk notification module constructed and arranged to receive said information from said fault diagnosis system and provide said information to other users.

5. The help desk system of claim 4 further including a fault impact notification module constructed and arranged to receive fault data from said fault diagnosis interaction module and provide impact notification.

6. The help desk system of claim 5 further comprising a group administrator module.

7. The help desk system of claim 6 further comprising group membership data base files.

8. The help desk system of claim 7 further comprising a data base memory.

9. The help desk system of claim 8 further comprising a network administrator interaction module constructed and arranged to communicate with a network administrator.

10. The help desk system of claim 1 further including a user, group service association module.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising receiving fault data from said fault diagnosis system.

11. The method of providing help desk support, comprising the acts of:

communicating fault information with a user; and

communicating said fault information with a fault diagnosis system.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising transmitting said fault data received from said fault diagnosis system to said user.

14. A network management system including a help desk system, comprising:

a user interaction module constructed and arranged to automatically communicate with a user; and

a fault diagnosis interaction module constructed and arranged to communicate with a fault diagnosis system.