Operational support system for telecommunication services

• US 20040192205A1
• Filed: 03/31/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bagsby, Denis
• Granted Patent: US 7,568,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5061 characterised by the interaction between service providers and their network customers, e.g. customer relationship management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management

Abstract

In a particular embodiment, the disclosure is directed to a distributed communications system for use in support of telecommunication operations. The distributed computer system includes a telecommunications related application service and an integration service. The telecommunications related application service has access to a plurality of interconnection services and a plurality of different computing nodes. The integration service is coupled to the telecommunications related application services. The integration service is also coupled to a plurality of distributed resource systems. The integration service has access to at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems in response to a communication transmitted to at least one of the plurality of interconnection services.

Claims

1. A distributed computer system for use in support of telecommunication operations, the distributed computer system comprising:

a telecommunications related application service having access to a plurality of interconnection services at a plurality of different computing nodes; and

an integration service coupled to the telecommunications related application service, the integration service coupled to a plurality of distributed resource systems, the integration service having access to at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems in response to a communication transmitted through at least one of the plurality of interconnection services.

2. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication is associated with address validation.

3. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the integration service comprises a location information management service.

4. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems comprises a PREMIS system.

5. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems comprises an ASON system.

6. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication is associated with channel facility assignment.

7. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the integration service comprises a resource management service.

8. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems comprises a TIRKS®

system.

9. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of interconnection services comprises software communications services for communicating with the telecommunications related application service.

10. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of interconnection services is selected from the group consisting of web services, local service provider services, electronic document interchange services, and common object request broker architecture services.

11. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the integration service comprises a business logic layer.

12. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the integration service comprises a Java interface.

13. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication is associated with a service selected from the group consisting of address validation, loop qualification, due date negotiation, dispatch facilitation, telephone number (TN) pooling, common language location information (CLLI) inquiry, primary interexchange code (PIC) and local primary interexchange code (LPIC) reference, network channel (NC) and network channel interface (NCI) inquiry, loop pre-qualification, customer service information (CSI) access, pending/poster order lists and details, provisioning order lists and details, bulk workload assessment, feature availability inquiry, universal service order code (USOC) and feature ID (FID) lookup, address inquiries by working telephone number (WTN), telephone number (TN) inquiries, telephone number (TN) reservation, telephone number (TN) confirmation, telephone number (TN) cancellation, and channel facility assignment (CFA) inquiries.

14. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication is provided by a CLEC to one of the plurality of interconnection services.

15. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication is provided by a LSC to one of the plurality of interconnection services.

16. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of interconnection services are separated from a global network by a firewall.

17. The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications related application server and the integration service reside on separate remote servers.

18. A distributed computer system for use in connection with telecommunication subscriber address validation, the distributed computer system comprising:

an interconnection service accessible from distributed computing elements;

an adaptor coupled to the interconnection service;

a location information management service coupled to the adaptor; and

a plurality of resource systems, the location information management service having access to at least one of the plurality of resource systems to acquire a subscriber address validation in response to an address validation request received by the interconnection service and via the adaptor.

19. The distributed computer system of claim 18, wherein at least one of the plurality of resource systems comprises a PREMIS system.

20. The distributed computer system of claim 18, wherein at least one of the plurality of resource systems comprises an ASON system.

21. The distributed computer system of claim 18, wherein the interconnection service is selected from the group consisting of web services, local service provider services, electronic document interchange services, and common object request broker architecture services.

22. The distributed computer system of claim 18, wherein the adaptor is an ordering and billing forum adaptor.

23. A distributed computer system for use in support of telecommunications channel facility assignment, the distributed computer system comprising:

an interconnection service;

an adaptor coupled to the interconnection service;

a resource management integration service coupled to the adaptor; and

a plurality of distributed resource systems, the resource management integration service requesting channel facility assignment by at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems in response to a channel assignment request communicated through the interconnection service and via the adaptor.

24. The distributed computer system of claim 23, wherein at least one of the plurality of distributed resource systems comprises a TIRKS®

system.

25. The distributed computer system of claim 23, wherein the interconnection service is selected from the group consisting of web services, local service provider services, electronic document interchange services, and common object request broker architecture services.

26. A method for performing telecommunication subscriber address validation, the method comprising:

receiving an address validation request at an interconnection service;

adapting the address validation request with an adaptor to produce an adapted address validation request;

communicating the adapted address validation request to a location information management integration service; and

accessing a resource system associated with stored address information of the telecommunication subscriber.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

communicating an address validation response from the location information management integration service to the adaptor;

adapting the address validation response with the adaptor to produce an adapted address validation response; and

communicating the adapted address validation response using the interconnection service.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the resource system comprises a PREMIS system.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the resource system comprises an ASON system.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the interconnection service is selected from the group consisting of web services, local service provider services, electronic document interchange services, and common object request broker architecture services.

31. A method for performing channel facility assignment, the method comprising:

receiving a channel facility assignment request via an interconnection service;

adapting the channel facility assignment request with an adaptor to produce an adapted channel facility assignment request;

communicating the adapted channel facility assignment request to a resource management integration service; and

accessing a resource system associated with a channel facility corresponding to the channel facility assignment request.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

communicating a channel facility assignment response from the resource management integration service to the adaptor;

adapting the channel facility assignment response with the adaptor to produce an adapted channel facility assignment response; and

communicating the adapted channel facility assignment response using the interconnection service.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the resource system comprises a TIRKS®

system.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein the plurality of interconnection services is selected from the group consisting of web services, local service provider services, electronic document interchange services, and common object request broker architecture services.