System for use in a communications network management system for automatic management of network plant

• US 20040205073A1
• Filed: 01/14/2004
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Chevanne, Michel, Drugmand, Philippe
• Granted Patent: US 7,447,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A system (1) is dedicated to managing management data of plant (5) of a communications network, each unit of plant including a management information base (6) containing values of fields and associated with a management information base definition (7) including fields and accessible in a network management system (NMS). The system includes at least one automatic descriptor (8) that includes first data designating at least one type of network plant (5) and second data designating management information base definitions (7) associated with the type of plant (5), and is adapted, in the event of receiving data designating the type of plant (5), to access the fields of the management information base definitions (7) associated with the designated type and then to deliver third data representative of the fields of the plant (5) belong to the designated type.

Claims

1. A system (1) for managing management data of plant (5) of a communications network, each unit of the plant including a management information base (6) containing values of fields and associated with a management information base definition (7) including fields and accessible in a network management system (NMS), which system is characterized in that it includes at least one automatic descriptor (8) that:

i) includes first data designating at least one type of network plant (5) and second data designating management information base definitions (7) associated with said type of plant (5), and ii) is adapted, in the event of receiving data designating said type of plant (5), to access the fields of said management information base definitions (7) associated with the designated type and then to deliver third data representative of the fields of the plant (5) of the designated type.

2. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that it includes a set of non-automatic descriptors in addition to said automatic descriptor (8).

3. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that said automatic descriptor (8) is adapted, in the event of receiving data designating an address of a plant unit of said designated type, to access the fields of the management information definition (7) associated with said designated unit of the plant (5), then to command extraction from the management information base (7) of the designated plant (5) of the values of at least some of said fields contained in said definition (7), and then to deliver third data representative of said extracted values.

4. A system according to claim 3, characterized in that if said management information bases (6) of said plant (5) take the form of a tree associated with at least one table, said automatic descriptor (8) is adapted to deliver third data in the form of a tree and at least one table including said extracted field values.

5. A system according to either claim 3, characterized in that said automatic descriptor (8) is adapted to extract said field values from said management information bases (6) of the plant (5) of the network.

6. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that said automatic descriptor (8) includes fourth data designating a graphical representation such that said third data can be displayed in a chosen format.

7. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that said automatic descriptor (8) consists of at least one set of program code files and at least one set of configuration files.

8. A system according to claim 7, characterized in that one of said program code files includes said first data designating said type of plant (5) and another of said program code files includes said second data designating said management information base definitions (7) associated with the plant (5) of said type.

9. A system according to claim 7, characterized in that said program codes are in Java.

10. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that said field values are extracted in accordance with a protocol chosen from the group comprising the SNMP, CORBA, CMISE/CMIP, and TL1 protocols.

11. A management server (2) of a communications network including plant wherein each unit of the plant includes a management information base (MIB) that contains values of fields and is associated with a management information base definition including fields, which server is characterized in that it includes a management system (1) according to claim 1.

18. Use of a management system (1) according to claim 1 in network technologies that have to be managed.

19. Use according to claim 18, characterized in that said network technologies are selected from the group comprising transmission networks, in particular WDM, SONET, and SDH networks, data networks, in particular Internet Protocol (IP) and ATM networks, and voice networks, in particular conventional, mobile, and NGN networks.

20. Use of a management server (2) according to claim 11 in network technologies that have to be managed.

21. Use according to claim 20, characterized in that said network technologies are selected from the group comprising transmission networks, in particular WDM, SONET, and SDH networks, data networks, in particular Internet Protocol (IP) and ATM networks, and voice networks, in particular conventional, mobile, and NGN networks.

12. A method of managing management data of plant (5) of a communications network wherein each unit of the plant includes a management information base (6) containing values of fields and associated with a management information base definition (7) including fields and accessible in a network management system (NMS), which method is characterized in that it consists in providing an automatic descriptor (8) including first data designating at least one type of network plant (5) and second data designating management information based definitions (7) associated with said type(s) of plant and, in the event of designation of a type of plant (5), using said automatic descriptor (8) to access the fields of said management information base definitions (7) associated with the designated type and then delivering third data representative of fields of plant (5) of the designated type.

13. A method according to claim 12, characterized in that, if an address of a plant unit (5) is designated in addition to its type, said automatic descriptor (8) is used to access the field of the management information base definition (7) associated with said designated plant (5) and the values from at least some of said fields contained in said definition (7) are extracted from the management information base (6) of the plant (5) designated by the address received, after which third data representative of said extracted values is delivered.

14. A method according to claim 13, characterized in that, in the case of management information bases (6) taking the form of a tree associated with at least one table, said automatic descriptor (8) is used to deliver third data in the form of a tree and at least one table including said extracted field values.

15. A method according to claim 12, characterized in that if said automatic descriptor (8) includes fourth data designating a graphical representation, said third data is displayed in a chosen format corresponding to said graphical representation.

16. Use of a method according to claim 12, in network technologies that have to be managed.

17. Use according to claim 16, characterized in that said network technologies are selected from the group comprising transmission networks, in particular WDM, SONET, and SDH networks, data networks, in particular Internet Protocol (IP) and ATM networks, and voice networks, in particular conventional, mobile, and NGN networks.