System and method for integrating multiple data sources into service-centric computer networking services diagnostic conclusions

• US 20060156086A1
• Filed: 06/21/2005
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spirent Communications of Rockville, Inc. (Spirent Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Spirent Communications of Rockville, Inc. (Spirent Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: McBeath, Tom, Collins, Jason, Dentinger, Bill, Rowland, Dan, Rennyson, Dave, Gellerman, David, Ramachandran, Jo, Flynn, Peter, Stoos, Michael, Gellerman, Robert F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,434,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/712
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• 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 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A system for diagnosing impairments in computer networking services a plurality of connector gateways for interfacing to a plurality of data sources to provide access by the system to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources. The system includes a knowledge manager in communication with each of the plurality of connector gateways for analyzing data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the impairments in the computer networking services. The system also includes an interactor in communication with the knowledge manager for generating format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions to a user. The system can include a graphical user interface for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions associated with edges of an edge model of the computer networking services of the user.

Claims

1. A system for diagnosing impairments in computer networking services, comprising:

a plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the plurality of connector gateways are configured to interface to a plurality of data sources to provide access by the system to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources;

a knowledge manager in communication with each of the plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the knowledge manner is configured to analyze data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the impairments in the computer networking services; and

an interactor in communication with the knowledge manager,

wherein the interactor is configured to generate format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions to a user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the knowledge manager comprises a rules engine.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the knowledge manager comprises at least one diagnostic assistant,

wherein the at least one diagnostic assistant is configured to collect data from the plurality of data sources via the plurality of connector gateways and to apply the collected data to the rules engine to generate the diagnostic conclusions.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of time, accuracy and efficiency of the rules engine is altered to modify a time length for generating the diagnostic conclusions by the knowledge manager.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic conclusions comprise a severity weighting factor for ranking the diagnostic conclusions.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one event is associated with a diagnostic conclusion, and

wherein the at least one event is configured to execute in response to the diagnostic conclusion.

7. The system of claim 1, comprising:

a graphical user interface,

wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display the format information from the interactor to the user.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least one of iconic and hierarchical representations of diagnostic conclusions to the user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least one of iconic and hierarchical representations of diagnostic information and computer networking services information to the user.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least one of iconic and hierarchical representations of active diagnostic assistants to the user.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display the computer networking services to the user from a service-centric perspective based on computer networking services of the user.

12. The system of claim 1, comprising:

at least one archival database in communication with the knowledge manager.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one archival database is configured to store at least the diagnostic conclusions and information associated with the impairments of the computer networking services.

14. The system of claim 12, comprising:

a diagnostic report generator in communication with the at least one archival database and the interactor,

wherein the diagnostic report generator is configured to extract stored information from the at least one archival database and to generate formatted reports from the extracted information for display to the user.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the knowledge manager is associated with a computer networking services domain.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer network data comprises data from computer network test sources.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the business-related data comprises data from customer records databases.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the business-related data comprises data from network inventory databases.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the extra-enterprise environmental data comprises news data associated with current events.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the extra-enterprise environmental data comprises weather data.

21. A method of diagnosing impairments in computer networking services, comprising the steps of:

a.) detecting an occurrence of at least one impairment in the computer networking services;

b.) interfacing to a plurality of data sources to provide access to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources;

c.) analyzing data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the at least one impairment in the computer networking services; and

d.) generating format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions to a user.

22. A system for diagnosing impairments in computer networking services, comprising:

a plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the plurality of connector gateways are configured to interface to a plurality of data sources to provide access by the system to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources;

a knowledge manager in communication with each of the plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the knowledge manner is configured to analyze data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the impairments in the computer networking services; and

a graphical user interface in communication with the knowledge manager,

wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least the diagnostic conclusions associated with edges of an edge model of the computer networking services of a user.

23. The system of claim 22, comprising:

an interactor in communication with the knowledge manager and the graphical user interface,

wherein the interactor is configured to generate format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions associated with the edges of the edge model of the computer networking services of the user.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the edge model comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) edge model.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein an edge of the IP edge model comprises one of a local customer edge, a remote provider edge, a remote customer edge, and an internet service provider (ISP) edge.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the edge model comprises a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) edge model.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein an edge of the VoIP edge model comprises one of a local phone edge, a VoIP proxy edge, a SS7 gateway edge and an ISDN gateway edge.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the edge model comprises a transport edge model.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein an edge of the transport edge model comprises one of a VLAN edge, an ATM edge, a DSL edge and a Martini edge.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein the knowledge manager comprises a rules engine,

wherein each edge is associated with a rules set of the rules engine.

31. A method of diagnosing impairments in computer networking services, comprising the steps of:

a.) detecting an occurrence of at least one impairment in the computer networking services;

b.) interfacing to a plurality of data sources to provide access to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources;

c.) analyzing data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the at least one impairment in the computer networking services; and

d.) displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions associated with edges of an edge model of the computer networking services of a user.