End-to-end test and diagnostic management system

• US 20070115860A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Samele, Antonio, Lupo, Gabriele, Proietti, Sirio
• Granted Patent: US 8,432,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/259
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0087 Network testing or monitoring arrangements

Abstract

An end-to-end test and diagnostic manager and a method of diagnosing service problems in a multi-domain, multi-service network are provided. A database receives and stores service and network inventory data identifying and describing the customer and the network components necessary to deliver a service to the customer over a multi-domain network. An interface for displaying service information to an operator and for receiving commands from an operator is also provided. A plurality of test tools for testing operational status and verifying the configuration of components necessary to deliver the service to the customer. An application server is configured to execute instructions for invoking the test tools. The results of the test are displayed for the operator via the interface.

Claims

1. A system for troubleshooting service delivery problems for services delivered over multi-domain networks wherein the multi-domain networks include network components necessary to deliver a service, the network components having at least one of an operational status and a configuration, the system comprising:

a plurality of test tools (318) for learning at least one of the operational status and configuration of network components necessary to deliver a service to a customer;

a test manager (300) having access to network and service inventory data including data relating to services delivered to customers and the network components necessary to deliver the services, the test manager including workflows for selectively invoking test tools in response to specific service delivery problems to test the operational status and verify the configuration of network components necessary)to deliver a specified service; and

a graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying results of the selectively invoked tests.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the network and service inventory data include service plans subscribed to by customers.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the network and service inventory data include data describing service equipment at a customer'"'"'s premises and under the customer'"'"'s control.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the network and service inventory data include identification of essential network elements and components for all domains necessary to deliver a particular service to a particular customer.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the test manager (300) further includes a database adapted to pull information from operations support systems (304) in the service delivery environment, including the network and service inventory data in order to perform the necessary tests to diagnose a service delivery problem across all network domains involved in delivering the service.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from a field access system (328) to perform a final check of service restoration, the field access system (328) accessing the test manager from a technician'"'"'s mobile terminal at a customer'"'"'s premises.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) (330) to perform an information exchange to authorize user accesses.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from an integrated order management system (332) to gather information about the status of a work request concerning a customer claiming a service interruption.

9. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from a network trouble management system (334) to manage customer complaints on a network delivered service and to gain details from a related trouble ticket.

10. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from a fault management system (336) to open an alarm when a problem is found and to provide information about impacted customers

11. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from a service delivery platform (338) to gather service and user profile information.

12. The system of claim 5 wherein the database is adapted to pull data from a performance management system (340) to check for degradation in the network components involved in delivering a service to a customer.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the test manager is adapted to provide data gathered from the selectively invoked test tools to external operations support systems (304) to support the specific processes managed by the external operations support systems.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of test tools comprise stand alone test tool packages adapted to test network elements in specific network domains.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the capabilities of said plurality of test tools are provided by network element managers having access to specific network elements'"'"' configuration data and which are capable of testing the specific network elements'"'"' operational status.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the capabilities of said plurality of test tools are provided by a layer 2, 3, domain manager.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the capabilities of said plurality of test tools are included as internal test modules within the test and diagnostic manager.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of test tools comprise a combination of stand alone test tool packages, network element managers, a layer 2, 3 manager, and internal test modules within the test and diagnostic manager.

19. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user profile database (322) for storing user profiles and access privileges.

20. The system of claim 1 further comprising an application server (326) adapted to execute established workflows for invoking said test tools.

21. The system of claim 1 further comprising a web server for serving GUI pages to a user.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the test manager (300) further includes an internal database (320) for storing results from the selectively invoked test tools.

24. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 22 wherein the test tools comprise any combination of tools taken form the list comprising:

CPEMS Ping Test;

Sync Profile;

Port verification;

Port Lock/Unlock;

No Sync Test;

Port Reset;

IP Ping Testing;

Test Call;

Call History;

End-To-End VoN Service; and

End-To-End BB Service;

MLT. (Mechanized Loop Testing).

23. An end-to-end test and diagnostic manager (300) adapted to test network components and diagnose service delivery problems for services delivered over multi-domain networks, the test and diagnostic manager comprising:

a graphical user interface for displaying status and diagnostic data regarding networks, network components, and services to an operator and for receiving commands from an operator; and

an application server (326) having access to network and service inventory data such that upon receiving a report of a service delivery problem the application server may determine the services delivered to a customer and the networks and network elements necessary to deliver the services to the customer, the application server being adapted to execute workflows to selectively invoke one or more test tools (318) to determine operational status and configuration data of the network elements necessary to deliver a service to a customer to determine the cause of the service delivery problem and display the results via the graphical user interface.

25. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 wherein the application server (326) is adapted execute one or more test tools directly.

26. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 wherein the application server invokes an external test tool associated with a network domain and the external test tool is adapted to test the network elements within the associated domain.

27. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 wherein the application server invokes test tools via a layer 2,3 domain manager (320).

28. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 wherein the application server (326) invokes test tools (318) via element managers associated with the network elements to be tested.

29. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 further comprising a web server (324), the graphical user interface comprising a web based graphical user interface having interface pages served to a client terminal associated with an operator.

30. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 29 further comprising a user profile database (322) for storing user profiles defining access rights test privileges of operators permitted to use the end-to-end test and diagnostic manager.

31. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 wherein the database has access to operational support system (304) whereby additional data relevant to service may be received and stored on the database and presented to an operator via the interface.

32. The end-to-end test and diagnostic manager of claim 23 wherein the application server is configured to invoke test tools for testing the operational status of every network component involved in delivering a service to a customer and the actual end-to end delivery of the service.

33. A method of diagnosing service problems in services delivered via layered, multi-domain network environments, comprising,

receiving a report (250) of a service problem from a customer;

gathering information (252) regarding all components (network elements and applications) necessary to deliver the service to the customer;

remotely testing (254) the possible components having problems in order to identify the root cause of the service problem;

resolving remotely the problem (256); and

performing a remote end-to-end test (258) to ensure the service has been restored.