Service level agreement management

• US 20080046266A1
• Filed: 04/06/2007
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Amid, Shahram, Banke, Richard, Monden, Chad, Gudipalley, Chandu, Abbott, John
• Application Number:
  US11/784,301
• Publication Number:
  US 20080046266A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• 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 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5045 Making service definitions prior to deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5093 wherein the managed service relates to messaging or chat services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

Consistent with embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods are disclosed for providing service level agreement management. The method may include collecting performance data on a data network and collecting service information including at least one rule. The rule may include a service level agreement rule and a contract rule. The method may further include correlating the performance data and the service information and determining a violation of the at least one rule by the data network based on the collected performance data and the at least one rule. The method may further include collecting billing charges or monthly recurring charges corresponding to a service. The method may further include determining the penalties or charges to be given to a service and to a customer according to at least one rule in the event of a violation of the at least one service level agreement rule and a contract rule.

Claims

1. A method for providing service level agreement management, the method comprising:

collecting performance data on a data network;

collecting service information comprising at least one rule, wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of the following;

a service level agreement rule and a contract rule;

correlating the performance data and the service information; and

determining a violation of the at least one rule by the data network based on the collected performance data and the at least one rule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the performance data on the data network comprises collecting at least one measurement from at least one device on the data network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein collecting the at least one measurement comprises collecting at least one of the following:

bandwidth utilization, quality of service, up/down status of devices, latency, delay round trip, delay one way, jitter round trip, jitter one way, packet loss round trip, packet loss one way, and packets out of sequence.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein collecting the at least one measurement from the at least one device on the data network comprises:

collecting the at least one measurement from the at least one device on the data network, wherein the data network comprises elements controlled by a plurality of service providers, wherein the at least one measurement is collected from the at least one device, the at least one device being on the data network of a second service provider;

normalizing the collected at least one measurement, wherein normalizing comprises at least compensating the collected at least one measurement for an excused down time, accruing the collected at least one measurement for a period, and determining a period average of the at least one measurement, wherein the excused down time comprises at least one of the following;

a planned maintenance, a customer problem, and a force majeure outage; and

storing the normalized at least one measurement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the performance data on the data network comprises collecting the performance data measured across any layer 2 access.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the performance data on the data network comprises collecting the performance data from a service assurance system comprising at least one of the following:

a trouble ticket system and a fault management system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the collecting the performance data comprises collecting the performance data from a service assurance system, the performance data comprising at least one of the following:

an outage ticket identification, an outage restoration time and date, a severity rating, a duration time, and a fault cause.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the performance data on the data network comprises collecting the performance data from a service fulfillment system comprising one of the following:

a service order system, a customer information system, a provisioning system, and an inventory system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the performance data comprises collecting the performance data independent of a data type, wherein the data type comprises one of the following:

a network performance data type, a procedural performance data type, and an operational performance data type.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the service information comprises collecting the service information from a system comprising at least one of the following:

a service level agreement catalog system, a customer information system, a billing system, and a service order system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the violation of the at least one rule comprises determining the violation of the at least one rule using a different threshold for each of a plurality of class of service, wherein the plurality of the class of service comprises at least one of the following:

best effort, priority business, interactive, and real-time.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the violation of the rule comprises calculating a credit to a customer based on a percentage of a monthly recurring charge, wherein the monthly recurring charge is calculated with revenue considerations comprising at least on one of the following:

a cost of a service to the provider, a revenue projection, a class of service.

13. A system for providing service level agreement management, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

collect performance data on a data network;

collect service information comprising at least one of a customer, a product, and at least one rule, wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of the following;

a service level agreement rule and a contract rule;

correlate the performance data and the service information, wherein the at least one rule and the service information are correlated into a service level template, wherein the service level template provides an association of the customer, the product, the at least one rule; and

determine a violation of the at least one rule by the data network based on the collected performance data and the at least one rule.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processing unit is further operative to collect at least one measurement from at least one device on the data network.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the processing unit is further operative to:

collect the at least one measurement from the at least one device on the data network, wherein the data network comprises elements controlled by a plurality of service providers, wherein the at least one measurement is collected from the at least one device, the at least one device being on the data network of a second service provider;

normalize the collected at least one measurement, wherein normalizing comprises at least compensating the collected at least one measurement for an excused down time, accruing the collected at least one measurement for a period, and determining a period average of the at least one measurement, wherein the excused down time comprises at least one of the following;

a planned maintenance, a customer problem, and a force majeure outage; and

store the normalized at least one measurement.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the processing unit is further operative to calculate a credit to a customer based on a percentage of a monthly recurring charge, wherein the monthly recurring charge is calculated with revenue considerations comprising at least on one of the following:

a cost of a service to the provider, a revenue projection, a class of service.

17. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing service level agreement management, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

collecting performance data on a data network;

collecting service information comprising at least one of a customer, a purchased product, a device, a cost to serve, and at least one rule, wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of the following;

a service level agreement rule and a contract rule;

correlating the performance data and the service information, wherein the service information is correlated into a service model; and

determining a violation of the at least one rule by the data network based on the collected performance data and the at least one rule.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein collecting the performance data on the data network comprises collecting at least one measurement from at least one device on the data network.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein collecting the performance data on the data network comprises collecting the performance data from a service assurance system comprising at least one of the following:

a trouble ticket system and a fault management system.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein determining the violation of the at least one rule comprises determining the violation of the at least one rule using a different threshold for each of a plurality of class of service, wherein the plurality of the class of service comprises at least one of the following:

best effort, priority business, interactive, and real-time.