PROVISIONING AND COMMISSIONING A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK WITH A VIRTUAL NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER AND INTERFACE

• US 20110040896A1
• Filed: 08/12/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Osias, Michael J., DeCusatis, Casimer M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,396,952 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0254 Optical medium access
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0283 WDM ring architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

An interface coupled to a virtual network operations center and coupled to a data communications network having at least one optical channel. Equipment on the data communications network is identified by the interface wherein the interface coordinates and correlates communications between the I/O interfaces of a server coupled to the network so that data rates and data protocols are managed properly. The interface receives commands from and transmits commands to the data communications network and translates the commands to be further transmitted and used in the virtual network operations center coupled to the server. The data communications network is represented in a three dimensions virtual world in the virtual network operations center so that events on the network can be represented in real-time in the virtual network operations center.

Claims

1. A computer comprising:

a virtual network operations center;

an interface operationally connected to the virtual network operations center;

at least one input/output (I/O) port on the interface operable to receive and transmit messages to at least one data communications network having at least one optical channel;

a tag association component that correlates identifiers of a plurality of equipment connected on the data communications network with one or more data channels of the computer; and

a connection component that encapsulates the messages for transmission to the virtual network operations center;

whereby the data communications network is represented as a three-dimensional virtual world in the virtual network operations center.

2. The computer of claim 1 wherein the data communications network is a wavelength division multiplexed network.

3. The computer of claim 2 wherein the interface can receive and transmit data on the wavelength division multiplexed network.

4. The computer of claim 1 wherein the interface can receive and transmit electrical data.

5. The computer of claim 4 wherein the electrical data is analog data.

6. The computer of claim 4 wherein the electrical data is digital data.

7. The computer of claim 1 wherein the messages are TL1 messages transmitted to and from the data communications network.

8. The computer of claim 7 further comprising a plug in framework component that modifies one or more interfaces of the one or more input/output (I/O) ports to understand and generate TL1 messages.

9. The computer of claim 1 wherein the protocol in which the messages are encapsulated using XML remote procedure calls encoded with the holographic protocol architecture protocol.

10. A method to provision and commission a data communications network having at least one optical channel, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting network information about the network configuration and identifiers of equipment on the network, the interface being operationally connected to the data communications network;

receiving server information about a server'"'"'s I/O configuration, the interface being operationally connected to the server;

assigning server identifiers to one or more I/O adapters of the server'"'"'s I/O configuration;

modifying one or more of the I/O adapters of the server'"'"'s I/O configuration to read and write messages on the data communications network;

associating the server identifiers with the network configuration and the one or more identifiers of the equipment on the network;

provisioning the data communications network so that equipment on the network will receive and transmit data in a protocol and data rate compatible with the one or more I/O adapters of the server; and

rendering the network configuration in a virtual network operations center on the server, the virtual network operations center operationally connected to the interface.

11. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

generating correlation tags between the equipment on the data communications network provisioned to receive data from the I/O adapters of the server.

12. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

the data communications network having a plurality of optical channels.

13. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

the optical channels being connected to a wavelength division multiplexed network.

14. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

extracting network information comprising data protocols and data rates of data transmitted on the data communications network.

15. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

extracting network information comprising the topology of the data communications and connection information of the equipment on the network.

16. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

extracting network information comprising protection switching capabilities of the data communications network.

17. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

extracting network information comprising one or more regeneration commands for the equipment on the data communications network.

18. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 10 further comprising:

the interface receiving network configuration information in TL1 messages.

19. A computer program product for provisioning and commissioning a data communications network operatively coupled to a server, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a network extraction component to extract network configuration information of a data communications network;

a server extraction component to extract information of a server'"'"'s I/O configuration, the server being operationally coupled to the data communications network;

an identifier component that assigns identifiers to one or more I/O adapters of the server'"'"'s I/O configuration and extracts identifiers of each equipment of the data communications network;

a tag association component that stores the identifiers of the one or more I/O adapters of the server and the one or more identifiers of the equipment on the data communications network;

a tag correlation component to correlate the identifiers of the one or more I/O adapters of the server with the one or more identifiers of the equipment on the data communications network that receives and transmits data from and to to its respective one or more I/O adapters;

a commissioning component to control data communications on the data communications network so that equipment on the data communications network will receive and transmit data in a protocol and data rate and on a channel compatible with other equipment on the data communications network; and

a communications component to transmit the network configuration to a virtual network operations center operationally coupled to the server.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a plug-in framework component comprising one or more plug-ins for the one or more I/O adapters of the server'"'"'s I/O configuration to translate the I/O adapter'"'"'s protocol to a protocol for transmission on the data communications network.

21. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a TL1 component to read and write TL1 commands from and to the data communications network.

22. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a network event component to provide protection switching and regeneration commands when an event occurs on the data communications network.

23. A service to couple a wavelength division multiplexed network to at least one server, comprising:

installing at least one interface on the server to couple with the wavelength division multiplexed network;

installing a virtual network operating center on the server;

coupling the at least one interface with the virtual network operating center;

coupling the at least one interface to receive and transmit TL1 messages on the wavelength division multiplexed network;

modifying one or more I/O interfaces of the server to receive and transmit TL1 messages;

encapsulating the TL1 messages to send to the virtual network operating center.

24. A service to provision and commission a wavelength division multiplexed network, comprising;

acquiring configuration information of all elements coupled to the wavelength division multiplexed;

acquiring configuration information of at least one I/O interface of a server coupled to the wavelength division multiplexed network;

modifying the at least one I/O interface of the server to receive and transmit commands understandable by the all elements of the wavelength division multiplexed network;

determining which elements of the wavelength division multiplexed network should receive and transmit data of the same protocol and data rate;

determining which pathways of the wavelength division multiplexed network are redundant;

determining alternative pathways of the wavelength division multiplexed network;

determining protection switching for the wavelength division multiplexed network;

determining whether and the type of regeneration commands for the elements of the wavelength division multiplexed network; and

representing the wavelength division multiplexed network in a virtual network operating center coupled to the interface and to the server.