Autonomous expert system for directly maintaining remote telephone switching systems
First Claim
1. A method for remotely maintaining computer systems by an expert system in conjunction with a central reporting center to which said computer systems report self-detected faults, comprising the steps of:
- accessing said central reporting center by said expert system to obtain the identity of one of said computer systems reporting detected faults;
opening a maintenance session with said identified computer system by said expert system via the public telephone network in a similar manner as a human technician;
invoking diagnostic procedures on said identified computer system by said expert system to gather data about said reported faults;
analyzing said data to determine the severity of each of said reported faults by said expert system with respect to said reported faults being transitory and permanent type of faults; and
clearing transitory ones of said reported faults by said expert system upon said transitory ones of said reported faults being determined to be less severity than permanent ones of said reported faults.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An autonomous expert system for directly maintaining remote computer systems by directly accessing the remote computer systems, diagnosing, and clearing fault conditions on those computer systems. The expert system performs those functions by first accessing a fault report from a centralized service reporting center, establishing a data connection to the computer system reporting the fault, invoking diagnostic routines on the computer system to gather data about the reported fault, analyzing the data, and, if appropriate, clearing the reported fault from the computer system. If the fault cannot be cleared, the expert system recommends maintenance procedures and replacement parts for a technician who the expert system dispatches to the remote computer. The recommendations are based on field experience stored in rules and databases maintained by the expert system. When the remote computer system is controlling a customr switching system (PBX), the expert system only invokes testing procedures in the computer system which do not disrupt stable telephone calls. The expert system access the PBX via the public telephone network.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for remotely maintaining computer systems by an expert system in conjunction with a central reporting center to which said computer systems report self-detected faults, comprising the steps of:
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accessing said central reporting center by said expert system to obtain the identity of one of said computer systems reporting detected faults; opening a maintenance session with said identified computer system by said expert system via the public telephone network in a similar manner as a human technician; invoking diagnostic procedures on said identified computer system by said expert system to gather data about said reported faults; analyzing said data to determine the severity of each of said reported faults by said expert system with respect to said reported faults being transitory and permanent type of faults; and clearing transitory ones of said reported faults by said expert system upon said transitory ones of said reported faults being determined to be less severity than permanent ones of said reported faults. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for remotely maintaining telephone switching systems by an expert system in conjunction with a central reporting center to which said switching systems report self-detected faults, comprising the steps of:
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accessing said central reporting center by said expert system to obtain the identity of one of said switching systems reporting detected faults; opening a maintenance session with said identified switching system by said expert system via the public telephone network in a similar manner as a human technician; invoking diagnostic procedures on said identified switching system by said expert system to gather data about said reported faults; analyzing said data to determine the severity of each of said reported faults by said expert system with respect to said reported faults being transitory and permanent type of faults; and clearing transitory ones of said reported faults by said expert system upon said transitory ones of said reported faults being determined to be less severity than permanent ones of said reported faults. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for remotely determining replacement of components in telephone switching systems by an expert system in conjunction with a central reporting center to which said switching systems report self-detected faults, comprising the steps of:
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maintaining a history database of said expert system to record detected faults by component type and component location and time of fault for each of said switching systems; maintaining a multifault database to store on the basis of field experience recommendations on the replacement of components in said switching systems on the basis of component type and component location and time of fault by said expert system; accessing said central reporting center by said expert system to obtain the identity of one said switching systems reporting detected faults; opening a maintenance session with said identified switching system by said expert system in a similar manner as used by a human technician; invoking diagnostic procedures on said identified switching system by said expert system to gather data about said reported faults and the gathered data including component type and component location and time of fault; analyzing said data to determine the severity of each of said reported faults by said expert system with respect to being transitory and permanent types of faults; interrogating said history database with the gathered data by said expert system to determine the number of fault occurrences of each of said components having a transitory fault in said identified switching system; and recommending replacement of each of said components having said number that exceeds a predefined threshold in said multifault database. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification