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Expert based system and method for managing error events in a local area network

  • US 5,483,637 A
  • Filed: 06/27/1994
  • Issued: 01/09/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/27/1994
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A real-time method for correlating causes and error messages to be used in a system for managing error events in a local area network (LAN), said method comprising the steps of:

  • providing in a knowledge base data defining a plurality of causal relationships, wherein each one of said plurality of said causal relationships associates an error message with at least one cause;

    providing in said knowledge base data defining at least one implied relationship, wherein said implied relationship represents a first cause which implies a second cause;

    providing in said knowledge base data defining at least one trigger relationship, wherein said trigger relationship associates a first error message with a second error message if said first error message and said second error message are associated with the same causes and said first error message might be produced by the same part of said LAN as said second error message;

    receiving error messages from the LAN;

    in response to a received error message from said LAN, accessing said knowledge base by an inference engine to identify the error message and retrieve from the knowledge base its possible causes, said inference engine attaching any retrieved possible causes to the received error message;

    comparing by the inference engine the received error message with other already received error messages to filter out repeated error messages;

    accessing said knowledge base by the inference engine information as to whether the received error message has any triggering error messages and, if so, examining by the inference engine already received error messages to determine whether a triggering error message has arrived and, if so, disregarding by the inference engine the received error message;

    accessing said knowledge base by the inference engine for related causes of the received error message and comparing by the inference engine the received error message with existing diagnostic problems, termed a cluster, to determine if the received error message shares common causes with all error messages in the cluster and, if so, adding the received error message to the cluster;

    accessing said knowledge base by the inference engine for an imply relationship for the received error message and evaluating by the inference engine the causes in a cluster to determine whether one cause in a cluster implies another cause and, if so, discarding the implied cause; and

    when a cluster has one fully instantiated cause left, reporting by the inference engine problems including correlated error messages, a cause and a recommended action for fixing the cause.

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