Network element in a telecommunication network

• US 5,696,697 A
• Filed: 06/13/1995
• Issued: 12/09/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Eneroth, Goran, Carlsund, Peter, Blau, Staffan
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PEESO, THOMAS R
• Application Number:
  US08/489,746
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• Field of Search: 364/514 C, 379/220, 379/221, 395/325, 395/600, 395/909, 395/444, 395/682, 395/601, 395/200.03
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/052 using standardised network management architectures, e.g. telecommunication management network [TMN] or unified network management architecture [UNMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13503 object-oriented systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13505 management information base [MIB]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13526 resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A network element in a telecommunication network providing a number of different types of services, supports several telecommunication network applications (1304, 1306). It furthermore contains system resources and management information software. This software includes application specific management information and management information for system resources common to the applications, and is available to an operations system for managing the system resources when they are to be used. All of said management information is organized, from the point of view of naming, in several application specific management information bases each in the form of a respective hierarchical tree structure (1310, 1312).

Claims

1. An operations support network for operation and maintenance of a telecommunication network comprising:

an operations system and a datacommunication network, the operations system controlling the telecommunication network via the datacommunication network;

the telecommunication network including at least one network element having means for performing at least two network element functions, each providing a telecommunication network application;

the performing means having hardware and software resources including application specific resources and resources common to several applications;

each network element having a software management view layer providing an interface to the operations system, wherein the network element appears as a number of managed objects representing resources and network element functions that are used by the operations system for managing a respective resource and network element function when performing a network element function,

wherein the managed objects of said at least one network element have names organized in several hierarchical tree structures;

all managed objects representing application specific resources are distributed on application specific tree structures, one for each application, and managed objects representing common resources are contained in a common tree structure.

2. A telecommunication network comprising:

at least one network element having means for performing at least two network element functions, each providing a telecommunication network application;

the performing means having hardware and software resources including application specific resources and resources common to several applications;

each network element having a software management view layer providing an interface to an operations system, wherein the network element appears as a number of managed objects representing resources and network element functions that are used for managing a respective resource and network element function when performing a network element function,

wherein the managed objects of the at least one network element have names organized in several hierarchical tree structures;

all managed objects representing application specific resources being distributed on application specific tree structures, one for each application, and managed objects representing common resources being contained in a common tree structure.

3. A network element included in a telecommunication network comprising:

means for performing at least two network element functions, each providing a telecommunication network application;

the means for performing having hardware and software resources including application specific resources and resources common to several applications, the network element having a software management view layer providing an interface to an operations system wherein the network element appears as a number of managed objects representing resources and network element functions that are used by the operating system for managing a respective resource and network element function when performing a network element function,

wherein the managed objects of said network element have names organized in several hierarchical tree structures;

all managed objects representing application specific resources are distributed on application specific tree structures, one for each application, and managed objects representing common resources are contained in a common tree structure.

4. In a telecommunication network, a method for structuring software in a network element having means for performing at least two network element functions, each providing a telecommunication network application;

the performing means having hardware and software resources including application specific resources and resources common to several applications, the network element having a software management view layer providing an interface to an operations system, wherein the network element appears as a number of managed objects representing resources and network element functions that are used by the operations system for managing a respective resource and network element functions when performing a network element function, comprising the steps of;

organizing names of the managed objects in several hierarchical tree structures;

distributing all managed objects representing application specific resources on application specific tree structures, one for each application, and

locating managed objects representing common resources in a common tree structure.

5. A network element in a telecommunication network providing a number of different types of services;

the network element supporting several telecommunication network applications comprising, system resources and management information software that includes application specific management information and management information for system resources common to the applications, wherein the management information software is available to an operations system for managing the system resources when they are used, and the names identifying parts of all of the management information are organized in several application specific management information bases, each in the form of a respective hierarchical tree structure.

6. A network element in a telecommunication network providing a number of different types of services;

the network element supporting several telecommunication network applications comprising, system resources and management information software that includes application specific management information and management information for system resources common to the applications, wherein the management information software is available to an operations system for managing the system resources when they are used, and the names identifying parts of all of the management information are organized in several application specific management information bases, each in the form of a respective hierarchical tree structure and the management information for common resources is handled by a separate tree.

7. A network element in a telecommunication network providing a number of different types of services;

the network element supporting several telecommunication network applications comprising, system resources and management information software that includes application specific management information and management information for system resources common to the applications, wherein the management information software is available to an operations system for managing the system resources when they are used, and the names identifying parts of all of the management information are organized in several application specific management information bases, each in the form of a respective hierarchical tree structure and the management information for common resources is managed by the same tree as application specific information.

8. A network element in a telecommunication network providing a number of different types of services;

the network element supporting several telecommunication network applications comprising, system resources and management information software that includes application specific management information and management information for system resources common to the applications, wherein the management information software is available to an operations system for managing the system resources when they are used, and the names identifying parts of all of the management information are organized in several application specific management information bases, each in the form of a respective hierarchical tree structure and each management information tree for application specific information has a root object that is a managed object of a specific class of managed objects, or a subclass thereof, and the managed object is the only attribute having the name of the corresponding management information tree.

9. A network element according to claim 8, wherein the management information tree for common system resources has a root object that is a managed object of the specific class of managed objects, or a subclass thereof.

10. A network element in a telecommunication network providing a number of different types of services;

the network element supporting several telecommunication network applications comprising, system resources and management information software that includes application specific management information and management information for system resources common to the applications, wherein the management information software is available to an operations system for managing the system resources when they are used, and the names identifying parts of all of the management information are organized in several application specific management information bases, each in the form of a respective hierarchical tree structure and managed objects in different management information trees are related.

11. A network element according to claim 10, wherein the relations between managed object instances are represented by an attribute with a globally distinguished name.

12. A network element according to claim 10, wherein the relations between managed object instances in different management information trees, as seen from the operations system, are represented by an attribute referring to a management tree unique name for the object instance in the respective management information tree and identifying the other management information tree.