Network management system

• US 5,726,979 A
• Filed: 02/22/1996
• Issued: 03/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Henderson, Gregory Scott, Cooley, Von A., Sanders, Ed J. Jr., Perry, Wayne B., Franklin, Thomas Dennie
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Wellington
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, HUY DUY
• Application Number:
  US08/605,597
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• Field of Search: 370/241, 370/244, 370/250, 370/252, 370/229, 370/254, 370/255, 370/351, 370/522, 370/235, 370/236, 370/237, 370/238, 395/140, 395/500, 395/701, 395/712, 395/133, 395/138, 395/326, 395/333, 395/334, 395/339, 395/340, 395/200.02, 395/200.1, 395/201, 395/200.11, 395/708 , 395/200.19, 395/707, 395/683, 395/800, 395/118, 395/501, 395/526, 395/651, 364/148, 364/149, 364/150, 364/151, 364/221.2, 364/284.4, 364/286, 364/977, 364/977.1, 379/1, 379/90, 379/112, 379/114, 379/119, 379/229
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0688 Change of the master or reference, e.g. take-over or failure of the master
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• 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: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0879 Manual configuration through operator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/20 Network management software packages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 : Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0079 : involving restoration of networks, e.g. disaster recovery, self-healing networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0083 : Network planning or design; Modelling of planned or existing networks

Abstract

A system and method for managing a telecommunications network. The system and method employs a network management architecture that provides an overlay in which network management functions are performed. The network management architecture includes a workstation function that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for a user to interact with an object model of the physical telecommunications network, a telecommunications network management subsystem that provides an object model of the network including object models of network equipment and connectivity between the equipment, a database subsystem that stores "current" and "future" views of the network, and an object request broker that translates objects from a first object-oriented paradigm to a second object-oriented paradigm for use by the GUI. The network management architecture facilitates network design by determining network performance metrics. The network architecture can also be used to assess the performance of a given network configuration by virtue of simulation. The network architecture can also be used to initialize switchover logic for network restoration.

Claims

1. A system to manage a telecommunications network having network equipment, comprising:

a telecommunications management network (TMN) subsystem to store a run-time object model representation of the telecommunications network equipment;

a database subsystem coupled to said telecommunications management network subsystem to provide long-term storage for records describing the network equipment and connectivity between the network equipment from which the said run-time object model representation of the telecommunications network is constructed;

a workstation coupled to said TMN subsystem on which to operate a graphical user interface (GUI) that provides a graphical representation of said run-time object model representation, and further provides access to said run-time object model representation, and on which to perform at least one network management function; and

a translator coupled to said workstation and said telecommunications management network subsystem to translate said object model representation into a form that is usable by said GUI.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a first workset containing a "current" view of the network, wherein said first workset is stored in said database subsystem; and

a workset manager coupled to said TMN subsystem to create a second workset from records stored in said database subsystem, wherein said second workset is stored in said database subsystem and said second workset represents a "future" view of the network.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a view controller coupled to said GUI and to said translation device to accept a request from said GUI and to convert said request into a command understandable by said translator to manipulate said run-time object model representation, and further to accept a results of any object model manipulation for transmission to said view controller, said view controller converting said result into said useable form for display on said GUI.

4. The system as recited in claim 3, further comprising a common management interface protocol (CMIP) interface, said run-time object model representation created from information extracted from the telecommunications network over said CMIP interface, and stored in a manner consistent with the TMN standard, but having extensions thereto for representing particular connections between the network equipment in the network.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein said translator is an object request broker (ORB).

6. The system as recited in claim 5, wherein said ORB translates an object from the TMN standard, and the extensions thereto, to a common object request broker architecture (CORBA) standard compliant representation.

7. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein said at least one "future" view is indexed according to date.

8. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein said at least one "future" view is indexed according to project.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said GUI presents linked topographical and topological representations of the telecommunications network.

10. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein said particular connections are line, link, and section connections in a SONET or SDH network.

11. A method for managing a telecommunications network having a plurality of network elements comprising the steps of:

modeling the network in an object oriented-programming language using object models to create a run-time object model of the telecommunications network;

storing the run-time object model in a telecommunications management network subsystem;

providing access to the model via a graphical user interface (GUI);

translating from the object model representation stored in the telecommunications management network subsystem to a representation useable by the GUI.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein said run-time object model is modeled in accordance with the telecommunications management network (TMN) standard, but having extensions thereto to represent particular network element connections.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising the step of:

extracting information required to build said run-time object model representation across a common management interface protocol (CMIP) compliant interface;

translating said object model representation to be compliant with the common object request broker architecture (CORBA) standard; and

providing run-time object model information to said GUI across a CORBA-compliant interface.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

modifying said run-time object model in accordance with a desired configuration of the telecommunications network at some point in the future to create a "future" view of the network; and

storing said "future" view as a workset in said database.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising the step of indexing said "future" view according to date.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising the step of indexing said "future" view according to project.