Event correlation
First Claim
1. A method for automatically processing alarm signals in a network management system for a telecommunications network, said method comprising:
- generating alarm signals in the telecommunications network as a result of alarm conditions occurring in a plurality of components of the telecommunications network,transmitting alarm signals from the telecommunications network to the network management system,storing historical data concerning the times at which alarm conditions occur in the telecommunications network during a reference time period in a store forming part of the network management system,identifying alarm conditions occurring in the telecommunications network within one of a number of predetermined temporal windows,correlating the identified alarm conditions by analysing the historical data to determine the statistical probabilities of pairs of the identified alarm conditions occurring by chance within the same temporal window, anddisplaying at least some of the statistical probabilities on a display device of the network management system.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Simultaneous events reported to an equipment management system are compared with historical data in order to establish whether there is a relationship between the events. Historical data is used to determined the statistical probability of the events occurring independently simultaneously. If this probability is below a predetermined threshold this will suggest that the events are not independent, but are relaxed. Such relationships are alerted to an operator, for example by highlighting or grouping on a screen display, assisting the operator in identification of related events, without the need for prior knowledge of the relationships in the system. The events may be alarms generated by faults in a network. The identification of related faults at different points in the network assists identification of their common cause. The historical database may be updated by further event occurrences as they are reported to the equipment management system, thereby enlarging the database to make the results more statistically accurate. Events may be reported to the system automatically or by human agency. To allow for systematic delays in event reporting, alarms from one source may be compared with alarms from another source occurring a fixed time later or earlier.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A method for automatically processing alarm signals in a network management system for a telecommunications network, said method comprising:
-
generating alarm signals in the telecommunications network as a result of alarm conditions occurring in a plurality of components of the telecommunications network, transmitting alarm signals from the telecommunications network to the network management system, storing historical data concerning the times at which alarm conditions occur in the telecommunications network during a reference time period in a store forming part of the network management system, identifying alarm conditions occurring in the telecommunications network within one of a number of predetermined temporal windows, correlating the identified alarm conditions by analysing the historical data to determine the statistical probabilities of pairs of the identified alarm conditions occurring by chance within the same temporal window, and displaying at least some of the statistical probabilities on a display device of the network management system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A network management system for automatically processing alarm signals, said system comprising:
-
means for generating alarm signals generated by monitors as a result of alarm conditions occurring in a plurality of components of a telecommunications network, receiving means for receiving said alarm signals, storing means for storing historical data including a representation of the times at which alarm conditions occur in the telecommunications network during a reference time period, correlating means for correlating alarm conditions identified as occurring within a predetermined temporal window, said correlating means including means for determining the statistical probabilities of pairs of the identified alarm conditions occurring by chance within the some temporal window, and means for displaying at least some of the statistical probabilities determined by the correlating means. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A self-learning adaptive network management system comprising:
-
network condition detectors distributed within the network and disposed to generate respectively corresponding alarm signals in response to detected abnormalities; an alarm monitoring means connected to receive said alarm signals and to assign the occurrence of each to an associated time; a historical data storage means connected to receive and store historical data representing the identity of alarm signals historically received in the past from the network; correlation means connected to process said stored historical data and generate statistical data therefrom representing the probability of a predetermined plurality of predetermined alarm signals independently occurring within the same time window by chance; and means for using said statistical data to identify and display concurrently received new incoming alarm signals that are most probably not independent occurrences but, instead, are most probably inter-dependent related alarm conditions. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method for self-learning adaptive network management, said method comprising:
-
generating alarm signals in response to detected abnormalities within the network; receiving said alarm signals and assigning the occurrence of each to an associated time; storing historical data representing the identity of alarm signals historically received in the past from the network; processing said stored historical data to generate statistical data representing the probability of a predetermined plurality of predetermined alarm signals independently occurring within the same time window by chance; and using said statistical data to identify and display concurrently received new incoming alarm signals that are most probably not independent occurrences but, instead, are most probably inter-dependent related alarm conditions. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
-
Specification