Combination system for provisioning and maintaining telephone network facilities in a public switched telephone network

• US 5,953,389 A
• Filed: 02/20/1997
• Issued: 09/14/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Harper, Myron E., Casey, William C., Pruett, Richard O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, DUC MINH
• Application Number:
  US08/803,113
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 379/1, 379/2, 379/5, 379/9-17, 379/27-28, 379/29-30, 379/34, 370/241-242, 370/248, 370/250, 370/251, 370/261, 371/4, 371/11.2, 371/11.3, 371/20.1
• US Class Current: 379/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2874 Processing of data for distribution to the subscribers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/22 Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management

Abstract

In an administration system for a public switched telephone network, a method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities is provided. The method includes the steps of receiving a service request from a customer at a living unit requesting service, and determining whether the service request from the living unit is eligible for processing by the adjunct processor. When the service request is eligible, the method automatically provisions customer equipment to execute the service request based upon information including customer identification data and customer facilities. The information is generally maintained without altering the customer facilities when a subsequent disconnect request is received from the customer. The method also includes one or more of receiving a customer request, retrieving related customer profile information, obtaining a description of the customer trouble and entering a trouble type associated therewith, building a trouble report, testing the communication line and generating test results. The method also includes the steps of grouping related open work requests and proactively determined troubles with the trouble report based on grouping rules, and building a work load for a technician.

Claims

1. In an administration system for a public switched telephone network which includes an attendant station for receiving service requests and collecting customer information, credit verification service order processor (SOP) for creating and distributing service orders for processing by downstream processing systems such as Service Order Analysis and Control (SOAC) system, a Computer System for Mainframe Operations (COSMOS) system, SWITCH system, Loop Facility Assignment and Control System (LFACS) system, and Adjunct Processor (AP) having storage for storing data including Living Unit (LU) data, network facility data and Telephone Number (TN) data, a first test system testing a communication line in a communication cable associated with the customer in accordance with a first test producing trouble indicators indicating a potentially defective communication line, a second test system testing groups of the trouble indicators associated with the communication line in accordance with a second test, and a data processor generating an end to end description of the communication line to be tested, prioritizing the groups that are potentially defective indicating the potentially defective communication line generating prioritized groups, and generating a report to be used for examining the potentially defective communication line using the prioritized groups, a method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a service request from a customer at a living un it requesting service;

(b) determining whether the service request from the living unit is eligible for processing by the adjunct processor;

(c) when the service request is eligible, automatically provisioning customer equipment to execute the service request based upon information including customer identification data and customer facilities, and the information maintained without altering the customer facilities when a subsequent disconnect request is received from the customer;

(d) receiving a customer request;

(e) retrieving related customer profile information including at least one of billing, service order, circuit test history, and trouble history;

(f) obtaining a description of the customer trouble and entering a trouble type associated therewith;

(g) building a trouble report;

(h) testing the communication line and generating test results;

(i) determining, responsive to first criteria, whether additional information is needed, or whether the trouble report can be closed out, or whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group, and if so, transmitting the trouble report for review by the customer work group;

(j) transmitting the trouble report to the customer work group using trouble routing criteria, mapping the trouble report to a maintenance area, determining a trouble priority, and assigning a trouble report status;

(k) grouping at least one of related open work requests and proactively determined troubles with the trouble report based on grouping rules including similarity of trouble, similarity of geographic area, and available time, the proactively determined troubles being determined in accordance with the following steps;

(k1) performing a first level test of the communication line in the communication cable associated with the customer producing trouble indicators indicating a potentially defective communication line;

(k2) filtering the trouble indicators from predetermined communication services associated with the communication line that provide potentially false trouble indicators producing filtered trouble indicators;

(k3) generating a list of the filtered trouble indicators to be considered when determining whether the communication line is potentially defective;

(k4) generating an end to end description of the communication line to be tested;

(k5) grouping the filtered trouble indicators that have common network elements in groups;

(k6) prioritizing the groups for performing a second level test of the communication line;

(k7) testing the groups prioritized for the communication line;

(k8) discarding the groups that are in a satisfactory status responsive to predetermined criteria;

(k9) prioritizing the groups that are potentially defective indicating the potentially defective communication line generating prioritized groups of the proactively determined troubles;

(l) building a work load for a technician responsive to the related open work requests, the trouble report, the proactively determined troubles and technician information including work schedule, job type, work areas, and job skills;

(m) accessing information stored in operation support systems including at least one of the SOP, the SOAC system, the COSMOS system, the SWITCH system, the LFACS system, the AP, the first test system, the second test system, and the data processor as needed;

(n) repairing and testing the communication line associated with the trouble report to verify that the communication line is working;

(o) notifying the customer that the trouble report has been resolved and the trouble is closed out;

(p) resolving the at least one of the related open work requests and the proactively determined troubles;

(q) generating a completion message responsive to said repairing step (n) and said resolving step (p); and

(r) transmitting the completion message to at least one of the SOP, the SOAC system, the COSMOS system, the SWITCH system, the LFACS system, the AP, the first test system, the second test system, and the data processor as needed.

2. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein said testing step (h) further comprises the step of performing a test of the communication line producing additional trouble indicators, at least one of the trouble indicators and the additional trouble indicators including at least one of:

(h1) a per call test failure (PCTF) indicator;

(h2) an automatic line insulation test indicator;

(h3) a customer trouble report including a mechanized loop test indicator;

(h4) an employee report indicator; and

(h5) a fiber network type indicator.

3. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 2, wherein said testing step (h) further comprises the step of filtering the additional trouble indicators generating a list of additional potentially false trouble indicators associated with the communication line, at least one of the potentially false trouble indicators and the additional potentially false trouble indicators including at least one of:

a ground start PBX;

a foreign exchange line;

a coin line;

a video on demand line;

a pair gain system without mechanized loop test or automatic line insulation test capabilities;

a multiple indicator at same address; and

a known station problem list.

4. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said testing step (h) and generating step (k4) further comprises the step of generating an end to end description of this communication line for each communication line to be tested including all cables, pairs, and terminals in the communication line.

5. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 2, wherein said grouping step (k) further comprises the step of grouping the trouble indicators that have common network elements including at least one of:

F1 terminal;

F2 terminals with same F1 terminal;

F2 terminals with multiple F1 terminals;

F1 terminal cable and pair range;

F1 terminal in binding post range;

F1 terminal out binding post range;

F2 terminal cable and pair range;

F2 terminal in binding post range;

F2 terminal out binding post range; and

fiber network common elements.

6. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein the work requests are one of stapled and linked to the trouble report.

7. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein said grouping step (k) further comprises the step of prioritizing the groups that are potentially defective indicating the potentially defective communication line using at least one of:

additional weighting for low spare pair cable segments, and a dispatch list prioritizing the potentially defective communication line by dispatch area, available time and priority.

8. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein said determining step (i) further comprises the step of determining whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group responsive to related information regarding similar and related troubles that have been experienced contemporaneously with other network facilities related to the communication line.

9. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein said determining step (i) further comprises the step of determining whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group responsive to related proactive and reactive troubles that have been experienced contemporaneously by other customers on other communication lines related to the communication line.

10. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, wherein said determining step (i) further comprises the step of determining whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group responsive to baseline information of the communication line accessed on a real-time basis.

11. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, further comprising the step of informing technicians that have already been dispatched to repair a defective network facility to repair other related troubles in the substantially same geographic area.

12. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(s) when the service request is not eligible generating a provisioning request; and

(t) automatically provisioning second customer equipment to execute the service request, responsive to the provisioning request, based upon the customer identification data and one of the customer facilities and new customer facilities.

13. A method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 12, wherein the automatically provisioning step (s) further comprises the step of optimizing the provisioning of the second customer equipment which determines whether the one of the customer facilities and the new customer facilities are selected for the second customer equipment.

14. In an administration system for a public switched telephone network which includes an attendant station for receiving service requests and collecting customer information, credit verification service order processor (SOP) for creating and distributing service orders for processing by downstream processing systems such as Service Order Analysis and Control (SOAC) system, a Computer System for Mainframe Operations (COSMOS) system, SWITCH system, Loop Facility Assignment and Control System (LFACS) system, and Adjunct Processor (AP) having storage for storing data including Living Unit (LU) data, network facility data and Telephone Number (TN) data, a combination provisioning and maintenance system for provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities in response to a customer request reporting a customer trouble, comprising:

an attendant station receiving the customer request, retrieving related customer profile information, obtaining a description of the customer trouble and entering a trouble type associated therewith corresponding to a first communication line representing a reactively determined trouble, and building a first trouble report;

a first test system testing a second communication line in the communication cable associated with the customer producing trouble indicators indicating a potentially defective first communication line representing a potentially proactively determined trouble, and building a second trouble report;

a second test system, responsively connected to said first test system and to said attendant station, said second test system testing at least one of the first and second communication lines and determining, responsive to criteria, whether at least one of the first and second trouble reports should be dispatched to a customer work group, and if so, transmitting the at least one of the first and second trouble reports for review by the customer work group together with existing related proactive and reactive trouble reports to the customer work group using trouble routing criteria,

a data processor, operatively connected to said first and second test systems, generating an end to end description of the at least one of the first and second communication lines to be tested by said second test system responsive to the reactively determined trouble and the potentially proactively determined trouble to determine whether the at least one of the first and second communication lines require at least one of inspection and repair;

a work request processing and dispatch system, responsively connected to said attendant station, grouping related open work requests with at least one of the first and second trouble reports and the existing related reactive and proactive trouble reports based on grouping rules including similarity of trouble, similarity of geographic area, and available time, building a work load for a technician; and

said Adjunct Processor, responsively connected to said attendant station, and determining whether the service request from the living unit is eligible for processing by the adjunct processor, and when the service request is eligible, automatically provisioning customer equipment to execute the service request based upon information including customer identification data and customer facilities, and the information maintained by the Adjunct Processor without altering the customer facilities when a subsequent disconnect request is received from the customer.

15. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein said second test system performs a test of at least one of the first and second communication lines producing additional trouble indicators, the trouble indicators and the additional trouble indicators including at least one of:

a per call test failure (PCTF) indicator;

an automatic line insulation test indicator;

a customer trouble report including a mechanized loop test indicator;

an employee report indicator; and

a fiber network type indicator.

16. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 15, wherein said second test system filters the additional trouble indicators generating a list of additional potentially false trouble indicators associated with at least one of the first and second the communication lines, the trouble indicators and the additional potentially false trouble indicators including at least one of:

a ground start PBX;

a foreign exchange line;

a coin line;

a video on demand line;

a pair gain system without mechanized loop test or automatic line insulation test capabilities;

a multiple indicator at same address; and

a known station problem list.

17. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein said second test system generates an end to end description of the communication line for each communication line to be tested including all cables, pairs, and terminals in the communication line.

18. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 15, wherein said work request processing and dispatch system groups at least one of the trouble indicators and the additional trouble indicators that have common network elements including at least one of:

F1 terminal;

F2 terminals with same F1 terminal;

F2 terminals with multiple F1 terminals;

F1 terminal cable and pair range;

F1 terminal in binding post range;

F1 terminal out binding post range;

F2 terminal cable and pair range;

F2 terminal in binding post range;

F2 terminal out binding post range; and

fiber network common elements.

19. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein the work requests are one of stapled and linked to at least one of the first and second trouble reports.

20. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein said work request processing and dispatch system prioritizes the groups that are potentially defective indicating that at least one of the first and second communication lines are potentially defective using at least one of:

additional weighting for low spare pair cable segments, and a dispatch list prioritizing the potentially defective communication line by dispatch area, available time and priority.

21. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein using at least one of said first and second test systems, a caseworker determines whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group responsive to related information regarding similar and related troubles that have been experienced contemporaneously with other network facilities related to at least one of the first and second communication lines.

22. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein using at least one of said first and second test systems, a caseworker determines whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group responsive to related proactive and reactive troubles that have been experienced contemporaneously by other customers on other communication lines related to at least one of the first and second communication lines.

23. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein using at least one of said first and second test systems, a caseworker determines whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group responsive to baseline information of at least one of the first and second communication lines accessed on a real-time basis.

24. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14, wherein a caseworker informs technicians that have already been dispatched to repair a defective network facility to repair other related troubles in the substantially same geographic area.

25. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 14,

wherein when the service request is not eligible, said Adjunct Processor generates a provisioning request, and the service request is automatically provisioned with second customer equipment to execute the service request, based upon the customer identification data and one of the customer facilities and new customer facilities.

26. A combination provisioning and maintenance system provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities according to claim 25, wherein the service request is automatically provisioned by optimizing the provisioning of the second customer equipment which determines whether the one of the customer facilities and the new customer facilities are selected for the second customer equipment.

27. In an administration system for a public switched telephone network which includes an attendant station for receiving service requests and collecting customer information, credit verification, service order processor (SOP) for creating and distributing service orders for processing by downstream processing systems such as Service Order Analysis and Control ISOAC) system, a Computer System for Mainframe Operations (COSMOS) system, SWITCH system, Loop Facility Assignment and Control System (LFACS) system, and Adjunct Processor (AP) having storage for storing data including Living Unit (LU) data, network facility data and Telephone Number (TN) data, a first test system testing a communication line in a communication cable associated with the customer in accordance with a first test producing trouble indicators indicating a potentially defective communication line, a second test system testing groups of the trouble indicators associated with the communication line in accordance with a second test, and a data processor generating an end to end description of the communication line to be tested, prioritizing the groups that are potentially defective indicating the potentially defective communication line generating prioritized groups, and generating a report to be used for examining the potentially defective communication line using the prioritized groups, a method of provisioning and maintaining the working status of customer network facilities, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a service request from a customer at a living unit requesting service;

(b) determining whether the service request from the living unit is eligible for processing by the adjunct processor;

(c) when the service request is eligible, automatically provisioning customer equipment to execute the service request based upon information including customer identification data and customer facilities, and the information maintained without altering the customer facilities when a subsequent disconnect request is received from the customer;

(d) receiving a customer request;

(e) retrieving related customer profile information;

(f) obtaining a description of the customer trouble and entering a trouble type associated therewith;

(g) building a trouble report;

(h) testing the communication line and generating test results;

(i) determining, responsive to criteria, whether additional information is needed, or whether the trouble report can be closed out, or whether the trouble report should be dispatched to a customer work group, and if so, transmitting the trouble report for review by the customer work group using trouble routing criteria;

(j) grouping related open work requests and proactively determined troubles with the trouble report based on grouping rules including at least one of similarity of trouble, similarity of geographic area, and available time; and

(k) building a work load for a technician responsive to the related open work requests, the trouble report, the proactively determined troubles and technician information including work schedule, job type, work areas, and job skills.

28. In an administration system for a public switched telephone network which includes an attendant station for receiving service requests and collecting customer information, a service order processor (SOP) for creating and distributing service orders for processing by downstream processing systems such as Service Order Analysis and Control (SOAC) system, a Computer System for Mainframe Operations (COSMOS) system, SWITCH system, Loop Facility Assignment and Control System (LFACS) system, a combination provisioning and maintenance:

system for provisioning and analyzing the working status of customer network facilities in response to a customer request reporting a customer trouble, comprising;

an attendant station receiving the customer request, retrieving related customer profile information, obtaining a description of the customer trouble and entering a trouble type associated therewith corresponding to a first communication line representing a reactively determined trouble, and building a first trouble report;

a first test system testing a second communication line in the communication cable associated with the customer producing trouble indicators indicating a potentially proactively determined trouble, and building a second trouble report;

a second test system, responsively connected to said first test system and to said attendant station, said second test system testing at least one of the first and second communication lines and determining, responsive to criteria, whether at least one of the first and second trouble reports should be dispatched to a customer work group, and if so, transmitting the at least one of the first and second trouble reports for review by the customer work group together with existing related trouble reports to the customer work group using trouble routing criteria;

a data processor, operatively connected to said first and second test systems, generating an end to end description of the at least one of the first and second communication lines to be tested by said second test system responsive to the troubles to determine whether the at least one of the first and second communication lines require at least one of inspection and repair;

a work request processing and dispatch system, responsively connected to said attendant station, grouping related open work requests with at least one of the first and second trouble reports based on grouping rules including similarity of trouble, similarity of geographic area, and available time, and building a work load for a technician; and

said Adjunct Processor, responsively connected to said attendant station, and having storage for storing data including Living Unit (LU) data, network facility data and Telephone Number (TN) data, and determining whether the service request from the living unit is eligible for processing by the Adjunct Processor, and when the service request is eligible, automatically provisioning customer equipment to execute the service request based upon information including customer identification data and customer facilities, and the information maintained by the Adjunct Processor without substantially altering the customer facilities.