Network management system

• US 6,058,103 A
• Filed: 03/06/1998
• Issued: 05/02/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Henderson, Gregory Scott, Cooley, Von A., Sanders, Ed J. Jr., Perry, Wayne B., Franklin, Thomas Dennie
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, HUY DUY
• Application Number:
  US09/032,778
• Time in Patent Office: 788 Days
• Field of Search: 370/241, 370/244, 370/250, 370/252, 370/254, 370/255, 370/351, 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, 395/708, 395/200.19, 395/707 , 395/683, 395/800, 395/118, 395/501, 395/526, 395/651, 364/977, 364/977.1, 364/284, 364/284.4, 364/286, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/220
• 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 telecommunications network management system, comprising:

a network object model representing a telecommunications network having a plurality of sites that are physically interconnected by a plurality of physical connections and logically interconnected by a plurality of logical connections, said network object model being created from information extracted from said telecommunications network;

first display means for displaying a topological view of said telecommunications network, said topological view providing a view of said plurality of sites and said plurality of logical connections interconnecting said sites according to said network object model, each of said plurality of logical connections identifying a pair of sites that are configured to communicate with one another, and each of said plurality of logical connections being associated with one or more of said plurality of physical connections;

second display means for displaying a topographical view of said telecommunications network, said topographical view providing a view of said plurality of sites and said physical connections interconnecting said plurality of sites;

selecting means for selecting a logical connection displayed in said topological view; and

a linking means for linking said topographical view with said topological view, wherein said linking means highlights said one or more physical connections associated with a selected logical connection.

2. The telecommunications network management system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of sites include a source site, a sink site, and an intervening site.

3. The telecommunications network management system of claim 1, wherein said first display means includes means for highlighting failed portions of said telecommunications network in said topological view.

4. The telecommunications network management system of claim 1, wherein said second display means includes means for highlighting failed portions of said telecommunications network in said topographical view.

5. The telecommunications network management system of claim 1, wherein said information extracted from said telecommunications network is stored in a manner consistent with a telecommunications management network (TMN) standard having extensions for representing connections between network elements in said telecommunications network.

6. The telecommunications network management system of claim 1, further including a selection device to enable a user to select one of said plurality of sites.

7. The telecommunications network management system of claim 6, further including means for displaying a logical view of said telecommunications network upon said user selecting said one of said plurality of sites, said logical view displaying connectivity for said selected site.

8. A method for managing a telecommunications network having a plurality of sites that are physically interconnected by a plurality of physical connections and logically interconnected by a plurality of logical connections, wherein each of the plurality of logical connections are associated with one or more of the plurality of physical connections, and each logical connection identifies a pair of sites that are configured to communicate with one another, comprising the steps of:

extracting information from the telecommunications network to create a network object model representing the telecommunications network;

displaying a topological view of the telecommunications network according to said network object model, said topological view providing a view of the plurality of sites and the plurality of logical connections interconnecting the plurality of sites;

displaying a topographical view of the telecommunications network, said topographical view providing a view of the plurality of sites and the physical connections interconnecting the plurality of sites; and

upon a user selecting one of said plurality of logical connections, linking said topographical view with said topological view.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of linking said topographical view with said topological view includes the step of highlighting the one or more physical connections displayed in said topographical view that are associated with said one of said plurality of logical connections selected by said user.

10. The method of claim 8, further including the step of highlighting failed portions of said telecommunications network in said topological view.

11. The method of claim 10, further including the step of highlighting failed portions of said telecommunications network in said topographical view.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of storing said information extracted from the telecommunications network in a manner consistent with a TMN standard having extensions for representing connections between network elements in the telecommunications network.

13. The method of claim 8, further including the stop of displaying a logical matrix upon a user selecting a portion of the telecommunications network displayed in said topological view or said topographical view.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said logical matrix displays connectivity for a selected site.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said logical matrix displays connectivity for a selected logical connection.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said logical matrix displays connectivity for a selected physical link.

17. The method of claim 8, further including the step of predicting where the telecommunications network is likely to fail using said topographical and topological views.

18. The method of claim 8, further including the step of monitoring self-restoration capabilities of the telecommunications network using said topographical and topological views.