Signaling network management system for converting network events into standard form and then correlating the standard form events with topology and maintenance information

• US 6,118,936 A
• Filed: 04/18/1996
• Issued: 09/12/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Michael Robert, Lauer, Douglas Gerard
• Primary Examiner(s): Lall, Parshotam S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CALDWELL, ANDREW T
• Application Number:
  US08/634,715
• Time in Patent Office: 1,608 Days
• Field of Search: 370/241, 370/242, 370/244, 370/250, 370/252, 370/254, 370/255, 370/245, 395/200.53, 395/200.54, 379/1, 379/9, 379/14
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A signaling network management system (SNMS) collects network topology, traffic, performance and fault information, correlates that information and displays the information to system operators. It includes a distributed client/server platform that receives and processes information relating to network events that is generated by various signaling network elements. Each network event is parsed and formatted to a standardized format to allow processing of events generated by any type of element. The formatted events are correlated and displayed to system operators. Correlation of the different types of events is performed using programmable analysis rules. The system also correlates signaling network events with transmission alarms and network maintenance schedule information. This allows the system operators to account for outages due to transmission events, such as fiber cuts, and to network maintenance. It also allows operator to worn maintenance personnel of maintenance impacting events. The system employs extensive topology processing of both carrier-owned and foreign networks. This allows system operators to perform impact assessments, such as which customers are affected by specific events. The system provides a graphical interface to operators that allows localized displays, so that only events and impacts pertaining to a specific STP cluster or LATA, for example, are shown. An interface to an external trouble management system allows system operator to submit trouble tickets for signaling network events, without the restriction of a proprietary trouble management system.

Claims

1. A system for managing information related to a signaling network, the signaling network including plural network elements generating plural network events, the system comprising:

network event receiving means coupled to said network elements for receiving said network events, said network events received by said network event receiving means including topology information;

network event standardizing means responsive to events received by said network event receiving means for converting the received network events to standard form;

network event correlating means responsive to the standard form events for correlating the standard form events;

a network maintenance scheduling system with an output to said network event correlating means, said network event correlating means correlates network events with network maintenance scheduling information;

display means for displaying correlated standard form events;

a network topology data base storing information related to network topology;

means responsive to said network topology data base for creating standard form events from said network topology data base; and

means coupling said created standard form events to said network event correlating means.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for display on predefined parameters.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for omission from display based on predefined parameters.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for display based on user-entered parameters.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for omission from display based on user-entered parameters.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the network event receiving means receives information relating to network topology from the network elements in near real-time.

7. The system of claim 1 which further includes a transmission alarm receiver receiving information related to transmission alarms from an external network management system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means, selecting for omission from the display those network events which have been correlated with network maintenance events.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an impact assessment device generating assessments of an impact of a signaling network outage on network maintenance events.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an impact assessment device generating impact assessments of network events on the signaling network based on topology and configuration information.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the topology and configuration information includes information relating to at least one of:

local exchange carrier office homing arrangements;

local exchange carrier signaling point to signal transfer point homing arrangements;

numbering plan area and prefix assignments;

foreign network signal transfer point clustering;

local exchange carrier network signal transfer point clustering; and

signaling supported voice trunks.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the network event correlating means is responsive to time generated signals.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said display means includes a trouble ticket entry device, accepting trouble ticket entries from system operators, and which further comprises an interface to a trouble management system, coupled to the trouble ticket entry device, transmitting entered trouble tickets to the external trouble management system.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the network event correlating means is responsive to transmission alarms received from an external network management system.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means selecting for display those network events which have been correlated with transmission alarms received from the external network management system.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means, selecting for display those network events relating to a single customer.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means, selecting for omission from display those network events relating to a single customer.

18. A method of managing information related to a signaling network, where the signaling network includes plural network elements which generate plural network events, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving network events from the network elements, where the network events include topology information;

standardizing the received network events to produce standard form events;

correlating the standard form events, including receiving information relating to a network maintenance schedule from a network maintenance scheduling system and correlating the standard form events with the received network maintenance schedule information;

displaying the correlated standard form events;

providing a network topology data base storing information related to network topology;

creating standard form events from said network topology data base; and

correlating said created standard form events along with the standard form events.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of:

selecting correlated standard form events based on predefined parameters; and

displaying the selected standard form events.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of:

selecting correlated standard form events based on predefined parameters; and

omitting from display the selected standard form events.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of:

receiving user-defined parameters from the system operators;

selecting correlated standard form events based on the received parameters; and

displaying the selected standard form events.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of:

receiving user-defined parameters from the system operators;

selecting correlated network events based on the received parameters; and

omitting from display the selected network events.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the network events comprising topology information are received from the network elements in near real-time.

24. The method of claim 18 which includes the further step of receiving transmission alarm information related to transmission alarms from an external network management system.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the step of selecting for omission from display those network events which have been correlated with network maintenance events.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of generating assessments of an impact of a signaling network outage of network maintenance events.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of generating impact assessments of network events on the signaling network based on topology and configuration information.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the topology and configuration information includes information relating to at least one of:

local exchange carrier office homing arrangements;

local exchange carrier signaling point to signal transfer point homing arrangements;

numbering plan area and prefix assignments;

foreign network signal transfer point clustering;

local exchange carrier network signal transfer point clustering; and

signaling supported voice trunks.

29. The method of claim 18 wherein the step of correlating the standard form events comprises the steps of:

starting a timer when a first network event is received; and

detecting expiration of the timer and continuing with the correlation.

30. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

accepting trouble ticket entries from a system operator; and

transmitting entered trouble tickets to an external trouble management system.

31. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of correlating standard form events comprises the steps of:

receiving transmission alarms from an external network management system; and

correlating network events with the received transmission alarms.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of:

selecting those network events which have been correlated with transmission alarms received from the external network management system; and

displaying the selected network events.

33. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of:

selecting those network events relating to a single customer; and

displaying the selected network events.

34. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of:

selecting those network events relating to a single customer; and

omitting from display the selected network events.

35. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of:

receiving an indication of an event selected by the system operator; and

displaying all alarms correlated with the selected event.