Cable network repair control system

• US 6,671,824 B1
• Filed: 03/30/2000
• Issued: 12/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lakefield eTechnologies Group Ltd. (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Lakefield eTechnologies Group Ltd. (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Hyland, James, Hyland, Eileen
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duncan, Marc M
• Application Number:
  US09/539,510
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26, 714/47, 379/133, 379/9.02, 379/9.03, 379/9.04, 379/9.05, 705/8, 705/9
• US Class Current: 714/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity

Abstract

A cable network repair control system including a server communicating with multiple call-handling clients in a trouble call center. The databases are used to automatically determine an associated network device for the customer who makes a trouble call. When a second call is received for a particular network device, an inferencing engine automatically operates to identify potential repairs crews and to control communication with them to ensure that optimum use of the repair crew time and quick repair. Various tables are generated dynamically and are used to update management status tables for reviewing of network repair status.

Claims

1. A cable network repair control system comprising a data storage device, processor, and a plurality of trouble call reception terminals, whereby the processor comprises:

means for maintaining in a customer database an identifier of a network device associated with each customer,

means for automatically determining an associated network device in response to a customer off-supply trouble call,

means for maintaining an off-supply network device dataset of associated network devices for current customer trouble calls,

an inference engine comprising means for processing data from the off-supply network device dataset, network device failure probability data, and network connectivity data as input parameter values to automatically infer which network devices are faulty, and

job control means for generating a job record in a job dataset for repair of a network device inferred as being faulty,

the inference engine including means for processing environmental condition data as input parameter values.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inference engine comprising means for automatically operating in response to receipt of a subsequent trouble call associated with a particular network device.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the system comprises means for maintaining a call dataset of current trouble calls, and for interrogating said dataset to determine if a call is a subsequent call.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inference engine comprises means for applying the input parameter values as weighted factors.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a resource control engine comprising means for allocating a job by determining an appropriate repair resource using resource data and vehicle position data as input parameters.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the resource control engine comprises means for interpreting vehicle position data embedded in GPS signals.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the job control means comprises means for transmitting a repair instruction to a resource using radiation signals to issue a job.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system stores a dataset indicating a grid reference for each network device, and the customer database includes a grid reference for each customer.

9. A computer program product comprising software code portions on a computer readable medium for implementing the functions of the system claimed in claim 1 when run on a digital computer.

10. A cable network repair control system comprising a data storage device, processor, and a plurality of trouble call reception terminals, whereby the processor comprises:

means for maintaining in a customer database an identifier of a network device associated with each customer,

means for automatically determining an associated network device in response to a customer off-supply trouble call,

means for maintaining an off-supply network device dataset of associated network devices for current customer trouble calls,

an inference engine comprising means for processing data from the off-supply network device dataset, network device failure probability data, and network connectivity data as input parameter values to automatically infer which network devices are faulty, and

job control means for generating a job record in a job dataset for repair of a network device inferred as being faulty,

the inference engine including means for performing interactive voice processing to;

automatically identify customers affected by a fault;

select customers according to network connectivity and poll the selected customers to determine if they are still off-supply; and

feed the poll response data back as input parameter values.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the polling means comprises an interactive voice processor for automatically transmitting a voice message requesting a response indicating if the customer is still off-supply.

12. A cable network repair control system comprising a data storage device, processor, and a plurality of trouble call reception terminals, whereby the processor comprises:

means for maintaining in a customer database an identifier of a network device associated with each customer,

means for automatically determining an associated network device in response to a customer off-supply trouble call,

means for maintaining an off-supply network device dataset of associated network devices for current customer trouble calls,

an inference engine comprising means for processing data from the off-supply network device dataset, network device failure probability data, and network connectivity data as input parameter values to automatically infer which network devices are faulty, and

job control means for generating a job record in a job dataset for repair of a network device inferred as being faulty,

the job control means including means for updating an assignment dataset comprising records storing for each repair job a job identifier, a resource identifier, and a flag indicating whether the job is allocated.

13. A cable network repair control system comprising a data storage device, processor, and a plurality of trouble call reception terminals, whereby the processor comprises:

means for maintaining in a customer database an identifier of a network device associated with each customer,

means for automatically determining an associated network device in response to a customer off-supply trouble call,

means for maintaining an off-supply network device dataset of associated network devices for current customer trouble calls,

an inference engine comprising means for processing data from the off-supply network device dataset, network device failure probability data, and network connectivity data as input parameter values to automatically infer which network devices are faulty,

job control means for generating a job record in a job dataset for repair of a network device inferred as being faulty, and

a reporting module comprising means for dynamically maintaining a network repair status table drawing data from the call dataset, the job dataset, and the assignment dataset, the status table indicating number of allocated and issued repair jobs on a regional basis.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the reporting module comprises means for using grid reference data to group jobs on a regional basis.

15. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the reporting module comprises means for monitoring real time and for generating alerts for jobs according to time duration since a trouble call was received.

16. A The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the reporting module comprises means for automatically generating a table of more detailed report data in response to a query.