Apparatus and method for facilitating service management of communications services in a communications network
First Claim
1. A system for managing service order provisioning in a communications network comprising a plurality of network elements, the system receiving service orders from a plurality of service order sources having a plurality of formats, each service order relating to at least one communications service associated with a subscriber, the system comprising:
- an order manager that converts the service orders from the plurality of formats corresponding to the plurality of service order sources to a single format and that implements the service orders in accordance with at least one process, the at least one process comprising a correction order process that corrects a previous service order associated with the subscriber, the order manager outputting information to implement the service orders to at least one of the network elements.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A service management system for a communications network which accepts requests for communications services from service order sources. The service management system includes an interface to the service order sources, a database, and an interface to network elements which provide the communications services. The service order sources may have differing order input formats which are converted by the system into a single internal format for processing and determining of provisioning information to be output to the network elements. The service management system includes table-driven logic which is used to validate and process the requests to determine the provisioning information. Once the provisioning information is determined, it is queued to the appropriate network element, and an acknowledgment is sent to the originating service order source. The service management system also includes a interface to query the database and network elements to perform debugging and error correction.
198 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A system for managing service order provisioning in a communications network comprising a plurality of network elements, the system receiving service orders from a plurality of service order sources having a plurality of formats, each service order relating to at least one communications service associated with a subscriber, the system comprising:
an order manager that converts the service orders from the plurality of formats corresponding to the plurality of service order sources to a single format and that implements the service orders in accordance with at least one process, the at least one process comprising a correction order process that corrects a previous service order associated with the subscriber, the order manager outputting information to implement the service orders to at least one of the network elements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for managing service order provisioning in a communications network comprising a plurality of network elements, the system receiving service orders from a plurality of service order sources having a plurality of formats, each service order relating to at least one communications service associated with a subscriber, the system comprising:
an order manager that converts the service orders from the plurality of formats corresponding to the plurality of service order sources to a single format and that implements the service orders in accordance with at least one process, the at least one process comprising a cancellation order process that cancels a previous service order associated with the subscriber, the order manager outputting information to implement the service orders to at least one of the network elements. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for implementing at least one change to a service order relating to provisioning at least one communications service of a subscriber in a communications network comprising a plurality of network elements, the method comprising:
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receiving a correction order from one of a plurality of service order sources, the plurality of service order sources having a plurality of formats, the correction order comprising at least one change the service order; converting the correction order to a common format; determining whether the service order has been implemented in at least one network element of the communications network; and when the service order has not been implemented, replacing the service order with the correction order by outputting information corresponding to the at least one requested change to at least one network element in the communications network. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for canceling a service order relating to provisioning at least one communications service of a subscriber in a communications network comprising a plurality of network elements, the method comprising:
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receiving a cancellation order from one of a plurality of service order sources, the plurality of service order sources having a plurality of formats, the cancellation order corresponding to a previous service order; converting the cancellation order to a common format; determining whether the service order has been implemented; and when the service order has not been implemented, marking the service order as complete. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification