Method and apparatus for aggregating alarms and faults of a communications network
First Claim
1. A method of performing distributed management of a communications network having at least one span, comprising:
- receiving a fault;
aggregating other faults and one or more alarms that may be occurring on the communications network; and
correlating the other faults and the one or more alarms with the received fault to determine if the received fault is sympathetic to at least one of the alarms or the other faults;
wherein said reciving, aggregating, and correlating steps are performed in a distributed manner by multiple network element processors in the communications network.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed method and system of controlling a communications network having a plurality of spans of interconnected network elements some of which include a network element processor distributes network topology information to respective span databases; stores original fault objects in the respective span databases; advertises fault objects to other network element processors in a local span when the original fault affects network elements other than a network element in which the fault occurred; advertises alarm objects to other network element processors that are respectively associated with a circuit affected by the original faults; stores the advertised fault and alarm objects in the respective span databases; and performs distributed processing of the advertised fault and alarm objects with the other network element processors and the respective span databases. Aggregation of other faults and alarms that may be occurring on the communications network due to other faults other than the received fault aids in determining causality of the fault. Causality may be determined by correlating other faults and alarms with the received fault. If not a root cause of another fault or alarm, the received fault is sympathetic to another fault or alarm. Sympathetic faults are suppressed while root cause faults are promoted to an alarm and reported to affected network elements. The number of alarms viewed by a network manager as well as the reporting of alarms and underlying faults are reduced by performing such distributed alarm correlation and fault reporting suppression.
40 Citations
15 Claims
-
1. A method of performing distributed management of a communications network having at least one span, comprising:
-
receiving a fault; aggregating other faults and one or more alarms that may be occurring on the communications network; and correlating the other faults and the one or more alarms with the received fault to determine if the received fault is sympathetic to at least one of the alarms or the other faults; wherein said reciving, aggregating, and correlating steps are performed in a distributed manner by multiple network element processors in the communications network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A network element of a communications network having at least one span, comprising:
-
a span database; and a controller operatively connected to said span database and to other network elements of the communications network, said span database receiving a fault; said controller aggregating other faults and one or more alarms that may be occurring on the communications network in said span database; and said controller correlating the other faults and the one or more alarms with the received fault to determine if the received fault is sympathetic to at least one of the alarms or the other faults; wherein said span database is configured to receive faults from a plurality of controllers located in the communications network; wherein said plurality of controllers are configured to aggregate other faults and one or more alarms that may be occurring on the communications networks in said span database and correlate the other faults and the one or more alarms with the received fault to determine if the received fault is sympathetic to at least one of the alarms or the other faults. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
Specification