System and method for integrating multiple data sources into service-centric computer networking services diagnostic conclusions

• US 7,434,099 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2005
• Issued: 10/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Spirent Communications of Rockville, Inc. (Spirent Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Spirent Communications of Rockville, Inc. (Spirent Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Flynn, Peter, McBeath, Tom, Stoos, Michael, Ramachandron, Jo, Collison, Jason, Dentinger, Bill, Rowland, Dan, Rennyson, Dave
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman; Scott T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Contino; Paul F
• Application Number:
  US11/156,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20060156086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26,44 706/47
• US Class Current: 714/26
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• 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 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A system for diagnosing impairments in computer networking services a plurality of connector gateways for interfacing to a plurality of data sources to provide access by the system to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources. The system includes a knowledge manager in communication with each of the plurality of connector gateways for analyzing data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the impairments in the computer networking services. The system also includes an interactor in communication with the knowledge manager for generating format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions to a user. The system can include a graphical user interface for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions associated with edges of an edge model of the computer networking services of the user.

Claims

1. A system for diagnosing impairments in computer networking services, comprising:

a plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the plurality of connector gateways are configured in a computer network to interface to a plurality of data sources to provide access by the system to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources;

a knowledge manager in communication with each of the plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the knowledge manager is configured to analyze data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the impairments in the computer networking services;

a graphical user interface; and

an interactor in communication with the knowledge manager,

wherein the interactor is configured to generate format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions to a user,

wherein the knowledge manager comprises a plurality of rules engines,

wherein at least one of accuracy and efficiency of the rules engines is altered to modify a time length for generating the diagnostic conclusions by the knowledge manager, and

wherein the rules engines are locally or remotely distributed over the computer network to provide for distributed and parallel processing,

wherein the knowledge manager comprises at least one diagnostic assistant,

wherein the at least one diagnostic assistant is configured to collect data from the plurality of data sources via the plurality of connector gateways and to apply the collected data to the rules engines to generate the diagnostic conclusions, and wherein the diagnostic conclusions include locational as well as graphical representations of underlying data sources,

wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display the format information from the interactor to the user,

wherein the at least one diagnostic assistant comprises a plurality of graphical assistants, and

wherein the graphical user interfaces displays a visual representation of a number of the graphical assistants that are currently active, as well as a percentage completion of a running diagnostic for each of the active graphical assistants.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic conclusions comprise a severity weighting factor for ranking the diagnostic conclusions.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one event is associated with a diagnostic conclusion, and

wherein the at least one event is configured to execute in response to the diagnostic conclusion.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least one of iconic and hierarchical representations of diagnostic conclusions to the user.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least one of iconic and hierarchical representations of diagnostic information and computer networking services information to the user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display at least one of iconic and hierarchical representations of active diagnostic assistants to the user.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to display the computer networking services to the user from a service-centric perspective based on computer networking services of the user.

8. The system of claim 1, comprising:

at least one archival database in communication with the knowledge manager; and

means for bounding a size of the archival database and for cleaning up logs associated with the archival database in order to make the archival database invisible to an end user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one archival database is configured to store at least the diagnostic conclusions and information associated with the impairments of the computer networking services.

10. The system of claim 8, comprising:

a diagnostic report generator in communication with the at least one archival database and the interactor,

wherein the diagnostic report generator is configured to extract stored information from the at least one archival database and to generate formatted reports from the extracted information for display to the user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the knowledge manager is associated with a computer networking services domain.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer network data comprises data from computer network test sources.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the business-related data comprises data from customer records databases.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the business-related data comprises data from network inventory databases.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the extra-enterprise environmental data comprises news data associated with current events.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the extra-enterprise environmental data comprises weather data.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of rules engines comprises one or more base rules engines that provide basic required functions for a given domain, and one or more extended rules engines that provide value-added feature sets for the given domain, the system further comprising means for periodically migrating the added feature sets for the given domain to the one or more base rules engines.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising output means, wherein the business-related data includes data on employees of a company for which the computer networking services is being used, and wherein when the diagnostic assistant generates the diagnostic conclusions indicating impairments with one or more components of the computer networking services, the diagnostic assistant retrieves the data on one or more employees of the company for which the one or more components are responsible, and notifies the one or more employees of the impairments via the output means.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the diagnostic assistant notifies the one or more employees of the impairments via the output means in accordance with a predetermine sequence of notification, until one employee responds, and wherein once the one employee responds no other employees in the predetermined sequence are notified.

20. A system for diagnosing impairments in computer networking services, comprising:

a plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the plurality of connector gateways are configured in a computer network to interface to a plurality of data sources to provide access by the system to computer network data, business-related data, and extra-enterprise environmental data in the plurality of data sources;

a knowledge manager in communication with each of the plurality of connector gateways,

wherein the knowledge manager is configured to analyze data from the plurality of data sources to generate diagnostic conclusions for resolving the impairments in the computer networking services;

limiting means for limiting an amount of time that the rules engine can spend for analyzing the data; and

an interactor in communication with the knowledge manager,

wherein the interactor is configured to generate format information for displaying at least the diagnostic conclusions to a user,

wherein the knowledge manager comprises a plurality of rules engines,

wherein at least one of accuracy and efficiency of the rules engines is altered to modify a time length for generating the diagnostic conclusions by the knowledge manager,

wherein the rules engines are locally or remotely distributed over the computer network to provide for distributed and parallel processing, and

wherein a first rule to be executed by at least one of the plurality of rules engines is a rule that causes a stop of analyzing data by the knowledge manager after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since a start of analyzing data by the knowledge manager, and wherein a second rule to be executed by at least one of the plurality of rules engines is a rule that causes a stop of analyzing data by the knowledge manager after a predetermined amount of data has been analyzed by the knowledge manager.