Trunk design optimization for public switched telephone network

• US 7,453,809 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2004
• Issued: 11/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Services Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Services Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Armanino, Frederick Michael, Savoor, Raghvendra G., Jiang, Baofeng, Kimble, David Lewis, Wong, Peter, Fuetsch, Andre, Tsai, Mengfeng
• Primary Examiner(s): Jung; Min
• Application Number:
  US10/975,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20050088974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,481 Days
• Field of Search: 370/235, 370/242, 370/248, 370/252, 379/219, 379/221.01, 379/221.03, 379/221.04, 379/221.05, 379/221.06
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/49 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/46 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7414 QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13097 Numbering, addressing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13145 Rerouting upon failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13146 Rerouting upon blocking/overload, rearrangement
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13282 Call forward, follow-me, call diversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1338 Inter-exchange connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13396 Signaling in general, in-band signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/66 Traffic distributors

Abstract

A method and system enable optimization of trunk group design in a public switched telephone network (PSTN). A community of interest, including two end offices connected by a direct trunk and at least one tandem switch, is identified using out-of band signaling data collected from the PSTN. An application server interfaced to the PSTN determines whether traffic in the community of interest passes through the tandem switch during a predetermined time period. When traffic passes through the tandem switch, the application server further determines whether the direct trunk between the end offices experienced an overflow condition during the same predetermined time period. When the direct trunk did not experience an overflow condition, an exchange code associated with the traffic passing through the tandem switch is designated as a misrouted code. The misrouted code is flagged so that associated traffic is redirected through the direct trunk.

Claims

1. A method for identifying misrouted traffic in a telecommunications network, the method comprising:

identifying a first switch and a second switch in the telecommunications network, the first switch and the second switch being directly connected by a trunk;

determining whether traffic from the first switch to the second switch passes through a third switch during a select time period;

determining whether the direct trunk experiences overflow during the select time period; and

when traffic from the first switch to the second switch is determined to have passed through the third switch during the select time period, and when the direct trunk is determined not to have experienced overflow during the select time period, designating the traffic that passed through the third switch as misrouted traffic.

2. The method according to claim 1, in which designating the traffic as misrouted traffic comprises designating an identifier associated with the traffic that passed through the third switch as a misrouted traffic identifier.

3. The method according to claim 2, in which the misrouted traffic identifier comprises an exchange code.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

flagging the misrouted traffic identifier to redirect the misrouted traffic through the trunk directly connecting the first switch and the second switch.

5. The method according to claim 1, in which the first switch comprises a first end office and the second switch comprises a second end office and the third switch comprises a tandem switch.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving call signaling data from at least the third switch; and

receiving trunk capacity utilization data from at least one of the second switch and the third switch;

wherein determining whether traffic between the first switch and the second switch passes through the third switch during the select time period is based on the call signaling data, and determining whether the direct trunk experiences overflow during the select time period is based on the trunk capacity utilization data.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

identifying a volume of the misrouted traffic; and

quantifying a load on the third switch attributed to the misrouted traffic based on the volume.

8. A computer readable medium storing a computer program that identifies misrouted traffic in a telecommunications network for use in optimizing design of the network, the telecommunications network comprising at least a first switch and a second switch directly connected by a trunk, the computer program comprising:

a first determining code segment that determines whether traffic from the first switch to the second switch passed through a third switch during a select time period;

a second determining code segment that determines whether the direct trunk experienced overflow during the select time period; and

a designating code segment that, when traffic from the first switch to the second switch is determined to have passed through the third switch during the select time period, and when the direct trunk is determined not to have experienced overflow during the select time period, designates traffic that passed through the third switch as misrouted traffic.

9. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, in which the designating code segment designates the traffic as misrouted traffic by designating an identifier associated with the traffic that passed through the third switch as a misrouted traffic identifier.

10. The computer readable medium according to claim 9, further comprising:

a flagging code segment that flags the misrouted traffic identifier to redirect the misrouted traffic through the trunk directly connecting the first switch and the second switch.

11. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, in which the first switch and the second switch comprise class five switches and the third switch comprises a class four switch.

12. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, further comprising:

a first receiving code segment that receives call signaling data from the telecommunications network;

a second receiving code segment that receives trunk capacity utilization data from at least one of the second switch and the third switch;

wherein the first determining code segment determines whether traffic between the first switch and the second switch passes through the third switch during the select time period based on the call signaling data, and the second determining code segment determines whether the direct trunk experienced overflow during the select time period based on the trunk capacity utilization data.

13. The computer readable medium according to claim 12, further comprising:

an identifying code segment that identifies a volume of the misrouted traffic; and

a quantifying code segment that quantifies a load on the third switch attributed to the misrouted traffic based on the volume.

14. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, in which the select time period comprises a time during which peak busy hour offered load is experienced.

15. A computer readable medium storing a computer program that identifies misrouted traffic through a community of interest in a telecommunications network for use in optimizing design of the telecommunications network, the community of interest comprising a first end office connected via a direct trunk to a second end office, and a tandem switch connected to the first end office and the second end office, the computer program comprising:

a first receiving code segment that receives empirical call data from the telecommunications network;

a second receiving code segment that receives empirical trunk capacity utilization data from at least one of the first end office and the second end office;

a first determining code segment that determines that traffic passes through the tandem switch based on the empirical call data;

a second determining code segment that determines that the direct trunk experiences an overflow condition based on the empirical trunk capacity utilization data;

a synchronization code segment that determines whether the traffic passed through the tandem switch during a time period when the direct trunk experienced the overflow condition; and

an identifying code segment that identifies the traffic that passed through the tandem switch as misrouted traffic when the synchronization code segment determines that the traffic did not pass through the tandem switch during the time period when the direct trunk experienced the overflow condition.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the time period when the direct trunk experienced the overflow condition comprises a peak busy hour offered load time period.

17. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the empirical trunk capacity utilization data comprises TNDS data.

18. The computer readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the empirical call data comprises SS7 data.