Service layer availability

• US 7,911,974 B1
• Filed: 01/25/2007
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Naim, Usman Muhammad, Davey, Andrew L., Khan, Sameer Akbar, Mirza, Nasir Mahmood, Thakur, Brajendra Singh
• Primary Examiner(s): Marcelo; Melvin
• Application Number:
  US11/627,240
• Time in Patent Office: 1,517 Days
• Field of Search: 370/469, 370/254, 709/224, 705/781, 705/734, 705/767, 705/789
• US Class Current: 370/254
• 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 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

A method of operating a service availability system to monitor the availability of a communication service having a plurality of service layers provided by a plurality of service elements comprises receiving performance data from each of the service elements indicating the performance of each of the service elements, processing the performance data to determine availability levels of each of the service layers, and displaying on a graphical user interface the availability levels of each of the service layers.

Claims

1. A method of operating a service availability system to monitor the availability of a plurality of communication services with each having a plurality of service layers provided by a plurality of service elements, the method comprising:

in the service availability system;

receiving performance data from each of the service elements indicating the performance of each of the service elements;

processing the performance data to determine availability levels of each of the service layers for each of the plurality of communication services;

displaying the plurality of communication services on a graphical user interface;

receiving a user selection indicating a service of the plurality of communication services to be displayed; and

displaying the availability levels of each of the service layers for the selected service.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a first service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a customer access layer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein a second service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a network access layer.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein a third service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a service access layer.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein a fourth service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a business applications layer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a fifth service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a service bureau layer.

7. A software product for operating a service availability system to monitor the availability of a plurality of communication services with each having a plurality of service layers provided by a plurality of service elements, the software product comprising:

a non-transitory media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to;

receive performance data from each of the service elements indicating the performance of each of the service elements;

process the performance data to determine availability levels of each of the service layers for each of the plurality of communication services;

display the plurality of communication services on a graphical user interface;

receive a user selection indicating a service of the plurality of communication services to be displayed; and

display the availability levels of each of the service layers for the selected service.

8. The software product of claim 7 wherein a first service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a customer access layer.

9. The software product of claim 8 wherein a second service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a network access layer.

10. The software product of claim 9 wherein a third service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a service access layer.

11. The software product of claim 10 wherein a fourth service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a business applications layer.

12. The software product of claim 11 wherein a fifth service layer of the plurality of service layers comprises a service bureau layer.