System and method for tracking telephone network capacity and equipment

• US 7,941,520 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2001
• Issued: 05/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zickefoose, Mark K., Pfister, William L., Smith, Russell T., Rodriguez, Elias, Askew, Patricia Rankins, Lake, Greg, Womack, James P., Breard, John Kenneth, Quinn, Rick, Lillie, Joseph V., Champion, Carolyn F., Brown, Ellen W., Dorn, Watson Jr., Bratton, Lawrence C., Dabney, Robert E., Carlson, Ted J., Horton, Lynn Bainbridge, Cowart, Greg, Kite, Joshua W., Ray, Gary P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baturay; Alicia
• Application Number:
  US09/964,451
• Time in Patent Office: 3,511 Days
• Field of Search: 379/247, 709217-219, 709/223, 709/224, 707/1, 707/2, 707/104.1, 715/736
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2245 Management of the local loop plant

Abstract

A system and method of managing telephone network facilities. A telephone network facilities database, such as LEIS, is accessed and selected information, including wire center location, equipment and slot information stored therein, is extracted and re-stored in a relational database. Additional fields in the relational database are populated based on the information extracted from the telephone network facilities database. The additional fields represent working ADSL and T1 facilities, ADSL and T1 capacity, and ADSL and T1 availability. A graphical user interface is provided that displays several views of the data in the relational database. Color coding aspects of the graphical user interface indicates capacity levels.

Claims

1. A method of managing telephone network facilities, comprising:

accessing a first computer having LEIS loaded thereon;

extracting from LEIS information from a plurality of first tables, the information being in the form of individual records with each record including a field that includes a wire center identifier, wherein the wire center identifier identifies a geographical location of at least one central office which supplies a communications service to a plurality of remote terminals, the records specifying slots per piece of equipment, equipment per location, locations per wire center;

formatting the extracted information into a pipe-delimited flat file, compressing the flat file, tarring the flat file, and porting the compressed and tarred information of the flat file to a second computer by a file transfer protocol;

loading, from the second computer, the information of the compressed and tarred flat file into a relational database by untarring and uncompressing the flat file and storing the information from the table such that the information of the relational database is organized according to the wire center identifier of each of the records;

manipulating the relational database to populate a plurality of second tables with data representative of telephone network facilities where such second tables are organized by wire center;

displaying at least a portion of the data in the second tables via a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface providing a prompt for a district wherein multiple wire centers exist for each district, and in response to receiving a district, listing the available wire centers for the district, and upon receiving a selection of the available wire centers, accessing the information from the relational database based on the wire centers selected to thereby display for each selected location of the wire center the individual pieces of equipment, the T1 circuits available, the T1 circuits working, the total T1 circuits, the ADSL circuits available, the ADSL circuits working, and the total ADSL circuits, wherein the selected location is displayed against a colored background, the color corresponding to a range comprising a minimum percentage and a maximum percentage of the T1 circuits in use at the location, with the information of each location being displayed in a separate window, and with the windows of the locations being cascaded; and

providing a matrix of feeder-distribution interface data in the telephone network, the matrix including a plurality of service type fields for identifying different telecommunications services provided in the telephone network, a plurality of facility type fields for identifying facilities having different transmission characteristics, and a spare field for identifying a number of spare circuits for each of the plurality of facility types, wherein the matrix displays a number of circuits for each of a plurality of service types which are being served from each of the plurality of facility types and a number of the different telecommunication services which are capable of being provisioned for each of the plurality of service types based on the number of spare circuits.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing a plurality of first computers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information extracted from LEIS comprises at least one of connection, equipment, connection, location, loop, pair, slot, support pair, and system information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein manipulating the relational database comprises determining at least one ADSL capacity and T1 capacity.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the data for the selected wire center including displaying information for the location including the geographical address of the location.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising simultaneously displaying at least two of location information, multiplexer capacity, ADSL capacity, equipment location, slot information, circuit information and system information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising simultaneously displaying T1s available, T1s working and total T1s for a selected wire center.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising simultaneously displaying available ADSL lines, working ADSL lines and total ADSL lines.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising simultaneously displaying a picture associated with a selected piece of equipment.

10. A method of providing information about telephone network facilities to a loop capacity manager tasked to manage central office and remote terminal components of the telephone network, the method comprising:

assimilating telephone network facilities data from a plurality of databases, the data being in the form of individual records with each record including a field that includes a wire center identifier, the records specifying slots per piece of equipment, equipment per location, locations per wire center;

populating a plurality of predefined tables with the data for each of the wire centers;

further populating the predefined tables with calculated data for each of the wire centers;

displaying at least a portion of the telephone network facilities data and calculated data in a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface providing a prompt for a district wherein multiple wire centers exist for each district, and in response to receiving a district, listing the available wire centers for the district, and upon receiving a selection of the available wire centers, accessing the information from the relational database based on the wire centers selected to thereby display for each selected location of the wire center the individual pieces of equipment, the T1 circuits available, the T1 circuits working, the total T1 circuits, the ADSL circuits available, the ADSL circuits working, and the total ADSL circuits, wherein the selected location is displayed against a colored background, the color corresponding to a range comprising a minimum percentage and a maximum percentage of the T1 circuits in use at the location with the information of each location being displayed in a separate window, and with the windows of the locations being cascaded; and

providing a matrix of feeder-distribution interface data in the telephone network, the matrix including a plurality of service type fields for identifying different telecommunications services provided in the telephone network, a plurality of facility type fields for identifying facilities having different transmission characteristics, and a spare field for identifying a number of spare circuits for each of the plurality of facility types, wherein the matrix displays a number of circuits for each of a plurality of service types which are being served from each of the plurality of facility types and a number of the different telecommunication services which are capable of being provisioned for each of the plurality of service types based on the number of spare circuits.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of databases comprise databases from LEIS.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the predefined tables comprise at least two of location, equipment, slot and system.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein further populating the predefined tables comprises counting a number of ADSL and T1 facilities at a location.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising simultaneously displaying T1s available, T1s working and total T1s for a selected wire center.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising simultaneously displaying available ADSL lines, working ADSL lines and total ADSL lines.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising simultaneously displaying a picture associated with a selected piece of equipment.

17. A method of analyzing the capacity of telephone network facilities, the telephone network comprising a plurality of wire centers each comprising a plurality of internal locations, each location having a plurality of pieces of equipment, and at least one of the pieces of equipment having a plurality of slots, comprising:

identifying first information in a legacy computer system, the legacy computer system storing predetermined data representing telephone network facilities;

extracting the first information from the legacy computer system, the first information being in the form of individual records with each record including a field that includes a wire center identifier, the records specifying, slots per piece of equipment, equipment per location, locations per wire center;

organizing the first information in a predetermined table format while maintaining the identification of the particular wire center for each of the records of the first information in the predetermined table format;

adding second information to the predetermined table format, the second information being based at least in part on the first information;

displaying portions of the first and second information in a modifiable graphical user interface the graphical user interface providing a prompt for a district wherein multiple wire centers exist for each district, and in response to receiving a district, listing the available wire centers for the district, and upon receiving a selection of the available wire centers, accessing the information from the relational database based on the wire centers selected to thereby display for each selected location of the wire center the individual pieces of equipment, the T1 circuits available, the T1 circuits working, the total T1 circuits, the ADSL circuits available, the ADSL circuits working, and the total ADSL circuits, with the information of each location being displayed in a separate window, and with the windows of the locations being cascaded; and

providing a matrix of feeder-distribution interface data in the telephone network, the matrix including a plurality of service type fields for identifying different telecommunications services provided in the telephone network, a plurality of facility type fields for identifying facilities having different transmission characteristics, and a spare field for identifying a number of spare circuits for each of the plurality of facility types wherein the matrix displays a number of circuits for each of a plurality of service types which are being served from each of the plurality of facility types and a number of the different telecommunication services which are capable of being provisioned for each of the plurality of service types based on the number of spare circuits.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the legacy computer system comprises LEIS.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first information comprises wire center information, location information for each wire center, equipment information for each location, and slot information for each piece of equipment.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the second information comprises T1 and ADSL availability.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the second information comprises T1 and ADSL capacity.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the second information is generated via an iterative process.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising simultaneously displaying a picture associated with a selected piece of equipment.

24. A computer system operable to present a graphical user interface for displaying information representative of telephone network facilities, the graphical user interface obtaining data for display from a plurality of first tables populated with information gathered from a plurality of second tables that are populated with data stored in a telephone network facilities system, comprising:

a client machine; and

a server database in communication with the client machine, wherein the graphical user interface comprises;

a first section for listing a plurality of wire centers;

a second section for listing a plurality of equipment located within the wire centers;

a third section for listing location information associated with a piece of equipment selected in the second section; and

a fourth section for displaying a picture of the equipment selected in the second section;

wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a prompt for a district wherein multiple wire centers exist for each district, and in response to receiving a district, a list of the available wire centers for the district, and a display for each selected location of the wire center that is selected the individual pieces of equipment, the T1 circuits available, the T1 circuits working, the total T1 circuits, the ADSL circuits available, the ADSL circuits working, and the total ADSL circuits, wherein the selected location is displayed against a colored background, the color corresponding to a range comprising a minimum percentage and a maximum percentage of the T1 circuits in use at the location, with the information of each location being displayed in a separate window, and with the windows of the locations being cascaded, and providing a matrix of feeder-distribution interface data in the telephone network, the matrix including a plurality of service field types for identifying different telecommunications services provided in the telephone network, a plurality of facility type fields for identifying facilities having different transmission characteristics, and a spare field for identifying a number of spare circuits for each of the plurality of facility types, wherein the matrix displays a number of circuits for each of a plurality of service types which are being served from each of the plurality of facility types and a number of the different telecommunication services which are capable of being provisioned for each of the plurality of service types based on the number of spare circuits.

25. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the telephone network facilities system comprises LEIS.

26. The computer system of claim 24, further comprising means for extracting the data from the telephone network facilities system.

27. The computer system of claim 24, wherein a color code is applied to each of the listed wire centers to indicate a capacity level thereof.

28. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the third section lists at least one of ADSL capacity, ADSL working and ADSL availability values.

29. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the third section lists at least one of working T1s, available T1s and total T1s.