Provisioning and commissioning a communications network with a virtual network operations center and interface

• US 8,396,952 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2009
• Issued: 03/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: DeCusatis, Casimer M, Osias, Michael J
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ashraf, Waseem
• Application Number:
  US12/539,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20110040896A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,308 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0254 Optical medium access
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0283 WDM ring architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

An interface coupled to a virtual network operations center and coupled to a data communications network having at least one optical channel. Equipment on the data communications network is identified by the interface wherein the interface coordinates and correlates communications between the I/O interfaces of a server coupled to the network so that data rates and data protocols are managed properly. The interface receives commands from and transmits commands to the data communications network and translates the commands to be further transmitted and used in the virtual network operations center coupled to the server. The data communications network is represented in a three dimensions virtual world in the virtual network operations center so that events on the network can be represented in real-time in the virtual network operations center.

Claims

1. A method to provision and commission a data communications network having at least one optical channel, the method comprising the steps of:

operationally connecting a holographic enterprise interface between the data communications network and a three-dimensional virtual network operations center installed on at least one server;

the holographic enterprise interface extracting network information about the network configuration and identifiers of equipment on the network;

the holographic enterprise interface receiving information about the at least one server'"'"'s and other servers'"'"' connected on the data communications network I/O configurations;

the holographic enterprise interface assigning server identifiers to one or more I/O adapters of the at least one server'"'"'s and other servers'"'"' connected on the data communications network I/O configurations;

the holographic enterprise interface modifying one or more of the I/O adapters of the at least one server'"'"'s and other servers'"'"' connected on the data communications network I/O configurations to read and write messages on the data communications network;

the holographic enterprise interface associating the at least one server'"'"'s and other servers'"'"' connected on the data communications network identifiers with the network configuration and the one or more identifiers of the equipment on the network;

the holographic enterprise interface provisioning the data communications network so that equipment on the network will receive and transmit data in a protocol and data rate compatible with the one or more I/O adapters of the at least one server and other servers connected on the data communications network;

the holographic enterprise interface encapsulating at least a portion of received data from the data communications network in a holographic protocol;

the holographic enterprise interface transmitting received data to the three-dimensional virtual network operations center; and

at least one server rendering the network configuration in the three-dimensional virtual network operations center.

2. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface generating correlation tags between the equipment on the data communications network provisioned to receive data from the I/O adapters of the at least one server and other servers connected on the data communications network.

3. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the data communications network having a plurality of optical channels.

4. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 3 further comprising:

one or more of the plurality of optical channels being connected to a wavelength division multiplexed network.

5. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface extracting network information comprising data protocols and data rates of data transmitted on the data communications network.

6. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface extracting network information comprising the topology of the data communications and connection information of the equipment on the network.

7. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface extracting network information comprising protection switching capabilities of the data communications network.

8. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface extracting network information comprising one or more regeneration commands for the equipment on the data communications network.

9. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 1 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface receiving network configuration information in TL1 messages.

14. The method to provision a data communications network of claim 9 further comprising:

the holographic enterprise interface encapsulating the TL1 messages in a holographic protocol format.

10. A computer program product for provisioning and commissioning a data communications network operatively coupled to a server, the computer program product comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a network extraction component of a holographic enterprise interface to extract network configuration information of a data communications network;

a server extraction component of the holographic enterprise interface to extract information of a server'"'"'s I/O configuration, the server being operationally coupled to the data communications network;

an identifier component of the holographic enterprise interface that assigns identifiers to one or more I/O adapters of the server'"'"'s I/O configuration and extracts identifiers of each equipment of the data communications network;

a tag association component of the holographic enterprise interface that stores the identifiers of the one or more I/O adapters of the server and the one or more identifiers of the equipment on the data communications network;

a tag correlation component of the holographic enterprise interface to correlate the identifiers of the one or more I/O adapters of the server with the one or more identifiers of the equipment on the data communications network that receives and transmits data from and to to its respective one or more I/O adapters;

a commissioning component of the holographic enterprise interface to control data communications on the data communications network so that equipment on the data communications network will receive and transmit data in a protocol and data rate and on a channel compatible with other equipment on the data communications network; and

a communications component of the holographic enterprise interface to encapsulate at least a portion of the data communications in a holographic protocol;

the communications component of the holographic enterprise to transmit the data communications comprising at least a configuration of the data communications network to a three-dimensional virtual network operations center operationally coupled to the server.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a plug-in framework component of the holographic enterprise interface comprising one or more plug-ins for the one or more I/O adapters of the server'"'"'s I/O configuration to translate the I/O adapter'"'"'s protocol to a protocol for transmission on the data communications network.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a TL1 component of the holographic enterprise interface to read and write TL1 commands from and to the data communications network.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

a network event component of the holographic enterprise interface to provide protection switching and regeneration commands when an event occurs on the data communications network.