Mechanism for alarm management of Femto related systems to avoid alarm floods

• US 9,225,587 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhou, Wei Hua, Zhang, Yi, Markwart, Christian, Zhang, Shun Liang
• Primary Examiner(s): JAIN, RAJ K
• Application Number:
  US13/514,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20120287773A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,210 Days
• Field of Search: 370/221, 370/225, 370/242, 370/230, 370/216
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/052 using standardised network management architectures, e.g. telecommunication management network [TMN] or unified network management architecture [UNMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/265 for initial activation of new user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

A method of alarm management in a communications system having a number of Femto base stations, the method comprising the steps of: detecting disruption of a communication link between a Femto base station and a management system via which alarms are communicated; blocking the sending of alarms by the Femto base station; generating a report representative of the accumulation of alarms; detecting re-establishment of the communication link; sending the report to the management system; and reporting alarms to the management system on the basis of the report.

Claims

1. A method of alarm management in a communications system performed by a node, the method of alarm management comprising the steps of:

detecting disruption of a communication link between a node and a management system due to a communication link failure;

blocking the sending of alarms by the node;

generating a report representative of an accumulation of alarms, wherein the report is periodically updated over the time period of the communication disruption;

detecting re-establishment of the communication link; and

sending the report to the management system upon the re-establishment of the communication link;

wherein the alarms are reported to the management system on the basis of the report, wherein the management system carries out alarm synchronization with the node to avoid alarm information inconsistencies.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which the node comprises a Femto base station.

3. A method according to claim 1 in which the alarms are generated when the node detects a problem and then generates a corresponding internal indication.

4. A method according to claim 1 in which the node puts the alarms into alarm lists.

5. A method according to claim 4 in which after the communication link is re-established, the node sends at least some alarms that have been stored in the alarm lists during the period that the communication link was disrupted.

6. A method according to claim 1 in which the report includes information relating to a number of pending alarms which are indicated as needing to be sent to the management system.

7. A method according to claim 1 in which a fault management functionality of the node applies blocking if the communication link is disrupted.

8. A method according to claim 1 in which blocking involves application of a command to block temporarily transfer of expedited and queued alarms until the block is removed.

9. A method according to claim 1 in which blocking is applied by the node.

10. A method according to claim 1 in which during blocking a list of current alarms remains unblocked.

11. A method according to claim 1 in which unblocking is applied by the management system.

12. A method according to claim 1 in which the management system uses a synchronisation command to obtain from the node a list of current alarms.

13. A method of alarm management in a communications system performed by a node, the method of alarm management comprising the steps of:

detecting disruption of a communication link between a node and a management system via which alarms are communicated;

blocking the sending of alarms by the node;

generating a report representative of an accumulation of alarms;

detecting re-establishment of the communication link; and

sending the report to the management system;

wherein the alarms are reported to the management system on the basis of the report,

wherein the management system carries out alarm synchronization with the node to avoid alarm information inconsistencies or alarm flooding,

wherein the node puts the alarms into alarm lists, and

wherein the report is generated in a report generation block which receives a notification that there is a disruption to the communication link and responds by establishing connections to various alarm lists in the node and obtaining from them information which is to be used to generate the report.

14. A method of alarm management in a communications system performed by a node, the method of alarm management comprising the steps of:

detecting disruption of a communication link between a node and a management system via which alarms are communicated;

blocking the sending of alarms by the node;

generating a report representative of an accumulation of alarms;

detecting re-establishment of the communication link; and

sending the report to the management system;

wherein the alarms are reported to the management system on the basis of the report,

wherein the management system carries out alarm synchronization with the node to avoid alarm information inconsistencies or alarm flooding, and

wherein after re-establishment of the communication link, the management system synchronises alarms with the node by carrying out at least one of the following;

sending pending alarms to the management system if it is determined that there is a sufficiently small number of alarms to be reported, resetting the node if it is determined that there is too large a number of alarms to be reported, and re-constructing overwritten alarms.

15. A communications system capable of managing alarms, the system comprising:

a node being able to communicating alarms to a management system, determining by the node failure to communicate the alarms to the management system due to a disruption of the communication link, and being capable of blocking the sending of alarms, the node comprising a report generating block to generate a report representative of an accumulation of alarms, wherein the report is periodically updated over the time period of the communication disruption, the node being capable of sending the report to the management system when it has determined that there is no longer disruption of the communication link, wherein the alarms are reported to the management system based on the report, wherein the management system carries out alarm synchronization with the node to avoid alarm information inconsistencies.

16. A node capable of managing alarms in a communications system, the node being able to communicate alarms to a management system, the node being capable of determining failure to communicate the alarms to the management system due to a disruption of the communication link, and being capable of blocking the sending of alarms, the node comprising a report generating block to generate a report representative of an accumulation of alarms, wherein the report is periodically updated over the time period of the communication disruption, when it has determined that there is no longer disruption of the communication link, the node being capable of sending the report to the management system, wherein reporting alarms to the management system is carried out based on the report, wherein the management system carries out alarm synchronization with the node to avoid alarm information inconsistencies.

17. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, said computer program comprising software code that when executed on a computing system performs a method of alarm management in a communications system comprising the steps of:

detecting by the node failure to communicate alarms to a management system due to a disruption of a communication link between a node and a management system;

blocking the sending of alarms by the node;

generating a report representative of an accumulation of alarms, wherein the report is periodically updated over the time period of the communication disruption;

detecting re-establishment of the communication link;

sending the report to the management system upon the re-establishment of the communication link; and

reporting alarms to the management system on the basis of the report, wherein the management system carries out alarm synchronization with the node to avoid alarm information inconsistencies.

18. A computer program according to claim 17 having executable code portions which are capable of carrying out the steps of the method.