Methods, systems and computer program products for network element information management

• US 20060041658A1
• Filed: 08/20/2004
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nelson, Adam, Boston, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A method of monitoring network elements in a communications network includes querying the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration event data, identifying a group of the network elements responsive to the querying, and updating information for the identified group of network elements in a network configuration database. The method may further include extracting information from the identified group of network elements into independently searchable databases. The invention may be embodied as methods, data processing systems and computer program products.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring network elements in a communications network, the method comprising:

querying the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration event data;

identifying a group of the network elements responsive to the querying; and

updating information for the identified group of network elements in a network configuration database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting information from the identified group of network elements into independently searchable databases.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the independently searchable databases respectively include interface information, inventory information, routing information, IP address information, customer information, and configuration assurance information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein querying the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration event data comprises querying the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration timestamps.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying a group comprises comparing the current timestamps to prior timestamps stored in a temporary database.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying all customers connected to a particular network element responsive to a user request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the network for added and/or removed network elements; and

updating the network configuration database with information for the added and/or removed elements.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the change monitor is configured to query the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration timestamps.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the change monitor is configured to identify a group by comparing the current timestamps to prior timestamps stored in a temporary database.

6. The method of Clam 1, wherein the steps of querying, identifying, and updating are repetitively performed to generate an archival network configuration database including a configuration history.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

querying the archival network configuration database; and

generating a configuration comparison report between specified times for a network element responsive to a user request.

10. A data processing system, comprising:

a network configuration database; and

a change monitor configured to query network elements in a communications network for reboot and/or reconfiguration event data, to identify a group of the network elements responsive to the querying, and to update the database with information for the identified group of network elements.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the change monitor is further configured to extract information from the identified group of network elements into independently searchable databases.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the independently searchable databases respectively include interface information, inventory information, routing information, IP address information, customer information, and configuration assurance information.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising a user interface configured to display all customers connected to a particular network element responsive to a user request.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the change monitor is further configured to query the network for added and/or removed network elements and to update the network configuration database with information for the added and/or removed elements.

15. The system of Clam 10, wherein the change monitor is configured to repetitively perform the steps of querying, identifying, and updating to generate an archival network configuration database including a configuration history.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the change monitor is further configured to query the archival network configuration database and generate a configuration comparison report between specified times for a network element responsive to a user request.

19. A computer program product for monitoring network elements in a communications network, the computer program product comprising computer code embodied in a storage medium, the computer code comprising:

code configured to query the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration event data;

code configured to identify a group of the network elements responsive to the querying; and

code configured to update information for the identified group of network elements in a network configuration database.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising code configured to extract information from the identified group of network elements into independently searchable databases.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the independently searchable databases respectively include interface information, inventory information, routing information, IP address information, customer information, and configuration assurance information.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein code configured to query the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration event data comprises code configured to query the network elements for reboot and/or reconfiguration timestamps.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein code configured to identify a group comprises code configured to compare the current timestamps to prior timestamps stored in a temporary database.

26. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising code configured to display all customers connected to a particular network element responsive to a user request.

27. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

code configured to query the network for added and/or removed network elements; and

code configured to update the network configuration database with information for the added and or removed elements.

24. The computer program product of Clam 19, wherein the code configured to query, identify, and update are repetitively executed to generate an archival network configuration database including a configuration history.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, further comprising code configured to query the archival network configuration database and generate a configuration comparison report between specified times for a network element responsive to a user request.