Automation of customer premises equipment provisioning in a telecommunications network

• US 20060050862A1
• Filed: 08/10/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Esther Sheu Sun Poon, Fong Fang Shen, Piu Piu Ong, Yen-Huoy Yang
• Original Assignee: Esther Sheu Sun Poon, Fong Fang Shen, Piu Piu Ong, Yen-Huoy Yang
• Inventors: Ong, Piu Piu, Poon, Esther Sheu Sun, Shen, Fong Fang, Yang, Yen-Huoy
• Granted Patent: US 7,397,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2883 ATM DSLAM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13106 Microprocessor, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13109 Initializing, personal profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13196 Connection circuit/link/trunk/junction, bridge, router, gateway
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13345 Intelligent networks, SCP
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management

Abstract

A method to systematically analyze a next generation telecommunications network to result in creating a provisioning plan for provisioning the network to provide services for one or more subscribers. In one specific embodiment, the method involves creating and storing information that represents a logical decomposition of the next generation network into a plurality of discrete functional areas. The information representing the functional areas is analyzed to identify one or more provisioning requirements for each of the functional areas. One or more provisioning procedures are determined, and one or more required provisioning tools are identified for each of the functional areas, based on the provisioning requirements. A sequence of execution of the procedures and tools is created and stored as a provisioning plan.

Claims

1. A method of provisioning a next generation telecommunications network to provide network services, comprising:

receiving a service request that specifies a service to be provided to customer premises equipment in the next generation network;

creating and storing information that represents a logical decomposition of the next generation network into a plurality of discrete functional areas;

analyzing the information representing the functional areas to identify one or more provisioning requirements for each of the functional areas;

defining one or more provisioning procedures and identifying one or more tools based on the provisioning requirements;

creating and storing a provisioning plan that includes a sequenced execution of the defined procedures and identified tools;

executing the procedures and tools in the provisioning plan in the sequence identified therein to provision the next generation network to provide the specified service.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the service request identifies a desired service and service attributes.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the service request identifies customer services equipment to be provisioned to provide the desired service.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the service request is received from an order service system controlled by a service provider of the desired service.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the order service system is notified that the desired service has been provisioned.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising logically partitioning the next generation network into a subscriber customer premises equipment area, an access network and core network area, and a switch and other processors area.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising identifying one or more network devices that are involved in each of the functional areas, and for each of the identified devices, determining a setup that is required to enable the identified devices to inter-communicate to provide services to subscribers.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising determining one or more boundaries of the discrete functional areas based on classifying the devices according to functions performed by the devices in delivering network services.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising determining one or more boundaries of the discrete functional areas based on classifying the devices according to roles and responsibilities performed by the devices in delivering network services.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising defining one or more individual device settings for the setup, and storing the individual device settings in a database.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein creating and storing a provisioning plan includes analyzing and resolving one or more inter-dependencies of procedures applicable to subscriber customer premises equipment devices, access and core network devices, and switches or other processors.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein executing the procedures and tools in the provisioning plan additionally comprises the steps of sending one or more commands, data or other information to devices in the next generation network.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the service request comprises a request to update provisioning of customer premises equipment.

14. An apparatus for provisioning a next generation network to provide network services, the apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

a network communicatively coupled to the processors and configured to communicate one or more packet flows among the processors and a network; and

a computer readable storage medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions for provisioning a next generation network, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform;

receiving a service request that specifies a service to be provided to customer premises equipment in the next generation network;

creating and storing information that represents a logical decomposition of the next generation network into a plurality of discrete functional areas;

analyzing the information representing the functional areas to identify one or more provisioning requirements for each of the functional areas;

defining one or more provisioning procedures and identifying one or more tools based on the provisioning requirements;

creating and storing a provisioning plan that includes a sequenced execution of the defined procedures and identified tools;

executing the procedures and tools in the provisioning plan in the sequence identified therein to provision the next generation network to provide the specified service.

15. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for provisioning network service in a next generation telecommunications network, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving a service request that specifies a service to be provided to customer premises equipment in the next generation network;

creating and storing information that represents a logical decomposition of the next generation network into a plurality of discrete functional areas;

analyzing the information representing the functional areas to identify one or more provisioning requirements for each of the functional areas;

defining one or more provisioning procedures and identifying one or more tools based on the provisioning requirements;

creating and storing a provisioning plan that includes a sequenced execution of the defined procedures and identified tools;

executing the procedures and tools in the provisioning plan in the sequence identified therein to provision the next generation network to provide the specified service.

16. A next generation network telecommunications system comprising logical discrete functional areas of:

a subscriber customer premises equipment area comprising one or more customer premises equipment devices that deliver services to a subscriber;

an access network and core network area comprising one or more network devices at access edge and core that provide connectivity to subscriber customer premises equipment devices; and

a switch and other processors area comprising one or more next generation network components that provide network services;

said next generation network telecommunications system additionally comprising;

an electronic memory coupled to one or more processors;

one or more stored program instructions stored in the memory, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of;

receiving a service request that specifies a service to be provided to customer premises equipment in the next generation network;

creating and storing information that represents a logical decomposition of the next generation network into a plurality of discrete functional areas;

analyzing the information representing the functional areas to identify one or more provisioning requirements for each of the functional areas;

defining one or more provisioning procedures and identifying one or more tools based on the provisioning requirements;

creating and storing a provisioning plan that includes a sequenced execution of the defined procedures and identified tools;

executing the procedures and tools in the provisioning plan in the sequence identified therein to provision the next generation network to provide the specified service.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a function performed by a device when delivering network services determines to which logical discrete functional area the device belongs.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more stored program instructions stored in the memory cause the one or more processors to perform, for each device in each logical discrete functional area, determining a setup that is required to enable the device to inter-communicate with other devices in the next generation network to provide services to the subscriber.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more stored program instructions that cause the processor to perform the step of determining a setup that is required to enable a device to inter-communicate comprises instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform defining one or more individual device settings for the setup and storing the individual device settings in a database.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more stored program instructions that cause the processor to perform the step of defining one or more provisioning procedures and identifying one or provisioning tools comprises instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform identifying one or more of an Element Management System, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server, and Domain Name System server.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more stored program instructions that cause the processor to perform the step of creating a provisioning plan comprises instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform analyzing and resolving one or more inter-dependencies of procedures applicable to devices in each logical functional area.