Method and system for selectively displaying alarms in a communications network

• US 7,636,424 B1
• Filed: 04/28/2005
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Hermsmeyer, Jonathan William, Wiles, Gary Scott, Usery, Thomas Michael, Halikhedkar, Abhijith
• Primary Examiner(s): Jamal; Alexander
• Application Number:
  US11/116,778
• Time in Patent Office: 1,699 Days
• Field of Search: 379/15.01
• US Class Current: 379/15.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13056 Routines, finite state machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13163 Fault alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13175 Graphical user interface [GUI], WWW interface, visual indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0075 Fault management techniques

Abstract

A method and system for processing network trouble alerts is provided. A most important alert is presented, with the ability to view other status indications related to it. The method includes receiving a status indication, identifying a network resource associated with it, determining whether the resource is subordinate to another resource, which is associated with at least a second status indication, and if the resource is not subordinate another, then evaluating the status indication to determine if it should be presented to a user. If so, then automatically presenting the status indication to the user without user intervention.

Claims

1. A method for presenting an alert in a communications network that includes a plurality of network components that enable connection of devices on the network, the method comprising:

receiving an alert associated with a network component;

identifying all alerts associated with the network component, wherein the network component is identified by querying a first data structure associating network components with alert identifiers and a second data structure that stores alerts and associates the alerts with network components based on the identified network component;

determining which of the all alerts relate to problems that currently affect customer service versus those that require attention of a user but that do not currently affect customer service, thereby defining a set of customer-service-affecting (CSA) alerts and non-customer-service-affecting alerts;

assigning a priority level to each CSA alert within the set of customer-service-affecting alerts based on one or more predetermined criteria;

ranking the alerts based on priority level to determine a most important alert; and

automatically presenting the most important alert to the user without user intervention.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert includes a status indication indicating the status of a network component and wherein the status indication includes a message and/or an alert.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the network component includes a subcomponent of the network component.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein automatically presenting the most important alert to a user comprises:

depicting the alert in a visual format; and

/or

depicting the alert in an audio format.

5. One or more computer-readable media have computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method determining whether to present an indication of a status of a component that enables connection of devices on a communications network, the method comprising:

receiving the status indication;

identifying a component associated with the status indication;

determining through the use of a first data structure whether the component is subordinate to a second component, which is associated with at least a second status indication;

if the component is not subordinate to a second component, then evaluating the status indication to determine if the status indication relates to a problem that currently affects customer service or does not currently affect customer service;

classifying the status indication as one in a set of customer-service affecting indications or one in a set of non-customer-service affecting indications;

if the status indication is customer-service affecting, determining if it should be presented to a user; and

if so, then automatically presenting the status indication to the user without user intervention.

6. The media of claim 5, wherein the status indication is a message, warning, alert, or alarm.

7. The media of claim 6, wherein the component is a subcomponent of the component.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein determining whether the component is subordinate to a second component includes:

referencing a topology data structure that stores hierarchal-relationship information, wherein the hierarchal-relationship information describes one or more of the following types of component relations;

(1) parents and children, including their progeny; and

(2) siblings.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein evaluating the status indication to determine if it should be presented to a user further comprises determining whether the status indication is a most important status indication among a set of customer-service-affecting status indications.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein determining whether the status indication is a most important status indication among a set of customer-service-affecting status indications further comprises:

ordering the set of customer-service-affecting status indications according to a priority level; and

selecting the status indication from the ordered set that is the highest priority.

11. The media of claim 9, wherein automatically presenting the status indication to the user includes displaying the status indication on a display device.

12. The media of claim 9, wherein automatically presenting the status indication to the user further includes providing an audio notification of the status indication.

13. A method of presenting an alert in a communications networking environment, the method comprising:

storing in a first data structure a plurality of records related to network components in an alert condition, wherein the network components enable connection of devices on a network;

querying the data structure to determine whether a first component is subordinate to at least a second component and a third component, wherein the second and third components are in an alert condition;

determining if the second and third network components in alert condition are in alert condition because of a current customer-service-affecting alert;

if in alert condition because of a customer-service affecting alert, evaluating the at least second and third component to determine a most important customer-service affecting alert; and

automatically displaying the determined most important customer-service affecting alert to a user without user intervention, but not displaying other alerts associated with the other components unless a request to present the other alerts is received.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the alert condition includes a component that provides one or more of the following:

a message;

a warning;

an alert; and

/or

an alarm.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein querying the data structure includes:

retrieving hierarchal information that identifies relationships between network components, and wherein the relationships include one or more of,

(1) parents and children, including their progeny; and

(2) siblings.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein evaluating the at least second and third component to determine a most important customer-service affecting alert, comprises:

ordering the set of status indications according to a priority level; and

selecting the status indication from the ordered set that is the highest priority.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein automatically displaying the determined most important customer-service affecting alert comprises:

depicting on a display device the most important alert in a format that enables a user to view additional alerts related to the most important alert incident to providing a mouse click or keyboard stroke.