Architecture for operational support system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10027554-B2
Application number	US-201715601813-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 22, 2017
Priority date	Nov 18, 2005
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

A network management system for management of a communications network is disclosed. The system comprises an inventory database storing a network inventory comprising information representative of network resources of the communications network. The system comprises means for receiving a change request specifying a modification to be made to the network, and an inventory update component adapted to modify the network inventory in response to the change request. The system also includes an implementation component adapted to access the inventory database, identify modifications made to the network inventory, and transmit configuration data to the network to implement the inventory modifications in the network.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-readable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:
storing a network inventory comprising information representative of a plurality of modeled entities, where each of the modeled entities represents one or more entities of a communications network;
receiving at an inventory update component a plurality of change requests from a plurality of different network management applications of the system;
modifying one or more of the plurality of modeled entities stored in the network inventory by the inventory update component in response to the change requests;
outputting from the inventory update component to a network implementation component a plurality of change records including a first change record and a second change record based on the modification made to the network inventory in response to the change requests, where each of the plurality of change records defines a change made within the network inventory to one of the plurality of modeled entities responsive to the change requests, and where:
the first change record specifies a first modeled entity of the plurality of modeled entities, and a first modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests, and
the second change record specifies the first modeled entity, and a second modification of the first modeled entity in response to the change requests;

accumulating the plurality of change records;
processing the accumulated change records responsive to a predefined event, the predefined event being the plurality of change records having a threshold number of change records, and the processing including generating at the network implementation component a set of network configuration actions that correspond to the plurality of change records, the set of network configuration actions including configuration commands, the generating including:
configuration action based on a determination that both the first change record and the second change record are associated with the first modeled entity, where the single network configuration action includes specific instructions in a predetermined format specific to the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity that are to be implemented for configuring the entity of the communications network;

transmitting the set of network configuration actions to the communications network;
implementing the set of network configuration actions at the communications network, including carrying out the specific instructions associated with the entity of the communications network to perform one or more changes to the entity of the communications network and in response to carrying out the specific instructions, transmitting an acknowledgement to the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received including:
(i) when the one or more changes to the entity are successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed, and
(ii) when the one or more changes to the entity are not successfully completed, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were not completed; and
awaiting receipt by the network implementation component that the specific instructions were received and that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed before proceeding with further network configuration actions that include modifications that are dependent on the one or more changes.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more entities of the communication network include at least one of: a device of a communications network, topology data of a communications network, and service data of a communications network.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity is a device of the communications network.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of different network management applications include at least one of: a network design application, a network resource management application, a network planning application, a service provisioning application, and a reporting application, and each of the change requests specifying a modification to be made to the communications network.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of different network management applications include a network design application, a network resource management application, a network planning application, a service provisioning application, and a reporting application, and each of the change requests specifying a modification to be made to the communications network.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first modification specified by the first change record is of the attribute of the first modeled entity and wherein the second modification specified by the second change record is of the attribute of the first modeled entity.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the configuration commands are for the entity of the communications network represented by the first modeled entity.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the acknowledgement that the specific instructions were received are transmitted from the entity to the network implementation component.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein (i) includes: when the one or more changes to the entity are successfully completed by the entity, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were successfully completed, and
wherein (ii) includes: when the one or more changes to the entity are not successfully completed by the entity, the acknowledgement indicating that the one or more changes to the entity were not completed.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein utilization of network resources in the communications network is analyzed, and changes to the communications network are planned in dependence on the outcome of the analysis.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the analyzing and planning comprises:
measuring the utilization of the network resources in the communications network over time;
analyzing the measured utilization over time of the network resources to determine a utilization trend;
predicting future utilization of the network resources using the determined utilization trend; and
planning changes to the network in dependence on the predicted future utilization.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising:
storing a service inventory, the service inventory being derived from the network inventory and containing information used for provisioning of services in the communications network; and
provisioning services in the communications network using the service inventory.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein provisioning a service comprises:
modifying the service inventory in dependence on the service being provisioned; and
configuring the communications network to provide the service in dependence on the modified service inventory.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein provisioning the service comprises generating configuration information in dependence on the service inventory modification, and transmitting

Assignees

• Amdocs Systems Ltd
• Amdocs Development Ltd

Inventors

• Mishra Richard
• Buchner Markus
• Glendinning Johnston Harden Graham
• Geyer Manfred
• Pope Adan K
• Ettle David Roy

Classifications

• H04L41/0896 Primary

  Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities (flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76) · CPC title

• H04L41/147 Primary

  for predicting network behaviour · CPC title

• H04L41/5087

  wherein the managed service relates to voice services (management of VoIP services H04M7/0081) · CPC title

• H04L41/0886

  Fully automatic configuration · CPC title

• H04L43/0876

  Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level · CPC title