Wireless network abstract maintenance command execution framework

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503922-B1
Application number	US-201514885477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 16, 2015
Priority date	Oct 16, 2015
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A communication network maintenance system. The system comprises an equipment inventory data store comprising cell tower equipment information, at least one processor, a memory, a command builder application, and a command executor application. The command builder application receives an abstract command identifying an abstract maintenance operation and a cell tower, looks up information about the cell tower in the inventory data store, based on the looked up information determines a specific command to execute on the cell tower using an element management system (EMS) associated with the cell tower, builds the specific command, and places the specific command on a queue. The command executor application retrieves the specific command from the queue, verifies a syntax of the specific command against the rules of the EMS associated with the specific command, checks that the specific command is authorized, and transmits the specific command to the EMS.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication network maintenance system, comprising:
a network equipment inventory non-transitory data store, wherein the network equipment inventory non-transitory data store comprises information about cell tower equipment items;
at least one processor;
a non-transitory memory;
a command builder application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the at least one processor,
receives an abstract command identifying a maintenance operation and identifying a cell tower that the maintenance operation is to be performed on, wherein the abstract command is received from one of an alarm system, a network operations center (NOC) user interface, and a performance monitor,
looks up, in the network equipment inventory non-transitory data store, information about the cell tower identified in the abstract command,
based on the looked up information, determines a specific command to execute on the cell tower, the execution using an element management system (EMS) associated with the cell tower,
builds the specific command, the specific command including parameter values determined based at least in part on the looked up information, and
places the specific command on a command execution queue; and
a command executor application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the at least one processor,
retrieves the specific command from the command execution queue,
verifies a syntax of the specific command against the rules of the EMS associated with the specific command,
checks that the specific command is authorized,
establishes a communication link to the EMS associated with the specific command, and
transmits the specific command to the EMS.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network equipment inventory non-transitory data store is rebuilt daily from data read from cell towers.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the command builder application rejects an abstract command identifying a reset command for a cell tower that does not identify a specific radio head (RH) of the cell tower.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the command builder application checks for a command stored on the command execution queue that duplicates the abstract command before building the specific command.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the NOC user interface provides abstract commands for current execution and abstract commands for scheduled execution.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein checking that the specific command is authorized comprises the command executor application checking if the cell tower enables the specific command and if the EMS enables the specific command.

7. A communication network maintenance system, comprising:
a network equipment inventory non-transitory data store, wherein the network equipment inventory non-transitory data store comprises information about cell tower equipment items;
at least one processor;
a non-transitory memory;
a command builder application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the at least one processor,
receives an abstract command identifying a maintenance operation and identifying a cell tower that the maintenance operation is to be performed on,
looks up, in the network equipment inventory non-transitory data store, information about the cell tower identified in the abstract command,
based on the looked up information, determines a specific command to execute on the cell tower, the execution using an element management system (EMS) associated with the cell tower,
checks that the specific command is authorized,
builds the specific command, the specific command including parameter values determined based at least in part on the looked up information, and
places the specific command on a command execution queue; and
a command executor application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the at least one processor,
retrieves the specific command from the command execution queue,
verifies a syntax of the specific command against rules of the EMS associated with the specific command,
rechecks that the specific command is authorized,
establishes a communication link to the EMS associated with the specific command, and
transmits the specific command to the EMS.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the network equipment inventory non-transitory data store comprises information about cell tower equipment items manufactured by a plurality of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and wherein the command builder application is configured to build specific commands to execute on cell towers using a plurality of EMSs.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the command builder application is configured to build a first specific command for execution using a first EMS based on a first abstract command and to build a second specific command for execution using a second EMS based on the first abstract command, where the first specific command is different from the second specific command.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the command executor application sorts specific commands stored on the command execution queue according to which EMS the specific command is associated.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the communication link established to the EMS associated with the specific command is a secure tunnel.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein checking that the specific command is authorized comprises the command builder application checking to see if a cell tower equipment item associated with the specific command supports the specific command.

13. The system of claim 7 , wherein checking that the specific command is authorized comprises the command builder application checking to see if a user associated with the abstract command has permission to execute the specific command.

Assignees

• Sprint Communications Co Lp

Inventors

• Ford Justin L
• Kurtz Matthew D

Classifications

• H04W24/04 Primary

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title

• H04W4/003

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W88/10

  adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points · CPC title

• H04W28/08

  Load balancing or load distribution (transferring a connection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12) · CPC title

• H04W4/60 Primary

  Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits · CPC title