Method of determining existing service capabilities of telephone exchange equipment

Claim 1

A method of indicating the service provided by telephone exchange equipment having plural items of equipment and capable of processing plural types of telephone calls, said method comprising: monitoring, over a period of time, the normal expected level of usage of items of equipment required for each call type, and using said monitored expected level of usages, evaluating, for the number of items of equipment available at a given time, the probability of no items of a particular required type of equipment being able to provide a service when required.

Claim 2

A method of indicating the service provided by telephone exchange equipment having plural items of equipment and capable of processing plural types of telephone calls, said method comprising: monitoring, over a period of time, the normal expected level of usage of items of equipment required for each call type, and using said monitored expected level of usages, evaluating, for the number of items of equipment available at a given time, the probability of no items of a particular required type of equipment being able to provide a service when required.

Claim 9

A method as claimed in claims 1 or 2 including evaluating an index figure (ESI) representing the availability of service in an exchange using the formula: ##EQU9## where A=0 or 1 B=Y×W ##EQU10## W=weighting factor C=normalization factor P i =probability figure for each item of equipment.

Claim 10

A method as claimed in claims 1 or 2 wherein the evaluations are carried out using the processor of a stored program control type exchange.

Claim 11

A method for determining in real time the existing relative capability of a telephone exchange to perform its overall expected functions when some items of its equipment are not functioning and the relative priorities for repairing selected items of such non-functioning equipment so as to most expeditiously maximize the capability of the exchange to perform its expected functions, said method comprising the steps of: measuring normally expected levels of usage for items of equipment in said exchange over a period of time during which substantially all such items of equipment are functioning normally and maintaining up-to-date machine accessible data files containing such traffic analysis data; monitoring the actual current availability of said items of equipment which are functioning normally and abnormally and maintaining up-to-date machine accessible data files containing such maintenance data; and determining in real time, using said data files, the existing relative capability of the telephone exchange to perform its overall expected functions at a given time and the relative priorities for repairing specific ones of said items of equipment so as to most expeditiously maximize such capabilities.

Claim 12

A method for determining in real time the existing relative capability of a telephone exchange to perform its overall expected functions when some items of its equipment are not functioning and the relative priorities for repairing selected items of such non-functioning equipment so as to most expeditiously maximize the capability of the exchange to perform its expected functions, said method comprising the steps of: measuring normally expected levels of usage for items of equipment in said exchange over a period of time during which substantially all such items of equipment are functioning normally and maintaining up-to-date machine accessible data files containing such traffic analysis data; monitoring the actual current availability of said items of equipment which are functioning normally and abnormally and maintaining up-to-date machine accessible data files containing such maintenance data; and determining in real time, using said data files, the existing relative capability of the telephone exchange to perform its overall expected functions at a given time and the relative priorities for repairing specific ones of said items of equipment so as to most expeditiously maximize such capabilities.