Telecommunications network management system

Claim 1

A system for managing a telecommunications network, said telecommunications network comprising several network elements to be managed by the system, said system comprising a management centre having at least one workstation accomplishing a man-machine interface and allowing a manager to control the system, and the system being capable of providing the manager with information on the network; said at least one workstation being connected to a database including information about the network to be managed; said information being in the form of objects that relate to the network elements to be managed and in the form of references between the different objects; said references indicating the dependencies between the objects, wherein said management centre is connected to said network elements by data communication links such that the manager can initiate an operation on and receive information from a network item to be managed; characterized in that the transmission network to be managed is connected to the management system by means of interface processes; the devices used in the network are classified into different device categories; said system comprises for each device category an interface process which converts a device belonging to the concerned device category so that it appears, as viewed from the direction of the management system, as a generic basic device corresponding to a device represented by corresponding objects within the management system; and said devices are classified from the viewpoint of the interface processes in such a way that: one device category essentially includes all PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy) devices connected under known mediation devices; one device category essentially includes all cross-connection devices provided with a telecommunications protocol interface; and one device category essentially includes all SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) devices.

Claim 2

A system for managing a telecommunications network, said telecommunications network comprising several network elements to be managed by the system, said system comprising a management centre having at least one workstation accomplishing a man-machine interface and allowing a manager to control the system, and the system being capable of providing the manager with information on the network; said at least one workstation being connected to a database including information about the network to be managed; said information being in the form of objects that relate to the network elements to be managed and in the form of references between the different objects; said references indicating the dependencies between the objects, wherein said management centre is connected to said network elements by data communication links such that the manager can initiate an operation on and receive information from a network item to be managed; characterized in that the transmission network to be managed is connected to the management system by means of interface processes; the devices used in the network are classified into different device categories; said system comprises for each device category an interface process which converts a device belonging to the concerned device category so that it appears, as viewed from the direction of the management system, as a generic basic device corresponding to a device represented by corresponding objects within the management system; and said devices are classified from the viewpoint of the interface processes in such a way that: one device category essentially includes all PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy) devices connected under known mediation devices; one device category essentially includes all cross-connection devices provided with a telecommunications protocol interface; and one device category essentially includes all SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) devices.