US6118936A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Signaling network management system for converting network events into standard form and then correlating the standard form events with topology and maintenance information
Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc
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Filing: 1996-04-18
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Granted: 2000-09-12
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Expires: 2016-04-18
Abstract
Abstract A signaling network management system (SNMS) collects network topology, traffic, performance and fault information, correlates that information and displays the information to system operators. It includes a distributed client/server platform that receives and processes information relating to network events that is generated by various signaling network elements. Each network event is parsed and formatted to a standardized format to allow processing of events generated by any type of element. The formatted events are correlated and displayed to system operators. Correlation of the different types of events is performed using programmable analysis rules. The system also correlates signaling network events with transmission alarms and network maintenance schedule information. This allows the system operators to account for outages due to transmission events, such as fiber cuts, and to network maintenance. It also allows operator to worn maintenance personnel of maintenance impacting events. The system employs extensive topology processing of both carrier-owned and foreign networks. This allows system operators to perform impact assessments, such as which customers are affected by specific events. The system provides a graphical interface to operators that allows localized displays, so that only events and impacts pertaining to a specific STP cluster or LATA, for example, are shown. An interface to an external trouble management system allows system operator to submit trouble tickets for signaling network events, without the restriction of a proprietary trouble management system.
Inventors
- 👤 Douglas Gerard Lauer
- 👤 Michael Robert Smith
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-31 21:59
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L41/00; H04L41/22; H04L41/06; H04L41/0631; H04L41/12
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 37
Claim 1
Independent Claim
169 words
A system for managing information related to a signaling network, the signaling network including plural network elements generating plural network events, the system comprising: network event receiving means coupled to said network elements for receiving said network events, said network events received by said network event receiving means including topology information; network event standardizing means responsive to events received by said network event receiving means for converting the received network events to standard form; network event correlating means responsive to the standard form events for correlating the standard form events; a network maintenance scheduling system with an output to said network event correlating means, said network event correlating means correlates network events with network maintenance scheduling information; display means for displaying correlated standard form events; a network topology data base storing information related to network topology; means responsive to said network topology data base for creating standard form events from said network topology data base; and means coupling said created standard form events to said network event correlating means.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
169 words
A system for managing information related to a signaling network, the signaling network including plural network elements generating plural network events, the system comprising: network event receiving means coupled to said network elements for receiving said network events, said network events received by said network event receiving means including topology information; network event standardizing means responsive to events received by said network event receiving means for converting the received network events to standard form; network event correlating means responsive to the standard form events for correlating the standard form events; a network maintenance scheduling system with an output to said network event correlating means, said network event correlating means correlates network events with network maintenance scheduling information; display means for displaying correlated standard form events; a network topology data base storing information related to network topology; means responsive to said network topology data base for creating standard form events from said network topology data base; and means coupling said created standard form events to said network event correlating means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for display on predefined parameters.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
26 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for omission from display based on predefined parameters.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for display based on user-entered parameters.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
26 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, selecting a network event for omission from display based on user-entered parameters.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
24 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the network event receiving means receives information relating to network topology from the network elements in near real-time.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
The system of claim 1 which further includes a transmission alarm receiver receiving information related to transmission alarms from an external network management system.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
38 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means, selecting for omission from the display those network events which have been correlated with network maintenance events.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
25 words
The system of claim 8, further comprising an impact assessment device generating assessments of an impact of a signaling network outage on network maintenance events.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
27 words
The system of claim 1, further comprising an impact assessment device generating impact assessments of network events on the signaling network based on topology and configuration information.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
61 words
The system of claim 10, wherein the topology and configuration information includes information relating to at least one of: local exchange carrier office homing arrangements; local exchange carrier signaling point to signal transfer point homing arrangements; numbering plan area and prefix assignments; foreign network signal transfer point clustering; local exchange carrier network signal transfer point clustering; and signaling supported voice trunks.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
17 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the network event correlating means is responsive to time generated signals.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
50 words
The system of claim 1, wherein said display means includes a trouble ticket entry device, accepting trouble ticket entries from system operators, and which further comprises an interface to a trouble management system, coupled to the trouble ticket entry device, transmitting entered trouble tickets to the external trouble management system.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the network event correlating means is responsive to transmission alarms received from an external network management system.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
41 words
The system of claim 7, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means selecting for display those network events which have been correlated with transmission alarms received from the external network management system.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
32 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means, selecting for display those network events relating to a single customer.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
34 words
The system of claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an event selection device, coupled to the network event correlating means, selecting for omission from display those network events relating to a single customer.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
127 words
A method of managing information related to a signaling network, where the signaling network includes plural network elements which generate plural network events, the method comprising the steps of: receiving network events from the network elements, where the network events include topology information; standardizing the received network events to produce standard form events; correlating the standard form events, including receiving information relating to a network maintenance schedule from a network maintenance scheduling system and correlating the standard form events with the received network maintenance schedule information; displaying the correlated standard form events; providing a network topology data base storing information related to network topology; creating standard form events from said network topology data base; and correlating said created standard form events along with the standard form events.
Claim 20
Independent Claim
127 words
A method of managing information related to a signaling network, where the signaling network includes plural network elements which generate plural network events, the method comprising the steps of: receiving network events from the network elements, where the network events include topology information; standardizing the received network events to produce standard form events; correlating the standard form events, including receiving information relating to a network maintenance schedule from a network maintenance scheduling system and correlating the standard form events with the received network maintenance schedule information; displaying the correlated standard form events; providing a network topology data base storing information related to network topology; creating standard form events from said network topology data base; and correlating said created standard form events along with the standard form events.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of: selecting correlated standard form events based on predefined parameters; and displaying the selected standard form events.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of: selecting correlated standard form events based on predefined parameters; and omitting from display the selected standard form events.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
42 words
The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of: receiving user-defined parameters from the system operators; selecting correlated standard form events based on the received parameters; and displaying the selected standard form events.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
42 words
The method of claim 18, wherein step of displaying the correlated standard form events includes the steps of: receiving user-defined parameters from the system operators; selecting correlated network events based on the received parameters; and omitting from display the selected network events.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 18, wherein the network events comprising topology information are received from the network elements in near real-time.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 18 which includes the further step of receiving transmission alarm information related to transmission alarms from an external network management system.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the step of selecting for omission from display those network events which have been correlated with network maintenance events.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of generating assessments of an impact of a signaling network outage of network maintenance events.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of generating impact assessments of network events on the signaling network based on topology and configuration information.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
61 words
The method of claim 27, wherein the topology and configuration information includes information relating to at least one of: local exchange carrier office homing arrangements; local exchange carrier signaling point to signal transfer point homing arrangements; numbering plan area and prefix assignments; foreign network signal transfer point clustering; local exchange carrier network signal transfer point clustering; and signaling supported voice trunks.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 18 wherein the step of correlating the standard form events comprises the steps of: starting a timer when a first network event is received; and detecting expiration of the timer and continuing with the correlation.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of: accepting trouble ticket entries from a system operator; and transmitting entered trouble tickets to an external trouble management system.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 18, wherein the step of correlating standard form events comprises the steps of: receiving transmission alarms from an external network management system; and correlating network events with the received transmission alarms.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
43 words
The method of claim 31, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of: selecting those network events which have been correlated with transmission alarms received from the external network management system; and displaying the selected network events.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of: selecting those network events relating to a single customer; and displaying the selected network events.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of: selecting those network events relating to a single customer; and omitting from display the selected network events.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 18, wherein the step of displaying the correlated standard form events comprises the steps of: receiving an indication of an event selected by the system operator; and displaying all alarms correlated with the selected event.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2003-09-12 | 2004-03-13 | 2004-09-12 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2007-09-12 | 2008-03-13 | 2008-09-12 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2011-09-12 | 2012-03-13 | 2012-09-12 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |