Patent ID: 11876672
Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 7:
8. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory coupled with the one or more processors, the memory storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining a workflow associated with executing one or more changes in a communications network, wherein the obtaining the workflow further comprises enabling drag-and-drop use of a catalog of building blocks to create the workflow, wherein the building blocks are modular, reusable and modifiable to match a specific change in the communications network and a specific vendor based on real data collected from cellular networks and virtualized services, and

wherein each building block is configured to execute a specific function needed to implement the specific change in the communications network and an operator is enabled, on a user interface, to generate the workflow as a sequence of selected building blocks among the catalog of building blocks, the sequence aligning input and output of the workflow with inputs and outputs of the selected building blocks, and
wherein each building block is defined using an input/output parameter list and has a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API);
obtaining one or more verification rules for comparing pre-impact network performance and post-impact network performance associated with the one or more changes;
determining a schedule for deploying the one or more changes in the communications network, wherein the deploying the one or more changes is based on the workflow, the one or more verification rules and scheduling constraints, wherein the scheduling constraints comprise a conflict scope constraint, a concurrency constraint, a uniformity constraint, and a localize constraint, and wherein the concurrency constraint maximizes a number of network function instances to be executed concurrently within a group of virtual network elements, and wherein the uniformity constraint constrains schedule changes such that instances have common time zone attribute values;
executing the one or more changes in the communications network according to the schedule;
subsequent to executing the one or more changes in the communications network, determining whether a comparison of the pre-impact network performance and the post-impact network performance is within a threshold associated with the one or more verification rules; and
sending an alert when the comparison is outside the threshold.