Patent ID: 7305623
Filing Date: 2007-12-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for provisioning a circuit between a starting network element and an ending network element, comprising: (a) representing network elements within a network as a plurality of area objects, each area object including a plurality of the network elements; (b) representing communications links between two area objects as a bridge object, each bridge object having at least one communications link between any of the plurality of network elements in a first of the two area objects and any of the plurality of network elements in a second of the two area objects, each communications link comprising at least one communications channel; (c) iteratively performing the following tasks using the area objects and bridge objects until selections enabling the provisioning of said circuit are made: (d) adding each selected area object and each selected bridge object to an area submap and adding each selected network element and each selected communication link to a node submap, said area submap and said node submap being used to generate respective first and second images in a graphical user interface (GUI).