Patent ID: 7251754
Filing Date: 2007-07-31
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a fault management system for a communications network, said communications network including a switch and an access network of one or more terminating circuits connecting said switch to terminal equipment provided for users of the communications network, each of said terminating circuits passing through one or more nodes between said switch and its respective terminal equipment, said method comprising: performing a circuit test on each circuit of at least a subset of said terminating circuits and producing a test result for each circuit so tested, each test result comprising one or more elements of test data; for each circuit, identifying whether a fault exists on the circuit; identifying circuits that have a possibility of becoming faulty within a predetermined period; associating a repair cost with each fault or potential fault; and for each circuit, calculating a measure of the possible cost of repair of the circuit over said predetermined period.