Abstract:
A method for generating a chronic circuit report for use in maintaining a communication network is provided. The method comprises the steps of searching a database for information regarding circuit exceptions reported in a communication system, compiling a listing of circuits and circuit exception information, prioritizing the listing of the circuits based on the circuit exception information, and generating a circuit exception report.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/136,603, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,401, entitled “System and Method For Generating A Chronic Circuit Report For Use In Proactive Maintenance Of A Communication Network” and filed on May 1, 2002. This application also incorporates U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/136,603 by reference as if fully rewritten here. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates generally to telecommunication networks. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for proactively maintaining a telecommunications network. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Proactive maintenance in a telecommunications network allows network operators to anticipate where problems may occur in the future and act proactively to prevent some customer problems from occurring. Proactive activities may also allow a network operator to determine if and help ensure that network performance service level agreements (SLAs) are being met and will continue to be met. Proactive activities preferably include identifying current and potential bottlenecks, inefficient or poorly performing components, potential failures, and others. A current way in which proactive maintenance is performed involves generating reports relating to equipment that are generating errors and evaluating the reports to determine which equipment to proactively maintain. 
     SUMMARY 
     A system and method for generating a chronic circuit report for use in maintaining a communication network is provided. In accordance with one aspect of the invention defined by the claims, the method comprises the steps of searching a database for information regarding circuit exceptions reported in a communication system, compiling a listing of circuits and circuit exception information, prioritizing the listing of the circuits based on the circuit exception information, and generating a circuit exception report. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the invention identified in the claims, a computer-implemented system for identifying circuits in a communication network having chronic troubles is provided. The system comprises a searching module, a prioritizing module, and a report generator module. The searching module searches through a database in a network monitoring system to identify communication circuits in a communication network that have had exceptions reported against them. The searching module also identifies the number of exceptions of a plurality of types reported against the communication circuits. The prioritizing module prioritizes the communication circuits identified by the searching module. The report generator module generates a report that lists the communication circuits that had exceptions reported against them. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the invention identified by the claims, a system for monitoring end-to-end circuit exceptions in a communication network having a plurality of network elements is provided. The system comprises a storage area having a database for storing information regarding exceptions reported against circuits in the communication network, a circuit error posting subsystem for posting to circuit records contained in the database the information regarding exceptions reported against circuits, and a reporting subsystem. The reporting subsystem comprises a searching module, a prioritizing module, and a report generator module. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In order that the invention identified in the claims may be more clearly understood, preferred embodiments of structures, systems and methods having elements corresponding to elements of the invention recited in the claims will be described in detail by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary section of a Local Access and Transport Area network; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary section of a Local Access and Transport Area network having a network monitoring system in communication with network elements; 
         FIG. 3  is a chart that illustrates a preferred circuit report; 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary network section illustrating a plurality of circuits; 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram that illustrates a preferred network monitoring system; 
         FIG. 6  is a flow chart that illustrates a preferred method for generating a circuit exception report; and 
         FIG. 7  is a flow chart illustrates another method for generating a circuit exception report. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     To facilitate the understanding of the invention described by the claims, an exemplary portion of a telecommunication network is described. The invention described by the claims is not limited to use solely with this portion of a telecommunication network, and could be applied to similar portions of a network or other portions of a network without departing from the scope of the invention. 
     Referring now to the drawings, shown in  FIG. 1  is an exemplary section of a LATA Local Access and Transport Area network  8  that provides a circuit  10  for communication between two locations, customer location A and customer location B. In the illustrated example, the circuit provides the customer with a first subscriber network termination interface (NTI)  11  and a second subscriber NTI  12 . Coupled to each NTI  11 ,  12 , a subscriber may have various types of customer premises equipment (CPE) such as conventional telephones, facsimile machines, private branch exchanges, voice mail systems, key telephone systems, computers, modems, telephone answering machines, alarm systems, and radio control systems, as well as many other devices. 
     Coupled between each NTI  11 ,  12  in the illustrated circuit  10 , are a central office (CO)  12 , a first field cabinet  14 , and a second field cabinet  16 . The CO  12  and each field cabinet  14  and  16  comprise various types of switching and transmission network elements (“NE”) that are configurable to provide the circuit  10 . Examples of network elements that may be located at the CO  12  include Multiplexers (MUXs)  18 , digital cross-connect systems (DCS)  20 , and other equipment. Examples of network elements that may reside in the cabinets  14  and  16  include coder/decoder (codec) equipment, multiplexers (“MUXs”)  24 , line interface units (“LIUs”), Optical network units (“ONUs”), digital loop carrier (“DLC”) equipment  22 , HDSL Line Units (“HLUs”), HDSL Remote Units (“HRUs”), and others. 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , a network monitoring (“NM”) system  26  is also typically employed to monitor the performance of the network  8 . The NM system  26  is one of the primary tools used in network maintenance. The NM system  26  typically establishes a permanent virtual channel (PVC)  28  with each NE  30  for monitoring both equipment performance and facilities performance. If a network system problem, such as an interruption to customer services is detected, maintenance technicians can be provided with network performance data from the NM system  26  to use in isolating and correcting the problem. 
     The preferred NM system  26  in the illustrated embodiment is the Telcordia Network Monitoring and Analysis (“NMA™”) system although other NM systems could be employed. The NMA™ system  26  monitors the network  8  through, among other things, communicating with a large variety of NEs  30  and Operations Systems (“OSs”) (not shown). The NMA™ system  26  can monitor and analyze problems on various types of networks, including Common Channel Signaling (CCS)/Signaling System 7 (SS7) networks, including class five switches, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) networks (with TMN/Q3), Microsoft, wireless and broadband networks, and data communications and IP-based networks. The NMA™ system  26  is a client/server application that runs on a distributed architecture with a fault-tolerant server that services multiple operator stations. 
     Each of the NEs  30  report status and error messages to the NMA™  26  on demand or on detection of a condition that requires the reporting of a message. The messages could relate to equipment inside of the NE, such as a circuit board, or something external to the NE that the NE can sense, such as a loss of signal on a channel serviced by the NE. Thus, the NEs report equipment alarm and facility alarms or line oriented alarms and equipment oriented alarms. The messages are sent via a NE&#39;s PVC to the NMA™  26  for further processing. 
     Many error messages reported to the NMA™  26  result in no action being taken. Random errors occur and may not equate to a loss of service to a customer. Consequently, many error messages are not acted upon unless there has been a complaint by a customer. 
     Most maintenance activities with respect to the network  8  are performed on a reactive basis. For example, when a customer problem is detected, network operators react to the problem and dispatch service technicians to determine and isolate the problem. Having the ability to proactively maintain the network is desirable. 
     Proactive maintenance allows the network operators to anticipate where problems may occur in the future and act proactively to prevent some customer problems from occurring. Proactive activities may also allow a network operator to determine if and help ensure that network performance service level agreements (SLAs) are being met and will continue to be met. Proactive activities preferably include identifying current and potential bottlenecks, inefficient or poorly performing components, potential failures, and others. 
     Illustrated in  FIG. 4  is an exemplary report from an exemplary reporting system that can be implemented by the NM system  26  for reporting circuit errors to the network operators to allow the network operators to proactively maintain the network  8 . The reporting system accumulates per circuit the number of errors experienced by each circuit over a period of time. Preferably the report is a daily report that, everyday, lists the number of errors that were experienced by each circuit during the previous day. Preferably, the report also lists the number of errors experienced by the circuit during the day prior to the previous day. Preferably, the circuits listed on the report are those circuits that experienced errors during at least one of the prior two days. If a circuit did not experience any errors in the prior two days then it preferably would not be listed on the report. The reporting system prioritizes the circuit listing based on a prioritization scheme and provides the prioritized list to network operators to allow the network operators to attempt to solve issues on customer circuits in an effort to eliminate problems before the issues become problems or before a customer notices a problem. 
     The reporting system preferably categorizes error messages on the report as either events, minor alarms, major alarms or critical alarms. The reporting system also reports an accumulated total number of errors for the day and the accumulated total number of errors for the prior day. 
     The reporting system uses a prioritization scheme to prioritize the circuit listing. According to the preferred prioritization scheme, the circuit(s) with the largest number of critical alarms is (are) listed first, then the circuit(s) with the largest number of major alarms is (are) listed next, followed by the circuit(s) with the largest number of minor alarms, and finally the circuit(s) with the largest number of events. Alternate prioritization schemes could also so be employed such as prioritization based on the total number of errors for the day or some other criteria. 
     Illustrated in  FIG. 4  is an exemplary block diagram of a portion of a LATA network that provides services to four customer locations. Customer location #  1  is provided with a circuit to customer location #  2  (circuit #  1 ), a circuit to customer location #  3  (circuit #  2 ), and a circuit to customer location #  4  (circuit #  5 ). Customer location #  2  is provided with a circuit to customer location #  1  (circuit #  1 ) and a circuit to customer location #  4  (circuit #  3 ). Customer location #  3  is provided with a circuit to customer location #  1  (circuit # 2 ) and a circuit to customer location #  4  (circuit #  4 ). Customer location #  4  is provided with a circuit to customer location #  2  (circuit #  3 ), a circuit to customer location #  3  (circuit #  4 ), and a circuit to customer location #  1  (circuit #  5 ). 
     The reporting system could be used to chart errors occurring in each of the circuits and provide a report to a service operator. The reporting system could report to the service operator, for example, that circuit #  4  is experiencing some errors that may be worth further investigating before service on circuit #  4  is severely affected. 
     Illustrated in  FIG. 5  is an exemplary reporting system that could be implemented within the NM system  26 . In the description that follows the term module is used. The term module as used herein is a generic term used to describe any entity such as hardware, software, firmware, or a combination of the above that causes the execution of some function. 
     Preferably, associated with the NM system  26  is a storage area  40  and more preferably a network architecture database  42 . The network architecture database preferably is used to store a number of data records including a circuit record  44  for each provisioned circuit within the network. 
     The NM system  26  includes a circuit error posting subsystem  46  for posting circuit errors to the circuit record  44  that corresponds to the circuit that experienced the error. The NM system  26  also includes a reporting subsystem  48  that produces a prioritized report of circuits experiencing errors. 
     The circuit error posting subsystem  46  receives error messages sent from NEs and preferably temporarily stores the messages in a storage area  50 . A message parser module  52  determines, by examining the error message, which circuit the received error message relates to. A data record manipulator module  54 , using the output from the message parser module  52 , posts the error message to the circuit record that corresponds to the circuit that the error message pertains to. The circuit error posting subsystem  46  performs this function whenever a circuit error message is received. 
     On a periodic basis, preferably daily, the reporting subsystem  48  produces a prioritized report of circuits experiencing errors during the previous period. The reporting subsystem  48  preferably includes a searching module  56  that on a daily basis searches through the circuit records using established search criteria  58 . Preferably the search criteria  58  causes the searching module  56  to identify circuit records that indicate that the associated circuit experienced some kind of error either the prior day or the day prior to that. 
     Circuit record error information from the circuit records  44  identified by the searching module  56  is preferably outputted to a storage area  60 . Preferably, the information outputted includes the circuit identification, the number of errors of each type experienced by the circuit during the previous day, and the total number of errors experienced by the circuit the day prior to the previous day. Preferably, a data record parser module  62  retrieves the circuit error information from the circuit records identified by the searching module  56  and outputs the information to the error information storage area  60 . The storage area  60  preferably is a file, but optionally could be a location in memory, and/or a location in a database, or others. 
     Preferably, a prioritizing module  64  prioritizes the error information in the storage area in accordance with a prioritizing algorithm  66  and a report generator  68  generates a report  70 . The report generator module  68 , preferably, generates a report  70  in some form, such as a visual on screen report or a printed report, using the prioritized circuit exception information. The circuit generator module  68  optionally may have inputs that allow a user to select report options  72  that allow the generated report  70  to be customized. 
     Illustrated in  FIG. 6  is an example of a method for generating a circuit exception report. The method assumes that circuit exceptions have already been reported to the NM system  26  and have been recorded. In step  100 , a search is made in the database or file where the circuit exceptions have been recorded. Preferably, the search results in identifying circuits that experienced errors and the errors experienced during the two prior days. 
     In step  102 , the retrieved information is tallied, organized and recorded to produce a file, data structure, or some other information holding structure that includes for each circuit information relating to the exceptions experienced by that circuit. Preferably the exception information includes the number of the various types of exceptions experienced in the preceding day and the total number of exceptions experienced in the day prior to the preceding day. If a circuit did not experience any errors in the two preceding days, preferably the circuit was either not included in the tally or removed from the tally. 
     In step  104 , the circuit exception information file was prioritized according to a set of prioritization rules. The preferred prioritization rules provide that the order be determined first based on the number of critical exceptions experienced, then based on the number of major exceptions experienced, then based on the number of minor exceptions experienced, and finally based on the number of events experienced. Other prioritization rules, however, may be implemented. 
     In step  106 , a circuit exceptions report is generated from the prioritized information. The report could take on many different forms. It could include some or all of the error information for each circuit. It could displayable via a computer screen or be in the form of a printed report, or both. It could be in the form of a graphical display or a non-graphical display. The exception report could categorize the various types of exceptions, or alternatively tally the number of each type of exception experienced per circuit. 
     Finally, network operator personnel can use the generated report to perform proactive maintenance on sections of the network or on various circuits identified by the circuit exceptions report. 
     Illustrated in  FIG. 7  is an example of another method for generating a circuit exceptions report that can be used by maintenance personnel in performing network maintenance. In step  110 , circuit exception information is stored in a database. In step  112 , exception information is retrieved from the database. In step  114 , the retrieve information is organized via affected circuit. In step  116 , the organized information is categorized and tallied such that for each circuit a count is generated that corresponds to the number of exceptions that circuit experienced for that category of exception. In step  118 , the categorized and tallied circuit exception information is prioritized in accordance with prioritization rules. Finally, in step  120 , a report is generated containing the prioritized circuit exception information. Other variations from these systems and methods should become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention defined by the claims. 
     The embodiments described herein and shown in the drawings are examples of structures, systems or methods having elements corresponding to the elements of the invention recited in the claims. This written description and drawings may enable those skilled in the art to make and use embodiments having alternative elements that likewise correspond to the elements of the invention recited in the claims. The intended scope of the invention thus includes other structures, systems or methods that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, and further includes other structures, systems or methods with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims. Although the embodiments have been described with reference to a Local Access and Transport Area network, it is contemplated that the invention could be applicable to devices and systems that use other transport network configurations.