Patent Publication Number: US-10778512-B2

Title: System and method for network provisioning

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/912,444, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NETWORK PROVISIONING,” filed on Mar. 5, 2018, which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Application Ser. No. 15/912,444, is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/369,564, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NETWORK PROVISIONING,” filed on Dec. 5, 2016 (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,912,537 on Mar. 6, 2018), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Application Ser. No. 15/369,564 is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/229,160, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NETWORK PROVISIONING,” filed on Mar. 28, 2014 (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,515,876 on Dec. 6, 2016), which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Application Ser. No. 14/229,160 claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/806,298, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NETWORK PROVISIONING,” filed on Mar. 28, 2013, which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. To the extent appropriate, a claim for priority is made to each of the above-referenced applications. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a system and process for providing an interface for provisioning voice switching elements in telecommunications networks. 
     BACKGROUND 
     To provide telecommunication services to a customer requires various telecommunication network resources to be provisioned. For example, to add telephone service to a customer, telephone numbers are assigned to the customer and network elements are configured to route calls to and from the customer, among other things. Often, the initiation of a service or some other action with a network, such as a telecommunication system, begins with a generalized information technology (IT) application that is not especially suited for or otherwise configured to provision the resources needed for whatever service or task that the application involves. Accordingly, additional devices and processes are required to provision resources in order to perform some requested service initiated at an IT application. 
     It is with these and other issues in mind that various aspects of the present disclosure were developed. 
     SUMMARY 
     According to one aspect, a system and method is provided for performing network provisioning using an abstraction layer. The network provisioning abstraction layer receives network provisioning requests from one or more applications. A database is queried using the information provided by each network provisioning requests to determine provisioning instructions for carrying out the request. The provisioning instructions are placed in a queue according the priority of the network provisioning request. The provisioning instructions are de-queued according to priority and provided to the appropriate network resources for fulfilling the network provisioning request. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  depicts an example of a network provisioning abstraction layer providing an interface between IT tools and applications and network resources. 
         FIG. 2  depicts a method network provisioning using an abstraction layer 
         FIG. 3  depicts an example of a network provisioning abstraction layer with priority queues for both providing an interface between IT tools and applications and network resources as well as prioritizing requests made by the IT tools and applications. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a general purpose computing system that may be used in the application of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Implementations of the present disclosure involve a system and method for provisioning telecommunications network resources and services. In particular, the present disclosure provides for a network provisioning system that utilizes an abstraction layer as an interface between applications that request the use of network resources and the provisioning of the network resources to fulfill the requests. The network provisioning abstraction layer receives requests for network resources from the applications at an application interface, generates provisioning instructions, prioritizes the requests using a queuing system, and communicates the provisioning instructions to one or more network resources in order to provision the necessary resources to fulfill the requests. The queuing system includes one or more prioritized queues and a queue manager for adding and forwarding provisioning instructions from the queues. From the queue or queues, depending on the implementation, the provisioning instructions are conveyed to the network resources in a manner and format to provision the resources. In some instances, the instructions are provided to an interface that translates or otherwise generates properly formatted instructions to an associated network resource in order to provision the resource. The network abstraction layer also determines when a request involves the provisioning of multiple network resources, determines each provisioning instruction required to carry out the original request, and queues and relays all of the required provisioning instructions in the appropriate order for executing the original request while avoiding service outages. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , an example network provisioning system is depicted. The network provisioning system includes a network provisioning abstraction layer  100  that receives network provisioning requests from applications  110 - 114  at an application interface  102 . The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  identifies the nature of each request, including the request&#39;s priority and the provisioning instructions needed to complete the request, and places the provisioning instructions in a queue  104 . The provisioning instructions are released from the queue and are formatted and sent to a network resource  120 - 124  using a resource interface  106 . 
     The applications  110 - 114  may include any applications involved in providing a telecommunication service, or other service, and that involve provisioning a network resource or resources. In this example, the applications  110 - 114  include an operations application  110 , a billing application  112 , and a provisioning application  114 . The applications  110 - 114  are configured to make network provisioning requests which may, for example, include requests for the assignment of ports, creation and modification of accounts, adding or removing telephone numbers, account and service related queries, or any other type of network resource related request. Operations application  110  includes any applications used for the operation of a telecommunications network. For example, operations applications  110  are involved with maintaining and monitoring the operation of a telecommunication network and adding and removing users and features from the network. Billing applications  112  are applications configured for accounting for customer services, generating invoices, tracking payments, and the like. Provisioning applications  114  are applications adapted to identify and provision services according to customer criteria. It should be understood that the illustrated applications are used for example purposes and other applications, either generic or specific to the telecommunications field, may also be used. In one example discussed herein to illustrate features of the provided system, the provisioning application  114  relates to a least cost routing system that provisions routes and rates for the routes of a telecommunication system. 
     Each application  110 - 114  may utilize a different method of communication and format the communication in various ways. Communication examples include an application programming interface (API), a command line interface (CLI), extensible markup language (XML), and common object request broker architecture (CORBA). These example communications formats are used for illustrative purposes and it should be understood that other types of communication methods and/or formatting may be used. 
     The application interface  102  may include specialized adapters configured to communicate with the applications  110 - 114 . For example, in the case of applications that include an application programming interface (API) for communicating with the application, the corresponding adapter is configured to receive requests and return statuses according to the application&#39;s API. 
     The network resources  120 - 124  include any network resources, including telecommunication resources such as real-time growth switching platforms and soft switching platforms. In one example, a network resource  120  includes Collab mixing elements, a network resource  122  includes time-division multiplexing (TDM) voice switching elements, and a network resource  124  includes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) switching elements. The network resources  120 - 124  may also include a switching platform that includes resources such as networking trunks, switching equipment, tables for allocating direct inward dial (DID) numbers, as well as any other tools or systems for allocating telecommunications components and infrastructure. In order to perform certain functions, one or more network resources  120 - 124  are typically provisioned in order to fulfill a request. 
     The resource interface  106  is configured for communications between the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  and the network resources  120 - 124 . Similar to the applications  110 - 114 , the network resources  120 - 124  may each be configured to communicate using different communications formats. For example, the network resource  120  may communicate using plain text sent using a command line interface, the network resource  122  may communicate using a resource specific API, and the network resource  124  may communicate using a COBRA interface. 
     In one example, each application  110 - 114  operates on a computing device such as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet, or other device that communicates to the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  using a network such as a local area network (LAN), the Internet, or any other network or combination thereof. The network provision abstraction layer may operate on a server or other computing device that is able to communicate with the network resources  120 - 124 , by a network or other form of communication. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , an example method of network provisioning utilizing the system shown in  FIG. 1  or  FIG. 3  (discussed below) is depicted. In this example, the applications  110 - 114  are each configured to send network provisioning requests for carrying out a telecommunications operation to the network provisioning abstraction layer  100 . During operation, the applications  110 - 114  make requests for a network resource to accomplish some task as specified by the application, which may be managed by a user through a graphical user interface or otherwise. For example, the least cost routing provisioning application  114  may need to provision 10 DID telephone numbers. The least cost routing provisioning application  114  therefore sends a request for 10 DIDs to the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  using the communications method of the least cost routing provisioning application  114 . For example, the least cost routing provisioning application  114  may communicate the request in a text format using a command line interface (CLI). The request may include an application ID, customer ID, request type, a number of DIDs requested, request priority, and location. In this case, the request could be “3, 1000, DID, 10, 3, 111 W. Elm St, Topeka, Kans., USA.” 
     The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  receives the requests for network resources from the least cost routing application  114  at the application interface  102  (operation  210 ). The application interface  102  includes an adapter suited to accommodate communications from the least cost routing application  114 . In one example, the application interface  102  is configured to receive the text from the CLI interface and is configured to parse the text and place it in a common format that is useable by the network provisioning abstraction layer  100 . For example, the common format may include a data structure or object with the fields required for looking up the provisioning instructions for provisioning the appropriate network resources to fulfill the request. 
     In one example, the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  and the applications  110 - 114  operate in a publish/subscribe configuration. Anytime a new request is made by an application  110 - 114 , the application  110 - 114  notifies the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  of the new request. The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  then queries the application  110 - 114  to download the request. The publish/subscribe model allows for the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  to control when requests are received, and to assist in throttling and prioritizing requests, among other functions. 
     The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  may also authenticate any application or application user  110 - 114  making a network provisioning requests before processing the requests. For example, an application user may be required to authenticate with the user&#39;s login credentials by using a username and password. In the case of an automated provisioning application, the application may login by providing the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  with an access token or use an alternative authentication method. The provisioning abstraction layer  100  may also include multiple authorization levels limiting the types of requests each user can make. For example, the least cost routing application  114  may be authorized to make requests for new services, such as the example request for 10 new DIDs. Conversely, the least cost routing application  114  may not be permitted to add and delete system administrators. 
     Each time the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  receives a request, the request, the commonized format of the request, or some other data based on the request, is used to query an inventory/service database  108  to obtain the appropriate provisioning instructions for carrying out the request (operation  220 ). The request is also validated to ensure the request included all of the information required to obtain the provisioning instructions for carrying out the request. For example, each type of request may include required fields for searching the database  108  for the provisioning instructions, which may involve provisioning multiple network resources and an order to such provisioning. The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  compares the type of request being made to what is needed for determining the provisioning instructions using the database  108 . If a required element of data is not present, the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  rejects the request and sends a status indicating the rejection back to the requesting application  110 - 114  including the reason for the rejection. As is discussed herein, the request is also associated with a priority based on the type of the request being made or the application  110 - 114  making the request. 
     The provisioning instructions for the request may also include instructions for provisioning additional resources that are needed for provisioning the requested network service. For example, in order to provide a customer with 10 DIDs, bandwidth through one or more telecommunications trunks needs to be allocated, as well as bandwidth and access through switching resources such as through one or more media gateways and/or session border controllers. In this example, the provisioning instructions provided by the inventory/service database  108  include instructions for allocating the 10 DIDs, instructions for allocating any necessary trunks, and instructions for allocating any necessary switching resources. 
     In some examples, the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  is configured to automatically reject any invalid network provisioning requests. For example, if the network provisioning request is for an impossible task, such as a service that is not offered, the application interface  102  rejects the request. In another example, the application interface  102  may reject a request if the request includes a transaction rate that exceeds a published transaction rate. In these cases, even though the request exceeds a published transaction rate, the request may be queued indefinitely to be processed at a later time, for example, when the transaction rate drops. 
     Once the provisioning instructions have been determined, the provisioning instructions are added to the priority queue  104  according to the request&#39;s priority (operation  230 ). In the example DID request, the least cost routing application  114  indicated that the request had a priority level of three which may correspond to a level priority less than a priority of one or two. The provisioning instructions are therefore added to the priority queue  104  according to the provided priority level. The queue or queues may be managed in various ways. In one specific example, discussed relative to  FIG. 3 , a plurality of queues is provided, each with a different priority level. The queue or queues may be implemented as buffers FIFO buffers or other memory structures. 
     Concurrent with the addition of provisioning instructions to the priority queue  104 , provisioning instructions are released from the priority queue  104  for execution (operation  240 ). Once released from the queue  104 , the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  sends the provisioning instructions to the resource interface  106 . As discussed herein, the network resources  120 - 124  also send and receive communications using their own communications formats. The resource interface  106  is configured to use the provisioning instructions to send the appropriate provisioning instructions to each network resource  120 - 124  required for performing the network provisioning request in parallel or in a required order. The resource interface  106  is also configured to format the request to a network resource&#39;s communications format if necessary. The provisioning instructions are formatted and sent to the appropriate network resource (operation  250 ). 
     The provisioning instructions for allocating the DIDs would therefore be sent to the network resource for allocating DIDs (e.g., network resource  120 ), the instructions for allocating the appropriate network trunk(s) would be sent to the network resource or resources capable of allocating the trunks (e.g., network resource  122 ), and the instructions for allocating switching resources would be sent to the network resource for allocating the switching resources (e.g., network resource  124 ). 
     In one example, the resource interface  106  includes a throttling mechanism configured to ensure that tasks are not sent in a way that affects call processing features or elements, for example. Additionally, certain requests need to be completed before a following request can be made. The throttling mechanism may be set to different rates, which may depend on the type of resource being provisioned. The resource interface  106  may also receive any acknowledgements from the network resource being provisioned. For example, the network resource may indicate when a provisioning operation has been completed, and the resource interface may manage subsequent requests based on the completion of the preceding task (if necessary). For example, the throttling mechanism may cause the system to wait until a status for a previous request has been returned. Thus, if the DIDs must be allocated before the trunks and switching are allocated, the throttling mechanism holds the instructions for the trunks and switching until the request for the DIDs has been completed. 
     The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  also logs each network provisioning request that is received and the instructions sent to each network resource in a request log (operation  260 ). The request log may include the network provisioning request, a timestamp of when the request was received, the application that sent the request, the instructions for executing the request, and any other relevant information. The request log may operate as a database, list, or other data structure. The request log may also be used by the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  to undo one or more transactions. For example, the network provisioning abstraction layer  100  may be configured with “back out” capabilities for when a single transaction triggered by an instruction, out of multiple transactions required by a request fails because when a single transaction of a request fails, the entire request has failed. The network provisioning abstraction layer  100  may then roll-back any completed transactions by issuing new instructions that nullify the previously completed instructions. The end result of the roll-back is that the network resources  120 - 124  behave as if the original network provisioning request was never made. 
     Once a network provisioning instruction has been executed and is either completed or has failed, the network resource  120 - 124  communicates the status of the instruction back to the resource interface  106 . The resource interface  106  may determine if the provisioning request has succeeded or failed and sends the status to the application interface  102  for reporting back to the requesting application. The application interface  102  formats the status at the appropriate adapter to the communications format of the requesting application  110 - 114  and returns the status to the requesting application (operation  270 ). 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a second embodiment of a network provisioning system using a network provisioning abstraction layer  300  is depicted. In this embodiment, the network provisioning abstraction layer  300  includes an inventory and service database  305 , an application interface  320 , a priority queue  330 , and a resource interface  340 . The application interface  320  includes adapters  321 - 325  for communicating with one or more applications  310 - 315 . 
     In many instances, the network provisioning abstraction layer  300  receives multiple requests at relatively the same time from a plurality of applications  310 - 315 . For a variety of reasons, the influx of requests cannot be immediately processed and sent to the network resources  360 - 364 . Thus, the network provisioning abstraction layer  300  receives network provisioning requests, determines the provisioning instructions for carrying out the request, and places the provisioning instructions in one or more priority queues  330 . For example, the provisioning abstraction layer  300  may be configured to add the provisioning instructions to the priority queue based on the original request&#39;s priority. 
     In this example, the network provisioning abstraction layer  300  includes a priority queuing system  330  with a queue manager  331  and a plurality of queues, each with a designated priority. In one example, queue 1 is used for priority level 1 requests, queue 2 is used for priority level 2 requests, queue 3 is used for priority level 3 requests, and so on. Provisioning instructions for carrying are queued (as discussed above relative to  FIGS. 1 and 2 ) by the queue manager  331  according to the requests priority. For example, the above DID request had a priority of 3 and the corresponding provisioning instructions would therefore be placed with queue 3. A second network provisioning request for opening a new account may have a priority of 1, resulting in the corresponding provisioning instructions being queued in queue 1. 
     In one example, specific high-priority queues may be mapped to specific applications or adapters and lower priority queues may be mapped to other applications/adapters. For example, a billing application, such as the billing application  112 , may perform network provisioning requests that return the status of a customer account for billing purposes. Billing requests may have a relatively low priority and may therefore be directed to a lower priority queue, such as queue 4. Conversely, the provisioning application  114  discussed above, may be providing customers with real-time provisioning of network resources and is therefore mapped to a high priority queue, such as queue 1. In another example, certain types of requests may automatically be assigned a priority. For example, every new account request may be assigned a high priority, while every rerouting request may all be assigned a relatively lower priority. 
     The queuing manager  331  is configured to de-queue provisioning instructions from high-priority queues before de-queuing provisioning instructions from lower priority queues. For example, if queue 1 is a higher priority queue and queue 2 is a lower priority queue, the queue manager  331  is configured to de-queue all instructions from queue 1 before de-queuing any instructions queued in queue 2. The queue manager  331  may continuously check higher priority queues before de-queuing any instructions from lower priority queues, returning from de-queuing the lower priority queues whenever a new, higher priority request is received. In another example, the queue manager  331  may also be configured to spend relatively longer de-queuing high priority queues relative to low priority queues. Alternatively, the queue manager may have a de-queuing cycle where relatively more time is spent de-queuing from relatively higher priority queues relative to low priority queues. 
     De-queued instructions are sent to the resource interface  340  for transmission to the various network resources  360 . In some cases, a network resource  360  may receive instructions in the same format utilized by the network provisioning abstraction layer  300 . In these cases, the provisioning instructions may be sent directly from the resource interface  340  to the network resource  360  without processing by an adapter  341 - 343 . In other examples, the adapters  341 - 343  format each provisioning instruction to a format utilized by the network resource  361 - 364  that the instructions are being sent to. In some cases, the resource interface  340  is not directly connected to each network resource  362 - 364 , but instead sends the provisioning instructions to a server  350 - 352  configured to manage each network resource  362 - 364 . In one example, the servers  350 - 352  may include element management servers (EMS) that are each specifically configured to manage requests for specific network resources. The EMSs may include their own first-in-first-out (FIFO) queues for delivering provisioning instructions to the network resources  362 - 364 . Provisioning instructions are therefore formatted for communications with the EMSs  350 - 352  and provided in an appropriate order for execution of provisioning. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates an example general purpose computer  400  that may be useful in implementing the described technology. The example hardware and operating environment of  FIG. 4  for implementing the described technology includes a computing device, such as general purpose computing device in the form of a personal computer, server, or other type of computing device. In the implementation of  FIG. 4 , for example, the general purpose computer  400  includes a processor  410 , a cache  460 , a system memory  470 ,  480 , and a system bus  490  that operatively couples various system components including the cache  460  and the system memory  470 ,  480  to the processor  410 . There may be only one or there may be more than one processor  410 , such that the processor of general purpose computer  400  comprises a single central processing unit (CPU), or a plurality of processing units, commonly referred to as a parallel processing environment. The general purpose computer  400  may be a conventional computer, a distributed computer, or any other type of computer; this disclosure is not so limited. 
     The system bus  490  may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a switched fabric, point-to-point connections, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. The system memory may also be referred to as simply the memory, and includes read only memory (ROM)  470  and random access memory (RAM)  480 . A basic input/output system (BIOS)  472 , containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the general purpose computer  400  such as during start-up, is stored in ROM  470 . The general purpose computer  400  further includes a hard disk drive  420  for reading from and writing to a persistent memory such as a hard disk, not shown and an optical disk drive  430  for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk such as a CD ROM, DVD, or other optical media. 
     The hard disk drive  420  and optical disk drive  430  are connected to the system bus  490 . The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program engines and other data for the general purpose computer  400 . It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any type of computer-readable media which can store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs), and the like, may be used in the example operating environment. 
     A number of program engines may be stored on the hard disk, optical disk, ROM  470 , or RAM  480 , including an operating system  482 , a network provisioning application  484 , and one or more application programs  486 . A user may enter commands and information into the general purpose computer  400  through input devices such as a keyboard and pointing device connected to the USB or Serial Port  440 . These and other input devices are often connected to the processor  410  through the USB or serial port interface  440  that is coupled to the system bus  490 , but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port. A monitor or other type of display device may also be connected to the system bus  490  via an interface, such as a video adapter  460 . In addition to the monitor, computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers. 
     The general purpose computer  400  may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers. These logical connections are achieved by a network interface  450  coupled to or a part of the general purpose computer  400 ; this disclosure is not limited to a particular type of communications device. The remote computer may be another computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a client, a peer device, or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the general purpose computer  400 . The logical connections include a local-area network (LAN) a wide-area network (WAN), or any other network. Such networking environments are commonplace in office networks, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet, which are all types of networks. 
     The network adapter  450 , which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus  450 . In a networked environment, programs depicted relative to the general purpose computer  400 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It is appreciated that the network connections shown are example and other means of and communications devices for establishing a communications link between the computers may be used. 
     Some embodiments of the network provisioning system described herein are implemented as logical steps in one or more computer systems. The logical operations of the present system are implemented (1) as a sequence of processor-implemented steps executing in one or more computer systems and (2) as interconnected machine or circuit engines within one or more computer systems. The implementation is a matter of choice, dependent on the performance requirements of the computer system implementing the network provisioning system. Accordingly, the logical operations making up the embodiments of the system described herein are referred to variously as operations, steps, objects, or engines. Furthermore, it should be understood that logical operations may be performed in any order, unless explicitly claimed otherwise or a specific order is inherently necessitated by the claim language. 
     The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the network provisioning system. Various modifications and alterations to the described embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the teachings herein. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems, arrangements and methods which, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the network provisioning system and are thus within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. From the above description and drawings, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the particular embodiments shown and described are for purposes of illustrations only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. References to details of particular embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.