Patent ID: 7889677

Claim:
A method for planning a Signaling System 7 (SS7) network, the method comprising: receiving, at a data processing system, pending network reconfiguration plan data, the pending network reconfiguration plan data comprising data regarding pending plans to reconfigure a current network configuration of the SS7 network by deleting, rehoming, or replacing at least one network element of the SS7 network, or adding a network element to the SS7 network; generating, at the data processing system, a new network configuration for the SS7 network based upon the pending network reconfiguration plan data, the new network configuration comprising a plurality of network elements; calculating, at the data processing system, a new link utilization percentage for each of the plurality of network elements in the new network configuration of the SS7 network; comparing, at the data processing system, the new link utilization percentage for each of the plurality of network elements in the new network configuration to current utilization parameters for corresponding network elements of the current network configuration; determining, at the data processing system, whether any of the new link utilization percentages for the plurality of network elements in the new network configuration exceed the current utilization parameters for the corresponding network elements of the current network configuration; if it is determined, at the data processing system, that any of the current utilization parameters for the corresponding network elements in the current network configuration are exceeded, determining, at the data processing system, whether an override is established for the exceeded current utilization parameter; if the override is established for the exceeded current utilization parameter, determining, at the data processing system, to not recommend an immediate reconfiguration of the SS7 network to the new network configuration; if there is no override established for any exceeded current utilization parameter, recommending, at the data processing system, the immediate reconfiguration of the SS7 network to the new network configuration; and if it is determined, at the data processing system, that none of the current utilization parameters are exceeded, determining, at the data processing system, to not recommend the immediate reconfiguration of the SS7 network to the new network configuration.