Patent ID: 8295187

Claim:
A method for determining a requirement in a converged communication system, comprising: a computer executable traffic study agent collecting information about respective usages of a plurality of Internet Protocol (“IP”) stations, IP trunks, circuit-switched stations, and circuit-switched trunks in each of a plurality of interconnected network regions; a computer executable network analyzer determining, from the collected information, respective usages of a plurality of IP stations, IP trunks, circuit-switched stations, and circuit-switched trunks in each of the plurality of interconnected network regions; the network analyzer determining, based on the respective usages of the plurality of IP stations, IP trunks, circuit-switched stations, and circuit-switched trunks, a packet-switched port usage for at least one of: (i) a set of packet-switched stations, (ii) a set of packet-switched trunks, and (iii) a set of packet-switched communications, wherein packet-switched port usage is an amount of time a set of packet-switched ports are busy during a time period; the network analyzer determining, based on the respective usages of the plurality of IP stations, IP trunks, circuit-switched stations, and circuit-switched trunks, a circuit-switched port usage for at least one of: (i) a set of circuit-switched stations, (ii) a set of circuit-switched trunks, and (iii) a set of circuit-switched communications in at least a portion of an enterprise network, wherein circuit-switched port usage is an amount of time a set of circuit-switched ports are busy during the time period; and based on the determined packet-switched port usage and the determined circuit-switched port usage, the network analyzer determining, for a plurality of selected network regions, intra- and inter-network region traffic; the network analyzer determining, based on the intra- and inter-network region traffic, a functional component requirement to comply with a selected communication specification; and providing, based on the intra- and inter network region traffic, at least one of a system administration report and a diagnostic report.