Patent ID: 7257744

Claim:
A method for diagnosing faults in a communication network using distributed alarm correlation, said method comprising: receiving alarm data locally at network nodes in said communication network; correlating said alarm data locally at each of said network nodes using an associated node-level alarm correlation tool and diagnostic knowledge stored in an associated node-level knowledge base to produce correlation results identifying a root cause of a fault determined at each of said network nodes; reporting said correlation results produced locally at said network nodes to respective users at respective said network nodes; adding new diagnostic knowledge provided by at least one of said users to one of said node-level knowledge bases, said new diagnostic knowledge being obtained by said at least one of said users using said correlation results associated with at least one of said network nodes; replicating said new diagnostic knowledge to at least one other node-level knowledge base associated with at least one other said network node; and reporting said new diagnostic knowledge and said correlation results produced locally at said network nodes to a higher-level alarm correlator; and correlating said root causes determined at said network nodes using said higher-level alarm correlator to find a higher-level root cause.