Patent ID: 7688951

Claim:
A method for automated proactive alarm analysis and response comprising: receiving an alarm in a rules based program as a normalized event that supports multiple types of monitored problems, the alarm being an indicator of a problem in a virtual private network (VPN) access path; determining, based on codified rules associated with the normalized event, information concerning the type of alarm and equipment associated with the alarm, an interface test, and an isolation test; running the interface test initiated by a first request from the rules based program to a centralized test platform which connects to the VPN access path to obtain a status of the VPN access path associated with the alarm; running, based on the status, the isolation test initiated by a second request from the rules based program to the centralized test platform to determine a location of the problem to within customer premises equipment (CPE) or a local exchange carrier (LEC) equipment, or within network provider equipment; and generating a trouble ticket customized to reflect said information, said status, and said location of the problem.