Patent ID: 7406310

Claim:
A network management apparatus in a wireless communication network, which comprises a wireless base station for performing communication between a wireless terminal and a wired communication network and, the network management apparatus for managing a network, the network management apparatus comprising: a storage section stored in advance number of calls of connection with the wireless terminal in the wireless base station in association with a date, a day of the week, and a time period; and a processing section for selecting a date and a time period when software is updated in the wireless base station, wherein the processing section: inputs a plurality of work dates and time periods when the software can possibly be updated in the wireless base station, obtains n-week averages of the numbers of connection calls occurring during each input time period for each day of the week, based on the number of connection calls stored in the storage section, where n is a predetermined integer, obtains m-month averages of the numbers of connection calls occurring during each input time period for each stored date, based on the number of connection calls stored in the storage section, where m is a predetermined integer, calculates an average or a weighted average of the n-week average corresponding to each time period and the day of the week of each input work date and the m-month average corresponding to each time period and each input work date to obtain a degree of impact representing an impact caused by software update upon a communication service, selects a work date and a time period with the minimum degree of impact or with a degree of impact equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, and updates the software installed in the wireless base station during the selected time period on the selected work date, wherein the storage section stored in advance neighbor identifiers for identifying wireless base stations adjacent to the wireless base station in association with an apparatus identifier for identifying the wireless base station, and wherein the processing section obtains the degree of impact for each of a plurality of wireless base stations for which software is to be updated and selects a work date and a time period corresponding to the minimum degree of impact, and identifies a wireless base station adjacent to each wireless base station by referring to the storage section and adjusts the selected work date and time period of the adjacent wireless base station so as not to be the same as those of the wireless base station.