Patent ID: 7933209

Claim:
A method for detecting a problem caused by equipment failure in a digital signal circuit transported in synchronous optical networking paths comprising: acquiring alarm data from network elements in a defined synchronous optical networking path between an interexchange carrier router and a customer premises equipment router including an access provider; acquiring performance monitoring parameter data from the network elements in the defined synchronous optical networking path; based on the alarm data and the performance monitoring parameter data at optical carrier-N, synchronous transport signal—level N and digital signal level X levels, isolating the interexchange carrier network elements, the access provider network elements, and customer premises equipment network elements; analyzing the optical carrier-N, synchronous transport signal—level N and digital signal level X alarm data to isolate the problem when the problem occurs on a digital signal level X circuit of the digital signal circuit; analyzing the optical carrier-N and synchronous transport signal—level N performance monitoring parameter data to isolate the problem when the problem occurs on the digital signal level X circuit; analyzing digital signal level X performance monitoring parameter data to isolate the problem when the problem occurs on the digital signal level X circuit; analyzing intereXchange carrier alarm data including loss of signal, loss of frame alignment, alarm indication signal, and remote alarm indication signals to isolate the problem when the problem occurs on the interexchange carrier router of the digital signal circuit; and determining the root cause of the problem.