Patent ID: 7720074

Claim:
A network management system for modeling a path for a customer's services from a terminating unit through elements on a link-by-link basis, across networks, to a network service provider (NSP) or Internet service provider (ISP), the network management system comprising: a network creator for creating a topology including the elements and links in the networks, the topology including the respective features, functions, characteristics, and capacities of the elements and of the links; a service order receiver/mapper for receiving a service order from a customer for service provisioning of the customer from a terminating unit to a service provider of global communications services, and for mapping information from the service order onto the topology so as to create a permanent virtual circuit (PVC) from the terminating unit of the customer to the service provider of the global communications services; a fault manager for providing an alert indicator when a problem associated with at least one of the elements in the networks occurs; and an inventory manager for inventory and capacity management of digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) ports of the networks.