Patent ID: 8654676

Claim:
A method of configuring a telecommunications network, the telecommunications network including a plurality of network elements, the network elements being interconnected to provide a facility for communicating between user terminals connected to the telecommunications network, the method comprising: generating a model of each of one or more of the network elements of the telecommunications network, the model including a representation of an amount of network services available to that network element, wherein each of the models of the one or more network elements includes a representation of a calculation of a transmission bandwidth available for communicating data to and from the first network element to which the second network element is connected; defining a background node element indicative of an effect of a representation of communications traffic according to a traffic profile, the traffic profile representing a number and type of user services which are required to be supported by the telecommunications network; determining an amount of the network services of the model consumed by the traffic profile on a model of a first network element of the telecommunications system; modelling the communication of the traffic profile via the telecommunications network, by propagating the effect of the background node element to a model of a second network element to which the first network element is connected, to determine an effect of the traffic profile on an amount of the network services consumed; based on the determined amount of network services consumed, determining a demanded transmission bandwidth required to support the traffic profile in accordance with an amount of data communicated between the first modelled network element and the second modelled network element connected to the first modelled element, thereby propagating the traffic profile from the modelled network element to which the network element is connected; configuring the telecommunications network in accordance with the evaluated effect on the model; mapping the traffic profile to a loading of network services on an interface between the first and the second modelled network element unto a loading caused by communicating data on the first network element in the telecommunications network, probing the interface between the first and the second network elements to identify an amount of an available network services consumed by the traffic loading on the interface, and validating the determined network services consumed by the models of the first and second network elements with respect to the identified network services consumed by the traffic loading on the interface between the first and second network elements operating in the telecommunications network.