Patent ID: 7280529

Claim:
A method of managing a telecommunications network, comprising: generating a plurality of user profiles each providing a network management access to a user, each user profile defining network management capabilities assigned to a respective user for configuring one or more network devices; generating a group access level for various management capabilities, wherein a level has a group name with an associated list of network devices; listing the network devices and/or the group name being managed through the user profiles; utilizing at least one of said user profiles to physically and logically configure one or more of said network devices within a scope of that profile, wherein at least one of enabling a network device port on the network device or provisioning a network path on a network device port is conducted; and displaying a graphical user interface in accordance with the user profile, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a user-specific customized view with predefined network management capabilities, user-specific fields in the listing of network devices, and a custom presentation format.