Patent ID: 7933222

Claim:
A method for modeling use of a telecommunications network, the method comprising: receiving a first collection of data items, wherein each data item of the first collection includes location information about a node on the telecommunications network; receiving a second collection of data items, wherein each data item of the second collection includes information about a link between nodes on the telecommunications network, wherein at least some of the nodes are owned by different service providers; receiving a third collection of data items, wherein each data item of the third collection includes information about a tariff associated with an element of the telecommunications network and wherein the third collection includes information about a Universal Service Order Code (USOC) for assigning costs to elements of the telecommunications network; receiving a fourth collection of data items, wherein each data item of the fourth collection includes information about a customer's use of a network system in the telecommunications network and wherein the fourth collection includes information about a customer's use of a ring-type system; receiving a fifth collection of data items, wherein each data item of the fifth collection includes information about channels in the telecommunications network; receiving a sixth collection of information, wherein the sixth collection includes information about various types of interfaces available on nodes of the telecommunications network; generating a model of the telecommunications network utilizing the first collection, the second collection, the third collection, the fourth collection, the fifth collection, and the sixth collection; and optimizing, at a processor, the customer's use of the telecommunications network using the model, wherein optimizing includes determining a lowest cost use of the telecommunications network based on ring node cost data, channel cost data, interface cost data, muxed interface cost data, and USOC data.