Patent ID: 7729287

Claim:
A method of simulating a telecommunications network, the method comprising: providing a database in an element management system wherein the database includes status information for a plurality of virtual network elements, wherein the status information for each of the plurality of virtual network elements includes a respective network element identifier; receiving a communication including a network element identifier at the element management system from a network management system; determining at the element management system whether the network element identifier received from the network management system corresponds to a network element identifier included in the database; if the network element identifier received from the network management system does not correspond to a network element identifier included in the database, adding status information for a new virtual network element to the database responsive to determining whether the network element identifier received from the network management system corresponds to a network element identifier included in the database wherein the status information for the new virtual network element includes the network element identifier received from the network management system, wherein adding status information for the new virtual network element to the database comprises adding the status information for the new virtual network element to the database without receiving information from an actual network element so that status information for the new virtual network element is created on the fly at the element management system without a discovery process; and after adding the status information for the new virtual network element, transmitting a communication regarding the new virtual network element from the element management system to the network management system.