Patent ID: 8243911

Claim:
One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of initiating a failover state of an element in a telecommunications network, the method comprising: referencing a dataset that stores historical usage information associated with said element, wherein said historical usage information indicates an amount of data processed by said element at given times in the past, thereby providing a plurality of stored time-usage associations, wherein a given time-usage association associates a given data-processing metric with a given time in the past; determining that said given data-processing metric at said given time in the past is relevant to a current time; based on said given data-processing metric, determining a minimum-usage threshold to be associated with said element for said current time, wherein said minimum-usage threshold defines a minimum value of a current data-processing metric, below which said network element would be deemed to be in a fail status; calculating said current data-processing metric based on current processing being handled by said network element; determining that said current data-processing metric is below said minimum-usage threshold; and initiating said failover state of said network element based on said determining that said current data-processing metric is below said minimum-usage threshold.