Patent ID: 8009982

Claim:
A method for processing child Optical Point of Interface (OPOI) and rider service alarms from a parent OPOI in an IntereXchange Carrier (IXC) network in real-time to determine if one or more Synchronous Transport Signal 1 (STS-1) alarms are associated with the rider service, the method for processing the child OPOI, or the parent OPOI comprising: acknowledging a problem manifest on a Digital Signal 3 (DS3) or STS-N transported in a SONET Facility Network via an STS-1 alarm generated from an IXC SONET Network Element (NE) that terminates the parent OPOI at an OPOI; querying a network inventory database for information regarding the STS-1 alarm; finding a parent Optical Carrier-X (OC-X) facility OPOI from the STS-1 alarm information; finding children facilities associated with the parent OC-X OPOI facility; obtaining a facility/equipment layout for each child facility and identifying which child facility the STS-1 alarm is associated with; and if the STS-1 alarm is associated with a DS3 or Synchronous Transport Signal N, concatenated (STS-Nc), declaring the problem at the identified child's facility, if not, the STS-1 alarm is associated with an STS-N custom circuit or level-1 STS-N cascading OPOI.