Patent Document ID: 8839114
Application ID: 12834851
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising: computer code for identifying a model of an actual state of a network; computer code for identifying a model of planned changes to the network; computer code for synchronizing the model of the actual state of the network and the model of the planned changes to the network to identify differences between the model of the actual state of the network and the model of the planned changes to the network, where the synchronizing includes: identifying a first list of objects from the model of the actual state of the network, where the first list of objects is generated as a unified data model (UDM) document by: constructing a plurality of Structured Query Language (SQL) statements from UDM metadata for extracting data from the model of the actual state of the network, executing the SQL statements against the model of the actual state of the network, receiving returned data, processing the returned data into UDM output using the UDM metadata, converting identifiers of the objects included in the UDM output into unique persistent keys utilizing a unique persistent key cache, and storing the unique persistent keys in the UDM document; identifying a second list of objects from the model of the planned changes to the network; comparing the first list of objects with the second list of objects; and determining a difference between the first list of objects and the second list of objects, based on the comparison; computer code for generating a graphical representation of a variant model associated with the network, utilizing the differences between the model of the actual state of the network and the model of the planned changes to the network, the variant model including the model of the actual state of the network with the identified differences between the model of the actual state of the network and the model of the planned changes to the network; computer code for providing, to a user, the graphical representation of the variant model including the model of the actual state of the network with the identified differences between the model of the actual state of the network and the model of the planned changes to the network; computer code for determining, utilizing the graphical representation of the variant model, that an operational context of the model of the actual state of the network is without an aspect of operation present in the model of the planned changes to the network; and computer code for, in response to the determination that the operational context of the model of the actual state of the network is without the aspect of operation present in the model of the planned changes to the network, creating a first plan and copying a portion of the model of the planned changes to the network to the first plan.