Architecture for network manager

Details Architecture for network manager Architecture for network manager

1997-06-19

2001-07-24

Rinehart, Mark H. (Department: 2152)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Computer network managing

C709S224000, C709S227000, C709S228000, C709S239000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06266694

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a network architecture and more particularly to a distributed network management architecture sharing information about network elements and providing increased survivability.
2. Background Art
Network management has become increasingly complex in today's telecommunications networks. Currently, network managers directly managed element controllers, which could be operation controllers (OPCs) or managed object agents (MOAs). Intelligent network elements (NE) are software driven in every aspect from maintenance to control, to release upgrades. The management of these NEs requires a robust and highly efficient system which can process a large volume of data over a geographically distributed network. This highly efficient system must also provide network management tools for simplifying day to day operations and reduce service down-time.
In the current network architecture, a network manager (NM) generally manages a maximum number of 75 element controller pairs, an element controller supports up to four NMs, and an OPC can control up to 1200 network elements or networks. In addition, OPCs are limited processors that cannot handle more than four connections.
As customer transmission networks grow, so does the demand for the number of users who need access to the system. As such, the number of NEs becomes larger and they are more geographically dispersed. All these changes cause significant technological challenges to the nature of network management. No longer can the entire customer network be managed centrally from a single point, rather the need for distributed network management, locally and geographically, is a growing requirement. Additionally, customers wish to divide their network into different regions based on political or business boundaries. Quite frequently two or more regions overlap, presenting a challenge given the current engineering limits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,199 (Harrow et al. issued on Dec. 20, 1994 to Digital Equipment Corporation) discloses a method and device for monitoring performance of a computer system, including a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI is designed to provide historical or real time information on the system and also allows the user to interact with the information being viewed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,044 (Dev et al. issued on Nov. 9, 1993 to Cabletron Systems, Inc.) relates to a network management system which performs fault isolation. The information relating to the network is displayed, the network entities being represented by icons. The user may select a prescribed area of an icon to obtain details regarding a particular aspect of the network entity represented by the respective icon.
However, these patents are not concerned with a distributed network management architecture designed for sharing information about the network elements and for allowing each NM to be re/configured individually to manage the element controllers on a per span basis.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to provide an architecture and core network manager changes that allow a large number of network elements and operation controllers (OPCs), or managed object agents (MOAs) spans to be simultaneously accessible to multiple graphical network browser (GNB) instances on physical workstations.
It is another object of this invention to provide an increased survivability of network to network manager workstation communication in case of network outages, by building the necessary infrastructure to discover alternate routes to controllers when possible.
Accordingly, the invention comprises a method of managing an element controller of a telecommunication network using a plurality of federated network managers (NM), comprising the steps of connecting a first network manager (NM
1
) to the element controller (EC) for directly managing the EC, and connecting a second network manager (NM
2
) to the NM
1
for indirectly managing the EC.
The invention further comprises a method of federating a plurality of telecommunication networks for transparently increasing the number of users and the reliability of each network, comprising the steps of directly connecting a first network manager (NM
1
) to a first group of ECs, and connecting a second network manager (NM
2
) to a second group of ECs for direct management of the respective first and second group of ECs, providing at each ECs of the first group a collector name server with information on the NM
1
and any other NMs directly managing the first group, and providing at each EC of the second group a collector name server with information on the NM
2
and any other NM directly managing the second group, establishing a connection between the NM
2
and the NM
1
, upon a connection request from the NM
2
to a first EC of the first group, establishing an indirect connection between the NM
2
and the first EC for indirect management of the first EC through the NM
1
, and upon a connection request from NM
1
to a second EC of the second group, establishing an indirect connection between the NM
1
and the second EC for indirect management of the second EC through the NM
2
.
The invention also pertains to a method of federating a plurality of telecommunication networks for transparently increasing the number of users and the reliability of each network, comprising the steps of directly connecting a first network manager (NM
1
) to a first group of ECs, and connecting a second network manager (NM
2
) to a second group of ECs for direct management of the respective first and second group of ECs, providing additional direct connections between the NM
1
and selected ECs of the second group, and providing additional direct connections between the NM
2
and selected ECs of the first group, and providing at each ECs of the first group a collector name server with information on the NM
1
and any other NMs directly managing the first group, and providing at the EC of the second group a collector name server with information on the NM
2
and any other NM directly managing the second group.
Advantageously, NMs are configured to directly or indirectly manage element controllers on a per span basis. Indirect management allows the network manager user to specify the preferred method of managing the controller, reducing the total number of direct connections to an OPC, while giving more network managers visibility of the network.
Another advantage of the architecture according to the invention is self-healing, whereby a NM seeks other NMs to federate to, or promotes itself to direct management, when a NM directly managing an element controller fails.
Scalability and survivability together mean increased numbers of users in a variety of locations, managing a larger number of network elements transparently and with higher reliability. Some element controllers are managed directly and even more, indirectly. Thus, the network architecture according to the invention allows management of up to ten thousand NEs, and up to seven hundred and fifty element controllers spans are simultaneously accessible.
Still another advantage of the invention is that by allowing each network manager to be configured individually, more flexibility over both engineering and survivability is achieved.


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patent: 5872931 (1999-02-01), Chivaluri
patent: 5913036 (1999-06-01), Brownmil

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