Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-09
2001-04-24
Black, Thomas G. (Department: 2771)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
C709S220000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06223220
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of designing computer networks.
Currently, the design of computer networks, particularly wide area networks, is a long and complex procedure requiring specialist trained staff. For a complex network, it may take a specialist several weeks to design an appropriate solution for the customer's requirements, and to produce a fully costed recommendation. The customer is often not in a position to give approval until the fully costed recommendation has been received, and if at that stage the customer requests amendments to the design there may be significant delays before the designer can produce a revised proposal. Since each iteration/redesign may take several weeks, it will be understood that the entire process between the initial customer's query and the implementation of the final solution may take some considerable time.
According to the present invention there is provided a method of designing a computer network comprising:
(a) selecting a plurality of site objects, each site object being an object-based computer representation of a corresponding physical site;
(b) defining network traffic demands between at least some of the physical sites;
(c) selecting a service object, said service object being a object-based computer representation of a network service for transmitting data between physical sites, and associating said service object with at least some of the selected site objects; and
(d) calculating from the network traffic demands and the properties of the service object, without simulating operation of the network, a physical connectivity map representative of hardware circuits linking physical sites.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The method of the present invention is preferably embodied within an object-based computer representation in which some or all of the following may be represented by computer objects: the required physical (customer) sites on the proposed wide-area network, groupings of such sites, expected peak traffic demand between sites, Points of Presence (PoPs) representative of the locations at which the customer sites will access the network, the “cloud” or service which will form the basis of the network, the logical links between the cloud object and the customer site objects, and the proposed physical circuits which will link the physical sites in the proposed actual implementation.
The sites may be classified into Client Sites, Host Sites and Cascade Sites. A Host Site is a central, or hub site, typically a data or computer centre which may be connected to a number of Cascade or Client Sites. A Client Site is an endpoint in the proposed network, and will often be a branch site. A Cascade Site is a site which forms part of a “concentration layer”, between the access network which links in the Client Sites and the core network which links the Host Sites.
The Points of Presence that is represented by the Points of Presence object may be real physical PoPs where a customer site connects into the network, or alternatively virtual or “logical” PoPs. These are points at which a service provider charges for a connection as if it were a real PoP. Normally, the actual physical connection is elsewhere. Logical or virtual PoPs may be used to lower the cost for a customer in areas where the service provider has less core network infrastructure for the particular service.
The method may include representing some or all of the objects as icons on a computer display, and effecting and altering connections and interactions between objects by manipulating the icons.
The method may include the step of providing one or more on-screen views, in which the corresponding objects are represented by on-screen icons. Preferable views include a service view, showing logical links between each site object and its associated service object; a physical view, showing the proposed physical circuits linking the sites; a logical view, showing the customer's requirement for traffic flows between sites; and a PoP view, showing the physical sites and their corresponding PoP. In the PoP view, the PoP associated with each physical site may be chosen according to any convenient algorithm. For example, the chosen PoP for each site may be that which is physically the closest, or alternatively that for which access is the cheapest.
Pricing and/or reporting functions may be provided by passing on the physical connectivity map and/or the attributes of one or more of the objects within the model to pricing/reporting engines. The pricing engine may use the object attributes as parameters to pass to an external pricing database which returns information on individual and total costs for the proposed network design.
The invention further extends to a computer program embodying a method of designing a computer network as described above, or as set out in the claims. The invention further extends to a computer-readable media carrying such a computer program, such as for example a computer disk or a CD-ROM.
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Blackwell Robert E.
Butcher Jason P.
Black Thomas G.
British Telecommunications public limited company
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Wang Mary
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