Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Computer network monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-04
2001-05-22
Geckil, Mehmet B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Computer network monitoring
C709S223000, C709S202000, C379S033000, C379S030000, C340S502000, C340S506000, C714S047300, C714S048000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237034
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to systems and methods for circulating alarm acknowledgement information.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a telecommunications network, an alarm is generated when some sort of anomalous condition arises in a component forming part of the network. Such an alarm is transmitted in message form through the network to network surveillance personnel (or “craftspeople”) working at various network surveillance workstations or to a higher level management system.
Large networks can quickly overwhelm users with large amounts of alarm information. Accordingly, a mechanism is needed to allow the users of the system to track which alarms have already been looked at so that when a new alarm comes in it can be investigated as soon as is appropriately possible. This is referred to as alarm acknowledgement.
Various existing alarm acknowledgement schemes exist. In one scheme, when an alarm message is received by a network surveillance workstation, some text is highlighted on a screen. After a particular operator acknowledges the alarm, the highlighting is removed. A problem with this system is that the highlighting is only removed from the particular workstation at which the particular operator was working. Assuming the alarm message was sent to a number of such workstations, the other workstations will still show the alarm as being in an unacknowledged state.
In existing systems, alarm information is stored in one or more non-volatile repositories which might be disk drives for example. This is to provide an aspect of survivability. When a system fails, after recovery the information will still be in the non-volatile repository. A problem with this is that if the non-volatile repository or links to the non-volatile repository malfunction, then the alarm repository becomes unavailable to network operators. Furthermore, it is known that non-volatile storage mechanisms such as disk drives for example can be very slow. If many alarms are being generated in a short amount of time, disk access can become a bottleneck.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to obviate or mitigate one or more of the above identified disadvantages.
According to a first broad aspect, the invention provides in a network comprising at least one AGE (alarm generating entity) which generates alarms and a plurality of SME's (surveillance management entities) including a last SME in direct communication with the AGE, for each SME the direction of communication towards the AGE being defined as upstream for that SME and the direction of communication away from the AGE being defined as downstream for that SME, a method of acknowledging alarms comprising the steps of: a particular SME generating an alarm acknowledgement in response Into an alarm received from the AGE and passing this upstream; to each SME performing the steps of: in response to receiving an alarm acknowledgement: 1) recording the alarm acknowledgement; 2) forwarding the alarm acknowledgement upstream to a single SME in particular the one that sent the Alarm in the first place in the upstream direction or in the case of the SME being the last SME forwarding the alarm acknowledgement upstream to the AGE; 3) sending downstream to all SME's interested in the alarm an alarm notification that an alarm acknowledgement has been sent; in response to receiving an alarm notification: 4) determining whether the alarm notification is new; 5) recording the alarm notification if it is new and discarding the alarm notification if it is not new; and 6) if the alarm notification is new sending an alarm notification downstream to all SME's interested in the alarm.
According to a second broad aspect, the invention provides an SME (surveillance management entity) for use in a network comprising at least one AGE (alarm generating entity) which generates alarms and a plurality of such SME's including a last SME in direct communication with the AGE, for each SME the direction of communication towards the AGE being defined as upstream for that SME and the direction of communication away from the AGE being defined as downstream for that SME, the SME comprising: means for generating an alarm acknowledgement in response to an alarm received from the AGE and passing this upstream; means for receiving and recording an alarm acknowledgement; means for forwarding the alarm acknowledgement upstream to a single SME in the upstream direction or in the case of the SME being the last SME forwarding the alarm acknowledgement upstream to the AGE; means for sending downstream to all SME's interested in the alarm an alarm notification that an alarm acknowledgement has been sent; means for receiving an alarm notification and determining whether the alarm notification is new; means for recording the alarm notification if it is new and discarding the alarm notification if it is not new; and means for sending an alarm notification downstream to all SME's interested in the alarm.
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Geckil Mehmet B.
Nortel Networks Limited
Vaughn, Jr. William C.
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