Method of detecting service interactions in intelligent networks

Details Method of detecting service interactions in intelligent networks Method of detecting service interactions in intelligent networks

1996-08-09

1998-08-18

Peeso, Thomas

Telephonic communications

Special services

Anonymous party

39520051, 39520056, 379201, 379157, 379 26, B42F 1734

Patent

active

057969507

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of detecting service interactions in intelligent networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to the specifying of services, and to a method of detecting service interactions based on specifications.
In modern telecommunications networks, operators increasingly offer additional services to their customers. Examples of services are Originating Call Screening (OCS), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Follow On Call (FOC) and Language Selection (LGS). However, as the number of services increases, the likelihood of interactions between those services increases as well. In most cases, these interactions are unwanted, as they may occur unexpectedly and may produce undesired effects. Therefore, the occurrence of interactions of services should be detected and prevented, preferably in the design stage of the services.
Prior art methods of detection of service interactions were primarily concerned with the comparison of textual descriptions of services. This known approach has the disadvantages of being inaccurate, as textual descriptions are often vague and ambiguous, and time-consuming, as numerous services specifications have to be compared by hand.
Reference 1 ("A Practical Approach to Service Interactions") suggests using a more structured approach to the detection of service interactions, using conditions to specify services and to detect possible interactions. However, this reference does nor offer a complete detection method which may be carried out by computer.
Reference 8 ("A Verification Scheme for Service Specifications Described by Information Sequence Charts") proposes a method of detecting service interactions which may be carried out by computer. However, this known method is solely based on chronological mistakes and fails to detect all possible errors.
Reference 9 ("Administrable feature interaction concept") discloses the use of trigger points in the detection of interactions. Only the priority order of additional services (or "features") is used to detect possible interactions.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of detecting service interactions which can be carried out, at least in part, by computer.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a complete and reliable method of detecting service interactions.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method of specifying services which provides unambiguous descriptions of services permitting the automatic processing of those descriptions for interaction detection purposes.
Accordingly, a method of detecting interactions of services in networks, the method comprising the pairwise comparison of features of services during a call, the services being modeled as external stares of a basic call state model, the features comprising conditions associated with the services, the conditions comprising preconditions defining the state of the model prior to the execution of the service, and postconditions defining the state of the model after the execution of the service, is according to the present invention characrerised in that the conditions further comprise global conditions defining a condition of the model during the entire call, global pre conditions defining a condition of the model during the call until the execution of the service, and global post conditions defining a condition of the model during the call after the execution of the service.
By using formal specifications using the conditions mentioned above, an exact and unambiguous detection of interaction of services can be provided. By verifying the formally specified conditions, a process is provided which can easily be automated and which produces highly reliable results.


REFERENCES
Communications Magazine, August 1993, pp. 24-31. 1969), 576-580, 583. for Capability Set 1. Capability Set 1. 1993). Described by Information Sequence Charts", IEICE Transactions on Communications, Vol. E75-B, no. 10, pp. 978-985, Tokyo, October

REFERENCES:
patent: 5404396 (1995-04-01), Brennan

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