Multiplex communications – Network configuration determination
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-25
2001-04-24
Vincent, David R. (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Network configuration determination
C709S223000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06222827
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a system in accordance with the preamble of the attached claim
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for managing a telecommunications network. The telecommunications network to be managed may be for example a SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network, a PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy) network, or a combination of such networks.
The basic situation in network management is usually such that an operator managing a telecommunications network, e.g. a telephone company, has a plurality of customers (i.e. network users) in addition to the physical network. The operator sells the customers various services that utilize the network. (A public network will be used herein as an example; in principle, however, the same description applies to a private operator managing for example an organization network). To meet the data transmission requirements of customers in the physical network, the operator utilizes a number of facilities or operative processes for the provision of customer services. These operative processes can be divided into groups in accordance with the functions for which they are intended:
Service Provisioning, taking care of the performance of customer services, including for example invoicing customers for services.
Operation & Maintenance, for keeping the network operative to allow the usage of customer services. One of the most important functions in this respect is the supervision and repair of network faults.
Planning & Development, the function of which is to develop network operation so as to better meet customer needs and to increase the overall profitability of the operator enterprise.
As is apparent from the above, network management takes place on several different levels, depending on the extent to which the functions to be performed on a specific level are associated with the overall management of the operator enterprise. The management of a telecommunications network is generally divided into four different levels which are as follows from bottom to top:
network element management layer,
network management layer,
service management layer, and
business management layer.
This division is used for example in ITU-T (the former CCITT) recommendation M.3010, which specifies a kind of framework for the management architecture of a telecommunications network. The bottom layer below the above four layers is the equipment itself; these equipments are managed by installation and field engineering tools.
The network element management layer means the management of an individual network element (such as a multiplexer or a cross-connect device) as a separate component without simultaneously paying attention to the condition of the network or other network elements. The majority of “network management” systems commercially available today are actually network element management systems within this layer.
The network management layer is concerned with the management of the entire telecommunications network, such as overall management of network connections. One example is the creation of connections and the end-to-end supervision of their condition. This means that for example alarms detected on equipment are not merely displayed against that equipment, but they are also propagated to show what services (paths and circuits) are affected by the fault, if any. The present invention is placed in this layer.
As distinct from the above, the service management layer is not concerned with technical network management. It takes care of customer data, supervision of services provided to customers, invoicing for services, and considering needs for services of different types, for example.
The business management layer is used to monitor and plan the business activities and economy of the entire enterprise, resulting in decisions affecting the lower levels.
At present, network management systems are changing into systems that manage the telecommunications network as a whole, whereas conventional management systems have handled only the remote control of transmission equipment, especially monitoring alarms produced by the equipment. In conventional network management methods, configuration changes, such as creation of new end-to-end connections, have been laborious and time-consuming, as the end result consists of several configuration events the prerequisite of which is that the maintenance staff of the network first gets an overall view of the situation and then decides on configuration changes required in individual network elements. In new network management systems, on the other hand, an overall view of the network and of its condition is produced within the system, and the system itself gives the required configuration commands to each transmission equipment. In consequence, all configuration changes can be performed significantly more rapidly than previously. Such developments have been accelerated by freeing of competition in the field of telecommunications.
The above-mentioned recommendation M.3010 specifies the management architecture as shown in FIG.
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. The architecture basically consists of one or more operations systems OS connected to a data communication network DCN communicating with an actual telecommunications network which is to be managed and which includes the network elements NE managed. It is to be noted that the connections of the data communications network and those of the telecommunications network are logically distinct, although they can be implemented physically in one and the same cable. Hence, logically there are two networks: (a) a network providing services to customers, and (b) a network maintaining the service provisioning network. The management of certain transmission equipments (network elements) further requires a separate Mediation Device MD, which mainly acts as a protocol converter between a Q
3
interface complying with the recommendations and transmission equipments that do not understand the protocol applied in the interface but use their own proprietary protocol. New SDH equipment, for instance, can be connected directly to the Q
3
interface, whereas older PDH equipment requires a Mediation Device.
In practice, a management network for a combined SDH and PDH network may be for example as shown in FIG.
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. Users (network operator staff) sitting at the operation centre use network management workstations WS connected to a separate local area network WSN, which may be for example an Ethernet network. The management system is typically distributed in several computers of the local area network, one of the computers being a dedicated server machine SRV having a database DB containing the information necessary for managing the network. In its practical embodiment, the local area network further comprises for example the necessary back-up devices (such as DAT drives or mirrored disks) and event-logging printers (not shown).
The management system is connected via the above-mentioned Q
3
interface to the SDH network, for example. A variety of alternatives have been defined for the Q
3
interface, so that the interface may be for instance an X.25-type packet-switched interface or an Ethernet LAN interface. (The packet-switched interface is useful if the operator in charge of the network management also otherwise uses a packet-switched network.) In practice, control channels between the SDH network elements
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are established in the overhead bytes of the STM-N signal (N=1, 4, 16), so that control signals between SDH equipments propagate with the payload signal (that is, in the same physical network). Such control channels established in the overhead bytes are called Embedded Control Channels, and they are formed for example in the STM-1 frame by the section overhead bytes D1 to D12.
PDH equipments, on the other hand, need manufacturer-specific solutions, wherefore they have to be connected to the management system through a separate mediation device
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.
The management system may also be hierarchical, so that different geographical areas have their own smaller management systems that together form an integral management netwo
Bending David
Faupel Matthew
French Graham
Grant Colin
Heighes Phil
Altera Law Group LLC
Nokia Telecommunications Oy
Vincent David R.
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