Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-03
2004-04-13
Shah, Sanjiv (Department: 2176)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06721750
ABSTRACT:
NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document and its Figures contain material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications system capacity planning. The present invention more particularly relates to providing broadband capacity tracking and planning information to promote the effective and efficient allocation of capital and resources in the provision a broadband service.
BACKGROUND
Efficient and effective capacity planning involves matching supply and demand in both time and place, ensuring that adequate capacity is available to meet demand while delaying the expenditure of resources until the last possible moment. Delaying expenditures allows an organization to take advantage of the time value of money as well as taking advantage of the availability of resources, monetary or otherwise, for other needs.
Planning for required future capacity requires analysis of both historical trends and future demand projections. Conventionally, service providers measure current demand over specified periods of time, not only to help gauge future resource requirements, but also to accomplish basic tasks such as billing. For example, a utility company measures the quantity of a service, such as electricity or water that each customer consumes in order to bill the customer at the end of a billing cycle. Additionally, this data is a valuable tool for determining the utilization rate of current resources as well as projecting what resources will be necessary in the future. Projecting the necessary resources for basic services, such as basic residential phone service, is a relatively straightforward process. Most if not all of the customers who can take advantage of the service will do so. Projecting the demand for advanced services is a much more difficult exercise. Only a percentage of the subscribers to a basic service will choose to spend an additional amount for access to an advanced service. The percentage varies based on a variety of factors, including the socio-economic makeup of a geographic area as well as the types advertising and promotions directed to consumers in that geographic area.
Broadband communications service is one of these advanced services. The demand for broadband services, such as digital subscriber line (DSL) service, has risen dramatically in the recent past. According to DSL Prime News the number of DSL subscribers in the United States will double during 2001, reaching over 5.5 million subscribers. In the midst of this explosive growth, telecommunications service providers must make decisions regarding the best time and place in which to invest capital and resources in making DSL service available to ensure they can provide service to new subscribers, and perhaps more importantly, satisfy existing subscribers by providing a robust and reliable service.
Currently, no system exists to adequately track existing DSL subscriber demand and capacity or to project demand in the future. The lack of adequate capacity tracking and planning results in inefficiency in the utilization of capital. Service provider management teams have no effective and efficient means to identify under-capacity and over-capacity situations in a timely fashion, and therefore, management's critical need for information is unfulfilled.
Conventional capacity planning systems for the provision of broadband services exist. However, these existing systems are reactionary in nature. A current exemplary system collects subscriber and demand data in order to calculate a utilization percentage. When the utilization percentage reaches a preset threshold, the system triggers an alarm or warning message. A service provider may not be able to deploy additional resources quickly enough to satisfy demands on the broadband service. Also, current systems lack the level of detail necessary to effectively and efficiently deploy capital and resources. Forecasting at the organization level has proven much simpler than forecasting at the community or subdivision level, and therefore, planning is done at a macro level. This approach to capacity planning for broadband services requires highly error-prone educated guesswork to determine what equipment to install at the actual physical equipment locations, resulting in additional inefficiencies in capital utilization.
The challenge service providers facing is how to accurately predict exactly when and where to provide additional equipment to ensure continuity of service with minimal interrupts and to ensure minimal lead-time for new installations. A need exists for an effective and efficient broadband capacity management system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method for employing telecommunications capacity information. An embodiment of the present invention includes a network connected to a data source connected, which contains data relating to the provision of digital subscriber line service. The data source may be an existing database or text file from a legacy system or may be a network element such as a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM).
The data source includes hierarchical demand and capacity data. The hierarchical attribute defines relationships between various data in the data source. For example, in one embodiment of the present invention, a hierarchical attribute describes geographic information about a data item, relating the data to a residential subdivision, a state or a region.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the data source includes an interdisciplinary attribute. The interdisciplinary attribute describes to which vertical division within an organization the data in the data source is associated. For example, in one embodiment of the present invention, the department from which data originated is an interdisciplinary attribute of the data.
An embodiment of the present invention also includes a database for storing demand and capacity data and includes a processor for (1) retrieving the data from the data source, (2) storing the data in the database, (3) subsequently extracting the data and (4) generating a report. The processor in an embodiment of the present invention includes multiple computers, including a batch server for retrieving the data and storing it in a database and a web server for receiving requests for data and, in response, generating and transmitting hypertext markup language (HTML) pages in response. The web server performs various tasks in generating the HTML pages. For example, the web server may utilize components to calculate projected data points using linear regression.
Various other embodiments of the present invention create reports in formats other than HTML, including a portable document format file, a spreadsheet and a multidimensional database accessed through an on-line analytical processing interface. An embodiment of the present invention may also provide the capability of filtering the data presented in a report. For example, a web server generates transmits an HTML form containing a series of selection controls, such as drop-down combo boxes, and navigation controls, such as hyperlinks or buttons. In response to activation of a navigation control, an embodiment of the present invention submits the form containing the value of the selection controls to the web server. In response, the web server generates and presents an HTML report.
Another embodiment of the present invention includes an HTML page, containing a series of navigation controls from which a user may select. The navigation controls include an asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) navigation control and several additional navigation controls that activate common application elements such as a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page and a feedback form. Select
Horton Lynn Bainbridge
Jones Marvin Thomas
Sutton Jason Lamar
BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation
Merchant & Gould
Shah Sanjiv
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