This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/354,705, filed on Feb. 14, 2006; and U.S. application Ser. No. 12/228,762, filed Aug. 15, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,078,435; U.S. application Ser. No. 12/228,763, filed Aug. 15, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,712,237; and U.S. application Ser. Nos. 12/228,763, 12/228,776, filed Aug. 15, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,447,181. The entire teachings of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.
An optical network, such as a ring network, mesh network, or hybrid ring/mesh network, may contain several sites or nodes with optical network elements, such as optical add/drop multiplexers, optical cross-connects, amplifiers, regenerators, transponders, filters, routers, wavelength switches, wavelength converters, and wavelength selectors. Network providers must manage several optical network elements within an optical network. Many network elements may be designed for various configurations. Each network site may have a different network element installation configuration based on power, space, traffic flow, network demand, and other constraints or user preferences.
Planning, deploying, tracking, and updating multiple installation configurations at each of these sites may be a difficult, expensive, and time consuming proposition. Network providers need to correctly anticipate customer demand while building reliable networks as inexpensively as possible. In addition, network providers must also anticipate future technological developments, such as increased data rates, to simplify network upgrades. Some network providers may attempt to minimize cost of additional truck rolls and reduce network complexity by pre-planning network element installation configurations prior to deployment of the installation configurations.
It is also difficult to standardize the order management process to keep pace accurately with a network provider's equipment order changes for different network elements and shipment of the ordered equipment. Further, if the equipment is grouped by ordering codes, it becomes more problematic to keep track of the various network element installation configuration combinations in order to generate an accurate bill of materials (BoM).
At present, many network providers choose to standardize the network element installation configurations at all network sites to simplify the planning and tracking process rather than customizing the configurations on a per site basis. Other network providers attempt to maintain multiple network element installation configurations where one or more installation configurations differs from site to site. However, this approach falls short when there is no method or apparatus to plan or keep track of these differing installation configurations.
Further, network providers have different network element installation configuration preferences. These preferences may be based on power, space, cable run locations, or other types of constraints or user preferences. For example, some network providers prefer equipment (e.g. port cards and controllers) on different shelves whereas others prefer all the equipment on a single shelf.
A method or corresponding apparatus in an example embodiment of the present invention provides a procedure to enable users to simplify planning of multiple network element installation configurations in specific sites within a network. An example embodiment of the procedure enables users to access generic installation configurations of a network element. After accessing the generic installation configurations, the procedure may display the customizable templates to a user that include the generic installation configurations and customizable options within the generic installation configurations which allows the user to select or customize a customizable template. Next, the user is allowed to produce customized templates of multiple network element installation configurations by changing the customizable options of the generic installation configurations. After the user finishes making changes to the customizable user options in a generic installation configuration of a network element, the customized templates may be stored.
The foregoing will be apparent from the following more particular description of example embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments of the present invention.
FIGS. 13 and 14A-B are block diagrams of example embodiments of a network element installation planning apparatus.
A method or corresponding apparatus in an example embodiment of the present invention enables users such as network providers to visualize and plan how optical network element equipment is placed and configured on racks at specific sites within an optical network. Advanced network planning using an example embodiment of this invention enables network providers to reduce equipment deployment and configuration costs by minimizing the number of truck rolls and service calls required to make post-deployment changes to network element installation configurations. Further, some embodiments of this invention allow users to manage and track post-deployment configuration changes conveniently on a single user workstation or application.
Example embodiments of this invention allow users to create and store customized templates produced from configuring customizable user options of generic installation configurations. Customizable templates allow users to configure the installation configurations of multiple network elements within a given network on a site-by-site basis to suit users' specific needs. Customizable templates also allow users to replicate installation configurations easily from one site to another and keep configurations up-to-date. Additionally, example embodiments of this invention allow users to associate the customized templates with equipment ordering codes and discounts to simplify the order management and deployment process and track the configurations on a site by site basis.
Example embodiments of the present invention provide a method or apparatus for planning and tracking multiple network element installation configurations in metropolitan wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks.
A description of the forgoing and other example embodiments of the invention follows.
The optical ring network 120 being planned included multiple optical network elements 1-n. It is these elements 1-n that can have different configurations, and it is these different configurations that various embodiments of the network planning tool 100 can be effective in assisting the user 102 to plan or track over time.
A method or corresponding apparatus in an example embodiment of the present invention begins with selecting a network element in a specific site of a given network topology to access generic installation configurations. The network topology may contain multiple network elements and traffic flow patterns. The generic installation configurations may be based on optical modeling of traffic flow patterns in a network. The example method allows the user to change multiple network element installation configurations while maintaining the integrity of the traffic flow patterns.
Next, example embodiments of the procedure enable users to access generic installation configurations of a network element. After accessing the generic installation configurations, the procedure may display the customizable templates to a user that include the generic installation configurations and customizable options within the generic installation configurations which allows the user to select or customize a customizable template. In some embodiments, the customizable templates may be displayed to the user in tabular format, graphical format, pictorial format, or a combination of these formats.
The user is then allowed to produce customized templates of multiple network element installation configurations by changing the customizable options of the generic installation configurations. The tool maintains the integrity of the traffic flow patterns by accounting for, for example, amplification or regeneration of optical signals within the traffic flow patterns and allows the user to change and apply the customized templates consistent with maintaining the integrity of the traffic flow patterns. The tool may also allow the user to change the generic installation configurations according to user preferences, such as power, space, network demand and other constraints or user preferences.
If the user decides to change the customizable options of a generic installation configuration and create a customized network element installation configuration template, codes may be associated with the equipment contained in the customized template. In some embodiments, a discount may apply to certain customized templates. If a discount applies to a customized template or templates, the tool may indicate to the user that the discount applies to the particular template configuration.
The tool then enables the user to order network element installation configurations or equipment using the codes associated with the templates. Next, the tool may associate a bill of materials with the codes.
After the user finishes making changes to the customizable user options in a generic installation configuration of a network element, the customized templates may be stored.
To update a previously customized template, the tool enables the user to access the stored customized template. After the user selects a stored customized template to update, the tool enables the user to update the customized template. Next, the tool may store the updated customized template after the user indicates that he or she has completed making changes to the template.
The tool enables the user to access stored customized templates and associate the customized templates of network element installation configurations with one or multiple sites in a network representation. The tool then stores the associations of the network representations associated with the network element installation configurations.
Some embodiments of the tool enable the user to access stored customized templates and delete these templates.
Continuing to refer to
In some embodiments, different icons within a site may represent different network elements or different equipment within a network element. For the sites that contain equipment, templates may be used to specify how the equipment is configured at the site. After creating the model topology of a network, the user 302 may change the installation configuration of specific network elements by either clicking on an installation configuration link 31-39, 311-319 associated with a specific site, clicking on a network element within a site, or clicking on the site 1-19 via a user interface 304, such as a workstation 306. In another embodiment, the user 302 may change the installation configuration of a specific network element by selecting a specific site listed in a navigation tree format. The user 306 is then be able to select and configure a specific network element within a specific site of the network by creating a new customizable network element installation configuration template or updating an existing customizable template.
Non-customizable network element installation configurations 415 for each template family 405 may include, for example, associated hardware, maximum number of degrees, maximum number of shelves per bay, number of main shelves, number of port shelves, and number of spacer racks. The customizable user options 410 for each template family 405 may, for example, allow the user to specify if port modules are allowed on the main shelf of a certain network element, allow the user to specify if both main shelves will be in the same bay (e.g. if there are two main shelves for the system), allow the user to specify that both the shelves in a rack or bay need to be added to the bill of materials even if one of the shelves has no equipment associated with it (e.g. if the configuration has a main shelf and a port shelf in the same bay), allow the user to specify that side spacers are required in the configuration, allow the user to specify the available rack kit that may be associated in the bill of materials for the bay configurations, and allow the user to specify that the network element configuration is being designed for Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS), a standard of environmental and safety guidelines for telecommunications equipment used in the United States or European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), a standard for telecommunications in Europe.
In some embodiments, the tool may have one interface in which a user may view both the non-customizable installation attributes 415 and the customizable user options 410 in tabular format. In these embodiment, the user may change the customizable installation configurations 410 directly on the tabular template to produce customized templates of a network element installation configuration 400.
In yet another embodiment, the tool may create tabular customizable templates of a network element installation configuration for each template family based on selected customizable user options 410 for that family. In another embodiment, the tool may create graphical templates of a network element installation configuration for each template family based on selected user options for that family (
In some embodiments, the tool may set a default option for each template family 405 based on certain global options. In some example embodiments, the network planning tool may allow multiple templates to be created for each template family and allow the user to designate a default template to be used within each template family in which the tool contains at least one default template for each template family. If there is only one template for a template family, then that template may be designated as the default template.
In some embodiments, users may not be allowed to delete existing template families 405 or create new template families 405. In some embodiments of the disclosed invention, the user may not be able to create new template families 405 or generic installation configurations 405, but may only be able to edit the customizable user options 410 within each template family 405.
In the
To illustrate, in the embodiment depicted in
Referring to
Some embodiments of the disclosed invention may contain a menu of equipment as a separate window within the navigation tool or on the template. In these embodiments, a user may select and drag equipment from the menu into the equipment slots on the template. Alternatively, in some embodiments a user may remove equipment from a template by either selecting and deleting a specific piece of equipment or selecting, dragging and dropping the equipment into the menu of equipment.
Example embodiments of the invention may contain specific constraints in the customizable templates that would restrict a user from moving certain equipment to certain locations, adding equipment, or deleting equipment based on limitations of the racks or equipment within a specific template family. Such limitations may include power, space, and compatibility restrictions.
After the user accesses the generic installation configurations, the customizable templates may be displayed to the user 810. In some embodiments, the customizable templates may be displayed to the user in tabular format, graphical format, pictorial format, or a combination of these formats. The customizable templates contain customizable user options and non-customizable installation configuration attributes for each generic installation configuration. Next, the tool enables the user to change the customizable user options of the generic installation configurations 815. In some embodiments, the user may change the network element installation configurations by selecting options from a list contained in a tabular, graphical, pictorial, or combination format template. In some embodiments, the user may change the network element installation configurations by selecting, dragging, and dropping equipment from one location to a different location on the customized template represented in tabular format, graphical format, pictorial format, or a combination of these formats. Once the user indicates that he or she has completed making changes to the network element installation configurations, the tool stores the customized template(s). In some embodiments, the template(s) may be stored in a database. In some embodiments, the template(s) may be stored on a server.
Next, the planning tool displays the customized templates to the user 925. The templates may be displayed in tabular format, graphical format, pictorial format or a combination of these formats 930. The tool then enables the user to change the customizable user options of the generic installation configurations 935. The tool maintains the integrity of the traffic flow patterns by accounting for, for example, amplification or regeneration of optical signals within the traffic flow patterns and allows the user to change and apply the customized templates consistent with maintaining the integrity of the traffic flow patterns 940. The tool may also allow the user to change the generic installation configurations according to user preferences, such as power, space, network demand and other constraints or user preferences.
If the user decides to change the customizable options of a generic installation configuration and create a customized network element installation configuration template 945, codes may be associated with the equipment contained in the customized template 950. In some embodiments, a discount may apply to certain customized templates. These discounts may depend on the equipment associated with certain templates. If a discount applies to a customized template or templates 955, the tool may indicate to the user that the discount applies 960 to the particular template configuration.
The tool then enables the user to order network element installation configurations or equipment using the codes associated with the templates 965. An example embodiment of the codes may be equipment ordering codes used to associate specific shelf rack kits to a template and then place an order via an order management system for the shelf rack kits to be delivered to a specific network site. Next, the tool may associate a bill of materials with the codes 970, which may include any applicable discounts. Finally, the tool may store the customized template(s) 975 after the user indicates that he or she has completed making changes to the template(s). In some embodiments, the template(s) may be stored in a database or other data structure. In some embodiments, the template(s) may be stored on a server.
In the apparatus 1400, the accessing unit 1405 accesses generic installation configurations 1495 of network elements. In some embodiments, these generic installation configurations 1495 may be accessed from a data structure, such as a database.
The display unit 1410 displays customizable templates to a user. These customizable templates may include generic installation configurations 1495 and customizable options within the generic installation configurations 1495 to enable the user to select or customize a template. In some embodiments, the customizable templates may be displayed to the user in different display formats 1438, such as a tabular template 1422, graphical template 1424, pictorial template 1426, or combination of different formats.
Next, the enabling unit 1415 enables the user to change the customizable options of the generic installation configurations 1495 to allow the user to produce customized templates 1475 of multiple network element installation configurations. After the user indicates that he or she has completed making changes to the customizable templates, a storage unit 1420 stores the customized templates 1475. The customized templates 1475 may be stored in a data structure such as a database, server, or any other contemplated storage unit 1420.
In the apparatus 1400, a network representation unit 1435 (
The enabling unit 1415 may include an integrity unit 1435 to identify locations about the optical network at which to place a subset of the multiple network element installation configurations 1470 while maintaining integrity of the traffic flow patterns 1450, the subset being selected from among the customized templates 1475. The integrity unit 1435 maintains integrity of the traffic flow patterns 1450 by accounting for amplification 1460 or regeneration 1455 of optical integrity signals within the traffic flow patterns 1450, for example. Other signaling may also be maintained by the integrity unit 1435. The enabling unit 1415 includes an accounting unit 1440 to account for the number of degrees 1465 associated with the network element installation configurations 1470. The enabling unit 1415 also includes a template application unit 1445 to apply customized templates 1475 consistent with maintaining the integrity of the traffic flow patterns 1450 associated with the degrees 1465.
The enabling unit 1415 may further include a changing unit 1402 (
A code associating unit 1404 is configured to associate codes, such as ordering codes, with the customized templates 1475. The enabling unit 1415 includes an ordering unit 1406 to enable the user to order network element installation configurations using the codes 1485. The code associating unit 1404 may be configured to associate a bill of materials 1440 with the codes 1485.
An indicating unit 1408 is configured to indicate to the user via an indicator within the customized templates 1475 that a discount 1480 may apply when ordering a network element installation configuration that includes a customized template 1475 with the indicator.
The enabling unit 1415 includes a customized template accessing unit 1412 to enable the user to access stored customized templates 1475. The enabling unit 1415 is configured to enable the user to associate the stored customized templates 1475 with representations of network element installation configurations 1470 (
The storage unit 1420 is configured to store the association of the network representation 1425 with the customized templates 1475 representing network element installation configurations 1470 (
The enabling unit 1415 includes a template update unit 1414 (
It should be understood that the examples presented herein may include more or fewer components, be partitioned into subunits, or be implemented in different combinations. Moreover, the flow diagrams of
The teachings of all patents, published applications and references cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
While this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to example embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.
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