Gateway for using legacy telecommunications network element equipment with a common management information protocol

Claims

I claim:

1. A telecommunications gateway method for use with a source of network management messages provided in a first syntax and a plurality of network elements, each network element adapted to respond to network management messages provided in respective element syntaxes, comprising the steps of:

receiving a first message from said source, said first message being in said first syntax and identifying at least a particular one of said network elements;

selecting a dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries in response to said identification of said particular one of said network elements;

queuing state information relating to said first message and said second message, said first message includes a command, a first syntax command reference identification and a network element identification, said state information includes said first syntax command reference identification and a respective element syntax command reference identification;

mapping said first message into at least a second message in response to said selected dictionary, said second message being in a respective element syntax associated with said identified particular one of said network elements, said second message includes said respective element syntax command reference identification; and

transmitting said second message to said particular one of said network elements.

2. A method according to claim 1, further including the step of:

mapping said first message into a third message in response to said selected dictionary, said third message being in said respective element syntax associated with said identified particular one of said network elements;

transmitting said third message to said particular one of said network elements.

3. A method according to claim 1,

said step of selecting a dictionary includes the step of accessing configuration data based on said identification, said configuration data including an identification of said selected dictionary.

4. A method according to claim 1, further including the steps of:

receiving a third message from said particular one of said network elements, said third message being in said respective element syntax;

selecting said dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries;

mapping said third message into at least a fourth message in response to said selected dictionary, said fourth message being in said first syntax; and

transmitting said fourth message to said source.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said first syntax is CMIP.

6. A method for allowing a plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements to be used with a Common Management Information Protocol, comprising the steps of:

receiving CMIP syntax including a legacy equipment identification which identifies at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements;

queuing state information corresponding to said CMIP syntax;

accessing a dictionary based on said legacy equipment identification;

mapping said CMIP syntax into legacy syntax based on said dictionary;

sending a first legacy syntax message, based on said CMIP syntax, to said at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein:

said step of receiving CMIP syntax includes receiving a CMIP reference identification;

said state information includes said CMIP reference identification and a legacy syntax message identification which corresponds to said CMIP reference identification; and

said first legacy syntax message includes said legacy syntax message identification.

8. A method according to claim 6, further including the step of:

sending a second legacy syntax message, based on said CMIP syntax, to said at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements.

9. A method according to claim 6, further including the step of:

sending a second legacy syntax message, based on said CMIP syntax, to a second one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements.

10. A method according to claim 6, further including the steps of

receiving a legacy syntax response;

searching said queue for said state information;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax response into CMIP syntax.

11. A method according to claim 10, further including the step of:

sending said CMIP syntax to an agent.

12. A method according to claim 6, further including the steps of:

receiving a legacy syntax autonomous message;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax autonomous message into CMIP syntax.

13. A method according to claim 12, further including the step of:

filtering said legacy syntax autonomous message.

14. A method according to claim 6, wherein:

said step of receiving CMIP syntax includes receiving a CMIP reference identification;

said state information includes said CMIP reference identification and a legacy syntax message identification which corresponds to said CMIP reference number; and

said system further includes the steps of:

receiving a legacy syntax response including said legacy syntax message identification,

searching said queue for said state information,

accessing said dictionary, and

mapping said legacy syntax response into CMIP syntax.

15. A computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied on said computer readable storage medium, said computer readable program code for use with a source of network management messages provided in a first syntax and a plurality of network elements, each network element adapted to respond to network management messages provided in respective network element syntaxes, said computer readable program code including:

mapper program code including a command logic program code and response logic program code;

said command logic program code receives a CMIP syntax command from said source identifying a particular one of said network elements, selects a dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries in response to said identification of said particular one of said network elements, maps said CMIP syntax command into at least one second syntax command; and

said response logic program code receives a second syntax response identifying said particular one of said network elements, selects said dictionary based on said identification, and maps said second syntax response to a CMIP syntax response.

16. A computer readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein:

said computer readable program code maintains a queue;

said command logic program code queues state information relating to said CMIP syntax command and said at least one second syntax command; and

said response logic program code accesses said queue after receiving said second syntax response.

17. A computer readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code further includes:

command generator program code, in communication with said mapper program code, said command generator program code forwards respective network element syntax commands to said plurality of network elements; and

response handler program code, in communication with said mapper program code, said response handler program code receives respective network element syntax responses from said plurality of network elements and communicates said respective network element syntax responses to said mapper program code.

18. A method for allowing a plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements to be used with a Common Management Information Protocol, comprising the steps of:

receiving CMIP syntax including a legacy equipment identification which identifies at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements;

mapping said CMIP syntax into legacy syntax based on a dictionary; and

sending a first legacy syntax message, based on said CMIP syntax, to said at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements.

19. A method according to claim 18, further including the step of: accessing and dictionary based on said legacy equipment identification.

20. A method according to claim 19, further including the step of:

initializing a configuration database, said configuration database stores configuration data for said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements, said configuration data includes an identification of a corresponding dictionary for each of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements, said step of accessing a dictionary includes accessing said configuration database using said legacy equipment identification.

21. A method according to claim 18, further including the step of:

queuing state information corresponding to said CMIP syntax.

22. A method according to claim 21, wherein:

said step of receiving CMIP syntax includes receiving a CMIP reference identification;

said state information includes said CMIP reference identification and a legacy syntax message identification which corresponds to said CMIP reference identification; and

said first legacy syntax message includes said legacy syntax message identification.

23. A method according to claim 21, further including the steps of:

receiving a legacy syntax response;

searching said queue for said state information;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax response into CMIP syntax.

24. A method according to claim 18, further including the steps of:

receiving a legacy syntax autonomous message;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax autonomous message into CMIP syntax.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein:

said legacy syntax autonomous message is an alarm; and

said method further includes the step of intelligently filtering said alarm.

26. A processor readable storage medium, comprising:

processor readable program code embodied on said processor readable storage medium, said processor readable program code for programming a processor to perform a method for allowing a plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements to be used with a Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), the method comprising the steps of:

receiving CMIP syntax including a legacy equipment identification which identifies at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements;

mapping said CMIP syntax into legacy syntax based on a dictionary; and

sending a first legacy syntax message, based on said CMIP syntax, to said at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements.

27. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 26, wherein the method further includes the step of:

accessing said dictionary based on said legacy equipment identification.

28. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 27, wherein the method further includes the step of:

initializing a configuration database, said configuration database stores configuration data for said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements, said configuration data includes an identification of a corresponding dictionary for each of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements, said step of accessing a dictionary includes accessing said configuration database using said legacy equipment identification.

29. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 26, wherein the method further includes the step of:

queuing state information corresponding to said CMIP syntax.

30. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 29, wherein:

said step of receiving CMIP syntax includes receiving a CMIP reference identification;

said state information includes said CMIP reference identification and a legacy syntax message identification which corresponds to said CMIP reference identification; and

said first legacy syntax message includes said legacy syntax message identification.

31. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 27, wherein the method further includes the steps of:

queuing state information corresponding to said CMIP syntax; and

accessing a dictionary based on said legacy equipment identification.

32. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 27, wherein the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a legacy syntax response;

searching said queue for said state information;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax response into CMIP syntax.

33. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 27, wherein the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a legacy syntax autonomous message;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax autonomous message into CMIP syntax.

34. A processor readable storage medium according to claim 33, wherein:

said legacy syntax autonomous message is an alarm; and

said method further includes the step of intelligently filtering said alarm.

35. An apparatus for allowing a plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements to be used with a Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), comprising:

a memory adapted to store program code; and

a processor in communication with said memory, said program code capable of programming said processor to perform a method for allowing a plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements to be used with a Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), the method comprising the steps of:

receiving CMIP syntax including a legacy equipment identification which identifies at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements,

mapping said CMIP syntax into legacy syntax based on a dictionary, and

sending a first legacy syntax message, based on said CMIP syntax, to said at least one of said plurality of legacy telecommunications network elements.

36. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the method further includes the step of:

accessing said dictionary based on said legacy equipment identification.

37. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the method further includes the step of:

queuing state information corresponding to said CMIP syntax.

38. An apparatus according to claim 37, wherein:

said step of receiving CMIP syntax includes receiving a CMIP reference identification;

said state information includes said CMIP reference identification and a legacy syntax message identification which corresponds to said CMIP reference identification; and

said first legacy syntax message includes said legacy syntax message identification.

39. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the method further includes the steps of

receiving a legacy syntax response;

searching said queue for said state information;

accessing said dictionary; and

mapping said legacy syntax response into CMIP syntax.

40. A processor readable storage medium, comprising:

processor readable program code embodied on said processor readable storage medium, said processor readable program code for programming a processor to perform telecommunications gateway method for use with a source of network management messages provided in a first syntax and a plurality of network elements, each network element adapted to respond to network management messages provided in respective element syntaxes, the method comprising the steps of:

initializing a configuration database, said configuration database stores configuration data for said plurality of network elements, said configuration data includes an identification of a corresponding dictionary for each of said plurality of network elements;

receiving a first message, said first message being in said first syntax and identifying at least a particular one of said network elements;

accessing said configuration data using said identification of said particular one of said network elements;

selecting a dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries based on said step of accessing said configuration data;

mapping said first message into at least a second message in response to said selected dictionary, said second message being in a respective element syntax associated with said identified particular one of said network elements; and

transmitting said second message to said particular one of said network elements.

41. A processor readable storage medium, comprising:

processor readable program code embodied on said processor readable storage medium, said processor readable program code for programming a processor to perform telecommunications gateway method for use with a source of network management messages provided in a first syntax and a plurality of network elements, each network element adapted to respond to network management messages provided in respective element syntaxes, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a first message, said first message being in said first syntax and identifying at least a particular one of said network elements;

selecting a dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries based on said identification of said particular one of said network elements;

mapping said first message into at least a second message in response to said selected dictionary, said second message being in a respective element syntax associated with said identified particular one of said network elements;

transmitting said second message to said particular one of said network elements;

receiving an autonomous message, said autonomous message being in said respective element syntax, said autonomous message is an alarm; and

intelligently filtering said alarm.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains 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 as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to a gateway that allows a network manager, on a telecommunications network, to manage telecommunication network legacy elements using a Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP).

2. Description of the Related Art

The legacy telecommunications network that has evolved over the last 100 years--predominantly plain old telephone service (POTS) running over copper wire--is undergoing radical change, at least as far as new installations are concerned. The telecommunications industry is undertaking a massive effort to upgrade its infrastructure to take advantage of new broadband technology. The global telecommunications network of the future will be based on several key transmissions, switching and service management technologies which include Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Intelligent Networks (IN). SONET is the standard architecture for high speed, high quality optical fiber transmission technology in the United States. SONET is known in Europe as Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). ATM is a high speed switching and transmission technology that enables voice, video and data tracking to be sent over a single network. ATM offers high quality transmission at very rapid speeds of 155 Mbps and higher. IN is a new approach to developing and deploying information services. IN allows market driven customer applications to be created in real time for only a fraction of the traditional cost. The migration to broadband technology is driven by a growing set of user needs and demands. For example, multimedia, video telephony, imaging, CAD/CAE/CAM, LAN interconnect and interactive television are new applications that require broad bandwidths.

In order to meet the challenge of improving the present telecommunications network, the telecommunications carriers (in the United States this includes the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's)) are doing more than simply upgrading from copper to fiber transmission equipment. The telecommunications industry has proposed a Telecommunications Management Network (TMN). TMN is envisioned as a network of distributed management services which will provide integrated management of telecommunications networks and services in an open, multi-vendor environment. Over the past several years various standards organizations including the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the European Standards Institute (ETSI) have been developing TMN standards. Although these standards are complex and still evolving, the telecommunications carriers are under tremendous pressure to deploy TMN in order to manage their new broadband technology and their existing legacy networks. In order to understand why the telecommunications carriers are adopting new technology and what that technology is, it is necessary to begin by examining how the telecommunications carriers manage their legacy networks today.

A simplified view of how legacy telecommunications networks are managed today is illustrated in FIG. 1. Although, in the real world, a wide variety of telecommunications resources are involved, for purposes of this discussion only two types of resources are of interest: a manager (of which the operations system (OS) is the most prominent) and a telecommunications network element (hereinafter called a network element or NE). A typical network will have many managers and hundreds or thousands of network elements. For illustration purposes only, FIG. 1 shows one manager 12 with three network elements 14, 16 and 18.

Network elements are devices that reside in the telecommunications network itself and their primary job is to handle telecommunications traffic. Network elements are the origin or destination of management supervision and control. One example of a network element is the green box found on the top of telephone poles. In the current telecommunications networks, there are many thousands of network elements in the field from a wide range of vendors. Network elements designed to function in and communicate with legacy telecommunications networks are called legacy network elements. Thus, the network elements 14, 16 and 18 depicted in FIG. 1 are legacy network elements. Each legacy network element is associated with an agent process. Legacy network elements 14, 16 and 18 have agent processes 30, 32 and 34, respectively. The agent processes perform operations on the network elements in response to the manager. Thus, a manager invokes management operations onto an agent to manipulate a legacy network element.

Managers are the supervisory or control systems which are responsible for operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning for the network. Managers are typically located in a central office. Today, each of the RBOCs have roughly 500 managers from a variety of vendors. In the United Sates, managers and legacy network elements communicate using a protocol known as Transaction Language 1 (TL1) which is defined by Bellcore. This language is specific to the North American market. TL1 is a legacy syntax that provides for and messages, but it specifically does not address content. The content of the communications between the manager and the legacy network element is dictated by the content of the databases maintained by each legacy network element. As shown in FIG. 1, each legacy network element includes its own database. For example, legacy network element 14 includes database 20, legacy network element 16 includes database 22 and legacy network element 18 includes database 24. Manager 12 also maintains its own database 26 which contains a superset of all the databases of every legacy network element under its control. Thus, database 26 contains all the information found in databases 20, 22 and 24. In a modem telecommunications network, one manager may manage thousands of network elements; therefore, the database for that particular manager is extremely large, resource intensive and inefficient to maintain.

The legacy network has a number of shortcomings. First, the legacy networks cannot adequately support the new broadband technologies. Second, the legacy network architecture is monolithic as opposed to distributed. Instead of having a management database distributed among an open-ended set of cooperating managers, every manager must be loaded with a massive database containing specific knowledge of every legacy network element under its control. Since there is no way to distribute management control, managers are easily overloaded forcing carriers to install more and more managers to meet peak loads, therefore, increasing the costs of the network. Third, legacy networks are multi-vendor networks but no standards or other provisions have been employed to insure interoperability. So the addition of each new vendor expands manager database 26 and the overall management burden exponentially. Maintenance workers must be trained on and equipped to use a wide variety of vendor specific tools. Testing for problems involving equipment from more than one vendor is problematic because the test tools from one vendor will not managing legacy network elements. Instead, each vendor provides tools that can be used only with their network legacy element.

To solve these problems, TMN, employs the basic concept of providing an organized architecture to achieve the interconnection between various managers and network elements for the exchange of management information using an agreed architecture with a standardized interface and protocol. Only one protocol is used to communicate with any particular network element. The manager does not know of any differences between the various network elements. For example, in the legacy network of FIG. 1 the manager has a different protocol for communicating with each legacy network element. In TMN, the manager would not need as large of a large database because there is only one protocol for communicating with all of the network elements. Instead of having an agent at every single network element, there could be one agent for hundreds of network elements and a manager could talk to one agent for a number of network elements. This type of solution allows management functions to be decentralized. One manager can manage a diverse equipment using generic information models and standard interfaces, thereby, reducing software and maintenance costs.

Wherever possible, TMN uses the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) systems management standards which utilizes object-oriented, application-layer building blocks including the Common Management Information Service Element (CMISE). CMISE includes a protocol definition and specification known as the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP).

Although TMN provides a solution to the shortcomings of the legacy telecommunications network, the telecommunications industry is faced with the classic dilemma of what to do about its installed base, the legacy equipment. Despite the promise of broadband and TMN technology, the world still runs on billions of dollars of legacy equipment and it is not economically feasible to abandon the legacy equipment, nor technically feasible to instantly transform the telecommunications networks to TMN. Thus, the telecommunications carriers will not move to TMN if they have to abruptly abandon the legacy equipment.

Instead the carriers desire a seamless transition from legacy equipment to broadband technology. This means an initial deployment of broadband technology that interoperates with the legacy network element. However, the new managers that are designed to communicate using CMIP are not able to communicate with legacy network elements which understand TL1 or some other legacy syntax. A legacy syntax is defined as the language or protocol used for communication by a legacy network element. New managers employing the TMN technology, therefore, cannot be installed into an existing legacy network. Thus, there is an urgent need for some means for allowing a manager, which communicates using CMIP, to manage a large number of legacy network elements, where each of the legacy network elements communicate in a different legacy syntax or different dialect of the same legacy syntax (e.g. TL1).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. Thus, the present invention, roughly described, provides for a gateway for use with a source of network management messages provided in a first syntax and a plurality of network elements adapted to respond to network management messages provided in respective syntaxes different from said first syntax. The gateway includes a mapper which has a command module and a response module. The command module receives a first syntax command from the source identifying a particular one of said network elements, selects a dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries in response to the network element identification and maps the first syntax command into at least one second syntax command. The said second syntax being the respective syntax for the identified network element. The response module receives a second syntax response, selects the dictionary and maps the second syntax response to a first syntax response. In one embodiment, the source is a network manager.

One embodiment of the present invention gateway includes a queue. The command module queues state information about the first syntax command and the second syntax command. The response module accesses the queue after receiving the second syntax response.

Other embodiments can include an initialization module for setting configuration data, and an intelligent alarm filter for selectively filtering alarms received by the gateway from network elements so that a selected first subset of alarms are passed to the mapper and a second set of alarms are not passed to the mapper. A user interface can also be included that allows a user to enter configuration information about network elements, send messages to the network legacy elements and view alarms. An embodiment of the gateway can also include a command generator and a response handler, both in communication with the mapper. The command generator forwards the second syntax commands to the network elements. The response handler receives second syntax responses from the network elements and communicates the second syntax responses to the mapper.

A gateway according to the present invention receives a first message from the source. The first message being in a first syntax and identifying a particular one of the network elements. The gateway selects a dictionary from a plurality of dictionaries in response to the identification of the network element, maps the first message into at least a second message in response to the selected dictionary, and transmits the second message to the identified network element. The second message is in the respective element syntax associated with the identified network element.

In the United States, the most common respective element syntax (also called a legacy syntax) is TL1. Many different dialects of TL1 exist. One embodiment of the present invention is designed to work with many dialects of TL1 and any other legacy syntax. The gateway described above will allow carriers to begin moving to the new broadband technology (e.g. TMN) while still using existing legacy equipment.

A gateway according to the present invention can be a computer program and/or can include a programmed general purpose computer, a specifically designed computer, a specifically designed or programmed circuit board, an integrated circuit or a combination of hardware components designed to operate as described below. If the implementation of the present invention includes a computer program, the program can be stored on any known storage medium including, but not limited to, a floppy disk, a hard disk, CD-ROM and memory.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following detailed description in which the preferred embodiment of the invention has been set forth in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a legacy telecommunications network.

FIG. 2 is an example inheritance tree for managed object classes.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a telecommunications network utilizing CMIP and the gateway of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of one exemplar hardware architecture that can be used to practice the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the gateway of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a managed object inheritance tree which is part of the Management Information Base (MIB) for the network depicted in FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

I. Transactional Language 1

Transaction Language 1 (TL1) is a transactional language used for the messages that pass between a manager and a network element. Each TL1 message is expressed in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) characters. TL1 specifies four types of messages: commands, acknowledgements, responses and autonomous messages. A command is a message from the manager or other source to a network element that requests the network element to perform some operations-related action. The general structure of a TL1 command is of the form:

<command code>:<staging parameter blocks>:<message payload block(s)>;

The <command code> determines the action to be taken at the legacy network element. The <command code> includes a verb and up to two modifiers. An example of a TL1 verb is RTVR, which means retrieve. Two examples of modifiers are PM which means performance monitoring and T1 which means Transmission Entity 1. Thus, the <command code> RTRV-PM-T1 signifies that the manager wants to retrieve some performance monitoring value from Transmission Entity 1. The <staging parameter blocks> determine the target legacy network element and the identity of the object to be acted upon by the input command. The <staging performance blocks> include an AID, a TID and a CTAG, all three of which will be described below. The <message payload block(s)> is the subject matter relating to the action to be performed by the input message. The semi-colon character (;), terminates a TL1 command.

An acknowledgement is a short reply from the network element indicating that a command message is being acted upon or has been immediately rejected. The essential purpose of an acknowledgement is to reassure a human user that a command which takes a long time to execute has been received by the network element. The format of an acknowledgement is as follows:

<acknowledgement code> <ctag><cr><lf><

The <acknowledgement code> identifies the reason for the acknowledgement. The <ctag> identifies the associated input command. The less than (<) char