Packet Gateway Trunk Group Mapping for Targeted Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
During maintenance of packet voice gateways, it is challenging to identify which trunks, including those carrying emergency traffic, go into a lockout state, necessitating the cumbersome process of seizing and releasing numerous circuits, which is time-consuming due to the lack of clear mapping between gateways and trunk groups.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for maintaining communication networks by querying call processors to associate packet gateways with trunk groups, allowing users to select and seize or release specific trunk groups, particularly MF trunk groups, through an automated process that retrieves and maps trunk group information from databases, reducing the need to reset entire gateways.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all circuits are seized and released (winked) after maintenance procedure, then trunk lockout state is resolved, but maintenance time is excessive due to over a hundred circuits needing to be processed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the trunk groups by their association with packet voice gateways, identifying and isolating only those trunk groups that are actually affected by gateway maintenance. This segmentation allows the system to process only the relevant subset of trunk groups rather than all circuits in the network, thereby resolving the lockout state efficiently while minimizing maintenance time.
2Ease of operation
If mapping between packet voice gateway and trunk groups is established, then targeted maintenance is enabled, but system complexity increases due to mapping requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a maintenance server as an intermediary that automatically establishes and manages the mapping between packet voice gateways and trunk groups. This intermediary component handles the complexity of mapping relationships, providing targeted maintenance capability without requiring direct complex interactions between the gateway and trunk group management systems.
3Productivity
If automated winking process is implemented for selected trunk groups, then maintenance efficiency is improved, but risk of missing emergency traffic trunks increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the maintenance server queries the packet voice gateway to obtain accurate information about which trunk groups are associated with the gateway before executing the winking process. This feedback loop ensures that only the correct trunk groups are selected for maintenance operations, preventing emergency traffic trunks from being missed while maintaining high maintenance efficiency through automation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is provided for maintaining a communication network including a plurality of call processors, a plurality of packet gateways, and a plurality of trunk groups connected to each packet gateway. Queries are transferred to at least one call processor of the plurality of call processors, and responses are received from the one call processor. The responses are processed to associate the one call processor with a packet gateway and to associate the packet gateway with trunk groups connected to the packet gateway. The association of the packet gateway with the trunk groups is displayed, and a user selects one of the trunk groups. Then an instruction is transferred to the one call processor to seize and release the user-selected one of the trunk groups.