Trigger Outcome Domain for Network Device Operator Interaction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network device operators lack advance information about the implications of software configuration or hardware changes, leading to potential undesirable outcomes such as traffic losses or network unreachability, due to unclear dependencies between internal software states and events.
Innovation Solution
The generation and presentation of trigger outcome domains (TODs) that include lists of operator interactions, potential events, and outcomes, allowing operators to make informed decisions before performing interactions, thereby preventing undesirable outcomes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If network device operators perform software configuration or hardware changes based on technical documentation alone, then they can enable new features and services, but they risk causing undesirable outcomes such as traffic losses or network unreachability due to unclear dependencies between internal software states and events
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of potential events and outcomes before the operator commits to an interaction. The network device proactively generates and presents a list of potential events and their outcomes to the operator before the configuration change is applied, allowing the operator to make an informed decision and prevent undesirable outcomes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to the operator about the potential consequences of their actions. By displaying the trigger outcome domain information that shows what events may be triggered and what outcomes may result, the operator receives critical feedback about the implications of their configuration changes before executing them.
2Reliability
If the system provides detailed trigger outcome domain information to operators before interactions, then operators can make informed decisions to prevent traffic losses, but the complexity of the system increases due to additional processing and information management
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the complex analysis into distinct components: identifying potential events, determining their outcomes, and presenting this information in an organized list format. This segmentation makes the complexity manageable and the information presentable to operators without overwhelming them.
Solution Approach 2:
The trigger outcome domain information acts as an intermediary between the complex internal software state and the operator. Instead of requiring the operator to understand complex dependencies, the system uses this intermediary information structure to translate internal states into comprehensible potential events and outcomes that guide operator decisions.
3Reliability
If the system generates and displays trigger outcome domain information for each operator interaction request, then operators receive a-priori information to prevent undesirable outcomes, but the time required to process interaction requests increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the potentially time-consuming analysis of potential events and outcomes as a preliminary step before the operator needs to make a decision. By generating this information in advance and presenting it with the interaction request, the system ensures that when the operator needs to decide, the analysis is already complete, preventing delays at the critical decision point.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for providing a-priori information about the implication of a network device operator interaction with a network device, e.g., a software configuration or hardware change, to be performed on the network device before the interaction actually takes place. The network device operator is provided with information that may be used to make a decision whether to proceed with the interaction. For each logically distinct feature of a network device, the techniques generate a trigger outcome domain (TOD). Each TOD is defined to include a list of operator interactions that defines relevant events in the network device that may be triggerable by the operator interactions, a list of potential outcomes in the network based on the potential events in the network device, and a user interface to display the list of potential outcomes for the operator interactions prior to performing any of the interactions.