Nortel Networks Corporation

Cerebrus Solutions Limited

David Peter Giles

Suzanne Rochford

Philip William Hobson

Alexander Bushell

Michele E Morris

Jonathan Coward

Lisa Anne Tweedie

Graham John Jolliffe

High-level requirements specifying bandwidth, degree of featurization and quality of service are input to a network management system (NMS) in an elementary, high-level language. The NMS translates the set of high-level requirements into a set of low-level requirements using a first subroutine. A second subroutine then generates one or more options on the basis of the set of low-level requirements. Each option consists of a detailed technical specification for various elements of the underlying main network. In response to user selection of an option, the NMS converts the option to a set of graphical elements for display using a third subroutine. A cost breakdown is also provided for the selected option. The user may then commit the option to the NMS or reduce the high-level requirements if the cost is deemed too high. Subsequent to the selected option being committed, the NMS sends out the detailed technical specification to the appropriate network elements, resulting in the building of a VPN in accordance with the high level requirements. The high degree of automation enables faster service provisioning, less frequent errors and reduced training costs.

System, method and graphical user interface for building virtual private networks

A graphical user interface (GUI) is described which enables hierarchically structured information to be presented and analysed by a user quickly and easily. In one example, the GUI is for a fraud management system and the information is about &ldquo;alarms&rdquo;. Each alarm is an indicator of potential fraud and several types of alarm are presented, where the type of an alarm depends on the method of obtaining that alarm. The types of alarm are arranged in a hierarchical structure and a representation of the hierarchical structure is displayed on a display screen. A user is able to select one or more parts of the hierarchical structure in order to display information about all the alarms of the selected types and subtypes. This enables the user to quickly and easily view required information without the need to make many user actions and selections. The representation of the hierarchical structure may be tailored by the user. This is done by collapsing or expanding parts of the hierarchical representation.

Graphical user interface and method for displaying hierarchically structured information

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Harlow, United Kingdom

David Peter Giles