Methods and apparatus for scoring the condition of nodes in a communication network and taking action based on node health scores

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for monitoring a network and generating overall health scores for communications nodes in the network are described. A monitoring system receives information from a variety of system elements and/or devices which provide information relating to communications service. The information received by the network monitoring system includes information indicating the number of outstanding work orders issued in regard to a trouble report, signal power level variance information, signal alarm information, uncorrectable error information, correctable error information, offline device information, etc. A set of scores for a node are generated based on the different types of received information. The scores are combined using a weighted sum to generate an overall node health score. Nodes are ranked based on overall node health scores and maintenance personal can view the scores as well as the underlying information corresponding to a node to facilitate identification of possible faults.