The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1996
Javid Jabbarnezhad, Parker, TX (US);
MCI Worldcom, Inc., , GA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for characterizing actual availability of a long-haul path in a telecommunications network. The present invention subdivides the long-haul path into distinct modular components and determines availability for each modular component of the long-haul path. A composite end-to-end availability figure is determined by summing the modular component availabilities. The present invention comprises a telecommunications network comprising a plurality of interconnected switches to carry and route telecommunications traffic among customer endpoints, and an entry and exit gateway for performing protocol conversion from one communication network to another. A network management system is connected to the interconnected switches in the telecommunications network via control links, for monitoring availability for the telecommunications network. The system also includes a network monitoring processor for monitoring telecommunication networks owned and operated by other service providers upon an agreement, a trans-oceanic network management system for monitoring availability of undersea telecommunication equipment owned and operated by the service provider, an extrapolation processor used to determine availability for the modular components of a network not capable of being monitored by the service provider, and a performance processor for determining a composite availability from a plurality of modular component availabilities.