Network management system

Abstract

A method of operating a network management system for a telecommunications involves satisfying a request for a connection path having a specified capacity between two specified termination of the network. The network comprises a plurality of connections between network nodes, each connection having a predetermine capacity. The method comprises first searching a store of routings and available capacities to identify a connection path to satisfy the request. Then the method determines whether a connection path with adequate capacity is present in the store. If no such path is present in the store, then the method proceeds to testing a model of the network to identify at least one suitable connection path between the requested terminations. Subsequently, the method proceeds to adding any suitable connection paths, identified to the store, and upon identifying a connection path having the requested capacity between the requested terminations, allocating the identified connections so as to satisfy the request. The described methodology does not necessarily identify the optimum solution, as such a search is not exhaustive. An exhaustive search would take a very large amount of computer time, and the result would only remain optimal until the next request for capacity is made, when the entire allocation scheme would have to be rebuilt. Instead the method identifies a good, but not necessarily perfect, solution in a reasonable time, thereby trading perfection for speed.