Arrangement for controlling network elements

Network element management system

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the connection of network management messages of a telecommunication system.

Background of the invention

In some network management systems, network elements, such as radio repeaters, are connected to the network management system by means of a modem connection. In this application, a modem refers to an adapter used to connect a device to a transmission network. Such a system is shown in Figure 1. The figure shows a network management system NMS with three radio repeaters: repeater 1, repeater 2 and repeater 3. The NMS and repeaters are connected via modems to a transmission network, such as a telephone network. Through the modem connection, the ver15 management system sends configuration parameters to the radio repeaters, such as the radio channels used, the transmission power, the modem telephone number of the management system, etc. Correspondingly, the radio repeaters send alerts to the management system indicating faults and errors and acknowledgments of NMS

The initiative to establish a connection between the NMS and the repeater can be taken by either the management system NMS or the repeater. The NMS contacts the repeater when it wants to change or check the repeater configuration parameter. To connect to the repeater, the NMS modem of the management system connects to the repeater modem via the transmission network. The connection is established when the transmission modem recognizes a free modem line in the transmission network. The modem ID is stored in the network management system. When the transmission network is a regular telephone network, the identifier is the telephone number of the modem.

The repeaters contact the NMS to send alerts. This is done using the control system modem 30 stored in the repeater.

The NMS modem in the network management system may be busy because the NMS has initiated a connection to configure the network element. The configuration tolerates quite long delays. At the same time, another network element may try to contact the management system to forward an important alarm message. Such a situation is shown in Figure 2. In the figure, the arrows indicate attempts to start and end a connection between the network management system NMS and two radio repeaters, repeater 1 and repeater 2. The time sequence starts at the top of the figure.

The network management system communicates via the modem with the repeater 1 for configuration purposes (201). When the connection is active, the repeater 5 2 attempts to contact the modem of the network management system to send an alarm (202). However, the NMS modem in the management system is busy and cannot be reached. Repeater 2 must then try to reconnect (not shown). On the other hand, these retries reserve modem capacity and the likelihood of collisions increases. Once the repeater 1 and the management system NMS have transmitted all the necessary information, they terminate the connection, freeing up their modems. At this point, the modem of the network management system is no longer busy and the contact (205) of the repeater 2 can now be answered. The alarm message and the messages triggered by the alarm message are now forwarded. The connection is terminated when all necessary information has been transferred (206).

The problem with the prior art is the delay in the transmission of network element management messages. It is an object of the present invention to minimize or eliminate these problems. This is achieved by using the arrangement and device described in the independent claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The idea of ​​the invention is to use at least two modems on the network management system side. At least one of these modems is used only for network management system contacts. At least one different modem is used only for contacts of one network element or one group of elements managed by the network management system.

There may be more than one modem used by the management system for communication, so that it is possible for the network management system to connect to more than one network element at the same time. Likewise, more than one modem may be assigned to communicate with network elements. In such an arrangement, it is advantageous to divide the network elements into groups. The contacts of the network elements of a certain group are then routed to a predefined modem in the network management system. This can be accomplished by assigning different groups of network elements to the identifiers of the different 35 modems in the network management system.

According to another embodiment, several receiving modems are used and the identification elements of at least two modems are assigned to the network elements managed by the network management system. If the first selected modem is busy, when the network element tries to forward an alarm message to the network management system, the element tries to communicate via another receiving modem in the group. However, this embodiment may require some changes to the managed network elements.

According to a preferred embodiment, the at least one managed network element is a radio repeater.

List of figures

The invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a known network element management system; Fig. 2 shows a connection attempt in the known system of Fig. 1; Figure 3 shows an arrangement according to the invention; and Figure 4 shows simultaneous connections between a network management system and two radio repeaters.

Detailed description of the invention

Figure 3 shows an arrangement with two modem groups.

The first group, i.e. transmission modems, is used for network management system NMS contacts. The second group, i.e. reception modems, is used to communicate with radio repeaters. The communications of the radio repeaters are routed to the receiving modems by configuring the repeaters to send their alarms to the telephone number of a modem belonging to the receiving modems. The network management system NMS acquires the necessary capacity to connect to the radio repeaters via transmission modems and to participate in the connections that use the receiving modems and that have been initiated by the managed network elements. No other changes to the prior art arrangement 30 shown in Figure 1 are required.

The transmission modem groups used to communicate with the management system may comprise one or more modems. The use of several modems allows the network management system to communicate with several radio repeaters at the same time. This improves the delay characteristics of the configuration processes initiated by the network management system, but requires the allocation of an additional telephone line to control the repeater.

A group of receiving modems may also comprise one or more modems. When several reception modems are used, it is advantageous to divide the radio repeaters into groups. The contacts of the network elements of a group are then routed to a specific modem of the network management system. This can be done simply by assigning the repeaters of a certain group the telephone number of the same receiving modem in the network management system. The different groups are in turn given the telephone numbers of the different modems on the network management system side.

In another embodiment using multiple receive10 modems, managed network elements such as radio repeaters are assigned number groups of at least two modems. The numbers are preferably arranged in order in order of priority. When the repeater contacts the network management system to transmit an alarm, it dials the first number in the list first. If the number of the first modem is dialed, the repeater tries to connect to the next number in the priority list, etc. via the receiving modem. However, this embodiment requires some modifications to the repeaters.

When multiple receive modems are used, it is less likely that the modem line is busy when the repeater tries to connect, and this in turn improves the delay characteristics of the system. This is because a smaller number of repeaters direct their connections to a single modem. On the other hand, more modems and telephone lines are needed.

Figure 4 shows a queue of contact attempts between a network management subsystem and radio repeaters in an arrangement according to the invention, illustrated in Figure 3. The same sequence of contact attempts is illustrated in Figure 2 in a prior art arrangement.

The network management system NMS uses its transmission modem when contacting repeater 1 (401). When the connection to repeater 1 is still active, repeater 2 detects the need to send an alarm to the management system. To send the alarm, the repeater 2 contacts the receiving modem of the management system (402). When all the necessary information has been transferred, the connections are terminated.

It should be noted that the scope of the invention is not limited to arrangements controlling radio repeaters, but can also be used to manage other similar network elements. The present invention is applicable to all network management systems using modems ver104669 for communication between a network management system and managed network elements.