Verification of compatibility among telecommunication network features

Abstract

A method and apparatus for assessing the compatibility of a selected network feature with the network features of an existing telecommunications network 10 comprises providing an abstraction of each network feature in the form of a data model 100 which defines the relationships between any network elements 12 or nodes 27, software elements 13 and software features 14 required for each network feature. Information 19 is then collected about the existing telecommunications network 10 to identify the deployment of the network features in the existing network. This information is then combined with the data model 100 to build a feature compatibility matrix 107 which defines the compatibility of network features in the existing telecommunications network 10. The matrix 107 can then be interrogated with information defining the parameters of the selected feature to be added or upgraded to determine whether the selected feature is compatible with features of the existing network.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to checking compatibility between telecommunication network features. Background technique [0002] Telecommunications networks and the features provided over those networks are becoming larger and more complex. It is common to see network features implemented in many network elements, or so-called nodes, often located in different network domains. For example, the "SGSN in Pool" feature is in the serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node (SGSN) in the mobile core network and in the radio network controller (RNC) and base station in the radio access network Controller (BSC) implemented. [0003] Features in networks are increasingly implemented in software. The concept of software-defined radio heralds the era of using software to define all radio and digital signaling processing. Software embedded in network elements implements advanced self-organizing network (SON) features such as automatic neighbor r...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0014] This approach to software deployment is problematic because as the number of network features increases, keeping the software on each network element or node matches the software on other network elements or nodes around it It becomes increasingly difficult for software on other network elements or nodes to be verified

[0015] Another problem is that there is no way of knowing which features are installed in the network, because the software for a feature is deployed segment by segment on a node by node basis

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