Connection management system and method for large-scale optical networks

Abstract

A network management system program and graphical user interface for large-scale optical networks is described. The network management system includes a connection management system that allows a user to manually configure connections among network elements within the network. The user defines general connection attributes within the network and adds network elements to the route or routes. The user provisions crossconnects within each network element to establish the route connections. The connection management system includes a validation function to verify the validity of the user defined connections. A graphical user interface comprises a portion of a network management system that controls a network comprising a plurality of coupled computers. The graphical user interface includes a first user input area within a first display window allowing a user to specify a network address for a source node, a second user input area within the first display window allowing the user to specify a network address for a destination node, and a third user input area within a second display window allowing the user to graphically select a connection between the source node and one or more destination nodes in the network. The network management system program includes a first database storing the selected connection as a pending connection, a second database storing the selected connection as an active connection upon activation by the user, and a program module establishing a physical connection between the source and destination nodes upon activation by the user.

1 . A method of configuring a network coupling a plurality of optical transport network elements together, the method comprising: 
 defining attributes comprising a connection between a pair of network elements, the attributes including a specific time-slot on a physical link coupling the first network element and the second network element of the pair of network elements;    manually provisioning a first set of crossconnects within each network element of the pair of network elements;    automatically provisioning a second set of crossconnects within the pair of network elements;    activating the first set of crossconnects to establish the manually defined connection between the pair of network elements; and    activating the first set of crossconnects to establish the automatically defined connection between the pair of network elements in the event of an invalid manually defined connection.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of defining the connection as a pending connection prior to the step of activating the first set of crossconnects.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising the steps of: 
 automatically validating the connection to determine whether the connection attributes conform to predefined conditions; and    storing the connection information in a database.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of automatically determining a least cost route between the first pair of network elements for at least part of the connection.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of associating one or more alarm conditions with the connection between the first pair of network elements  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of displaying the one or more crossconnects in a graphical user interface illustrating connection lines drawn between channels in each of the respective first pair of network elements.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the network comprises a Synchronous Digital Hierarchy network.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the network comprises a Synchronous Optical Network comprising a plurality of networked nodes coupled through fiber optic links.