Methods, devices, and systems for prioritizing mobile network trouble tickets based on customer impact

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, embodiments include receiving a first trouble ticket reporting a first service outage of a communication network and a second trouble ticket reporting a second service outage of the communication network. Further embodiments can include determining a first customer impact according to the first service outage and determining a second customer impact according to the second service outage. The first customer impact is determined by a degradation of quality metrics, a site priority, and a number of complaints due to each service outage. Additional embodiments can include identifying that the second customer impact is higher than the first customer impact. Also, embodiments can include prioritizing a resolution of the second trouble ticket over the first trouble ticket according to the second customer impact being higher than the first customer impact. Other embodiments are disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A device, comprising:
 a processing system including a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 automatically identifying a first number of customers affected associated with a first service outage report in response to receiving the first service outage report from first wireless equipment of a first portion of a wireless communication network; 
 automatically identifying a second number of customers affected associated with a second service outage report responsive to receiving a second service outage report from second wireless equipment of a second portion of the wireless communication network, wherein the first service outage report and the second service outage report are related to two or more different wireless communication equipment malfunctions of the wireless communication network; 
 determining a site priority factor based on presence of a critical or emergency service facility in the second portion of the wireless communication network; 
 weighting the second number of customers affected according to a site priority weighting factor, producing a weighted second site number of customers affected; 
 prioritizing a resolution of the second service outage report over the first service outage report according to the weighted second site number of customers affected being higher than the first number of customers affected; and 
 resolving the second service outage report and the first service outage report according to the prioritizing, wherein the resolving comprises automatically reconfiguring the second wireless equipment. 
   
     
     
         2 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the resolving comprises communicating a command from the processing system to the second wireless equipment, the command causing the second wireless equipment to automatically configure additional network resources to resolve a service outage associated with the second service outage report. 
     
     
         3 . The device of  claim 2 , wherein the communicating a command comprises sending instructions to a network management node of the wireless communication network to configure additional memory, processing capacity, bandwidth capacity or network resources associated with the second service outage report. 
     
     
         4 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying a second number of complaints associated with the second service outage report comprises detecting the second service outage report affects a streaming of video content of a special event. 
     
     
         5 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the automatically identifying a first number of complaints associated with the first service outage report and the automatically identifying a second number of complaints associated with the second service outage report comprises
 detecting a first degradation of a first quality metric associated with the first service outage report; and   detecting a second degradation of a second quality metric associated with the second service outage report.   
     
     
         6 . The device of  claim 5 , wherein the first quality metric comprises one of a throughput, a retransmission rate, a processing power, a memory capacity, a bandwidth capacity of a communication link, or a combination of these. 
     
     
         7 . The device of  claim 5 , wherein the second quality metric comprises one of a throughput, a retransmission rate, a processing power, a memory capacity, a bandwidth capacity of a communication link, or a combination of these. 
     
     
         8 . The device of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically identifying a first number of complaints associated with the first service outage report in response to receiving the first service outage report; and   automatically identifying a second number of complaints associated with the second service outage report responsive to receiving the second service outage report.   
     
     
         9 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 receiving a first service outage report from first wireless equipment of a wireless communication network, wherein the first service outage report is related to a first wireless communication equipment malfunction of the wireless communication network;   receiving a second service outage report from second wireless equipment of the wireless communication network, wherein the second service outage report is related to a second wireless communication equipment malfunction of the wireless communication network;   determining a first site priority of a first portion of the wireless communication network, wherein the first site priority is determined based on a first number of affected customers associated with the first service outage report;   determining a second site priority of a second portion of the wireless communication network, wherein the second site priority is determined based on a second number of affected customers associated with the second service outage report;   identifying a critical or emergency service facility of the second portion of the wireless communication network;   determining a site priority weighting factor based on the identifying a critical or emergency service facility of the second portion of the wireless communication network;   weighting the second site priority according to the site priority weighting factor, producing a weighted second site priority; wherein the weighting the second site priority is performed automatically in response to receiving the first service outage report and the second service outage report; and   resolving the second service outage report and the first service outage report, wherein the resolving is responsive to determining that the second number of affected customers exceeds the first number of affected customers, wherein the resolving comprises reconfiguring the second wireless equipment of the wireless communication network.   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the first wireless communication equipment malfunction is different from the second wireless communication equipment malfunction. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the determining the first site priority comprises determining the first site priority based on critical services performed at a site of the first portion of the wireless communication network. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the determining the second site priority comprises determining the second site priority based on critical services performed at a site of the second portion of the wireless communication network. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the resolving the second service outage report and the first service outage report comprises:
 communicating a command to the second wireless equipment, the command causing the second wireless equipment to automatically configure additional network equipment to resolve a service outage associated with the second service outage report. 
 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the resolving the second service outage report and the first service outage report comprises:
 automatically dispatching equipment repair personnel to fix or replace communication equipment associated with the second service outage report responsive to determining that the second number of affected customers exceeds the first number of affected customers. 
 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining one or both of the first service outage report and the second service outage report is associated with a streaming video content of a special event. 
 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining a first number of customer complaints associated with the first service outage report; 
 determining a second number of customer complaints associated with the second service outage report; 
 comparing the first number of customer complaints and the second number of customer complaints; and 
 resolving the second service outage report over the first service outage report according to the comparing. 
 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 9  wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining at least one of the first service outage report and the second service outage report is associated with providing mobile communication service to mobile devices. 
 
     
     
         18 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, by a processing system including a processor, a first service outage report from first wireless equipment of a wireless communication network, wherein the first wireless equipment is associated with residential buildings;   receiving, by the processing system, a second service outage report from second wireless equipment of the wireless communication network, wherein the second wireless equipment is associated with a critical or emergency service facility, and wherein the first service outage report and the second service outage report are related to two or more different wireless communication equipment malfunctions of the wireless communication network;   determining, by the processing system, a first site priority of the first wireless equipment of the wireless communication network, wherein the first site priority is determined based on a first number of affected customers associated with the first service outage report;   weighting, by the processing system, the first site priority according to a first site priority weighting factor determined based on the first wireless equipment of the wireless communication network including residential buildings, producing a weighted first site priority;   determining, by the processing system, a second site priority of the second wireless equipment of the wireless communication network, wherein the second site priority is determined based a second number of affected customers associated with the second service outage report;   weighting, by the processing system, the second site priority according to a second site priority weighting factor determined based on the second wireless equipment of the wireless communication network including a critical or emergency service facility, producing a weighted second site priority;   prioritizing, by the processing system, a resolution of the second service outage report over the first service outage report according to the weighted second site priority being higher than the weighted first site priority and the second number of affected customers exceeding the first number of affected customers; and   resolving, by the processing system, the second service outage report and the first service outage report according to the second number of affected customers exceeding the first number of affected customers, wherein the resolving comprises communicating a command from the processing system to the second wireless equipment of the wireless communication network to reconfigure the second wireless equipment.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein the communicating a command comprises communicating, by the processing system, a command to cause the second wireless equipment to automatically configure additional network resources to resolve a service outage associated with the second service outage report. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising determining, by the processing system, that the first service outage report is associated with providing mobile communication service to mobile devices to residential buildings.