MXPA01000535A - Meta-service activating interface between a customer administrative system and database network elements of a communications network - Google Patents

Abstract

A customer administrative system (14) of a wireless communications system is interfaced (22) with one or more system database network elements (26) to support single command meta-service activation and management tasks. In this regard, a meta-service comprises a package of individual services. An agent (32) is included in the interface to process single meta-service command for handling by the database network elements. The database network elements supporting the individual services implicated by the meta-service command are identified (44) and are issued appropriately formatted, device specific commands (48) for effectuating the meta-service activation or management task. In the event that each implicated database network element cannot successfully complete the requisite meta-service activation or management task, the service provision state of each implicated database network element is rolled-back (60) to a service provision state prior to receipt of the meta-service command.

Description

META-SERVICE ACTIVATION INTERFACE BETWEEN AN ADMINISTRATOR SYSTEM OF CLIENT AND ELEMENTS OF DATABASE NETWORK OF A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to communication networks and, in particular, to an improvement of the interface between a client administrator system and database network elements of a communications network to support the activation of meta-services. Description of the Prior Art Reference is now made to Figure 1 wherein a block diagram illustrating a portion of a communications network 10 implementing a prior art (IF) transaction-based interface between a system is shown. Client Administrator (CAS) 14 and a plurality of database network elements (NE) 16. Interface 12, client manager system 14, and database network elements 16 are interconnected using a network 18 which preferably comprises a network, such as an X.25 network, separate and apart from the communication network 10. As an example, the communication network 10 may comprise a wireless (for example, cellular) telecommunications system, with each element of database network 16 which then comprises, for example, a database that stores permanent and temporary wireless subscriber data (eg, a local location register (HRL)). The permanent data stored in the database network element 16 comprises fixed information concerning the communications service subscribed by each subscriber. The temporary data stored in the database network element 16 comprises variable information, such as in the case of information of domestic location records concerning the current location of each subscriber. The client manager system 14 is used to couple transactions in relation to the management of the permanent data stored in each database network element 16. These administration activities, in general, refer to transactions executed for the client's purposes (that is, subscriber) of creation or elimination, activation of service or similar, in relation to a specific client. More particularly, transactions refer to subscriber data management tasks such as: - subscription initiation / deletion / status, - subscriber activation / cancellation, - provision / removal / activation / service stabilization, - definition of number C (transfer), - changes of pass code, and - changes of serial number. Transactions can also be related to authentication management tasks such as activation of authentication / change / d statement / status. Additionally, the transactions are related to a numbering plan configuration, including the number range assignment, the elimination of the numbering plan and the visualization of the numbering plan. By "transaction-based" it is implied that the interface 12 receives orders originating in the client manager system 14 and addressed (i.e., addressed) to one of the particular elements of the database network 16, converts those commands to the format suitable for communication to and / comprised by the addressed database network element, and routed to the addressed database network element. Similarly, interface 12 receives any response to an order from the addressed database network element 16, converts the response to an appropriate format for communications to and / understood by the client administrative system 14 that originated the command, and routes to the source client administrative system. Therefore, an order generated by the client manager system 14 that is sent through the interface 12 to an element of the addressed database network 16 produces a corresponding response. In many cases, the telecommunications service provider over the communications network 10 packages a number of individual services together for marketing and selling the subscribers as a meta-service. In order to subsequently activate and manage a meta-service, a command (such as, for example, an activation request) originates in the client manager system 14 for a first individual service included within the meta-service, and directed to one of the particular elements of the database network 16 involved by that particular service through the interface 12. The interface 12 operates in a manner described above to convert the command to a suitable format for communication to and / comprised by the element of the addressed database network involved by the individual service and routes the command to that addressed database element or network elements. This process is repeated again or again for each of the individual services included in the meta-service. Therefore, the client administrator system 14 must generate, commonly, at least as many commands related to the activation or management of a meta-service as individual services exist within the meta-service. There is a need for an improved interface between a client manager system and a plurality of database network elements that will support the activation of individual command or the management of a meta-service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An interface between a client manager system and one or more elements of a database network of a communication system includes an agent that supports the tasks of activating and administering individual command meta-services. In this regard, a meta-service comprises a package of individual services. The agent functions in response to an activation command or meta-service received command originated by a client administrator system to identify which of the database network elements support the individual services involved by the meta-service command. The agent then generates the individual element specific commands in a format suitable for communication to and / understood by each of the identified database network elements. The specific formatted commands are then routed to the appropriate database network elements for processing in order to perform the task of activating or managing the meta-service. In cases when confirmation of the processing of the successful meta-service service activation or management task is not received, the agent issues a command for each provision status of the database network element service to its provision status of previous meta-service command service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A more complete understanding of the method and apparatus of the present invention can be gained by reference to the following Detailed Description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1, previously described, is a block diagram of a portion of a communications network that implements a prior art transaction based interface between a client manager system and a plurality of database network elements; Figure 2 is a block diagram of a portion of a communication network with an interface of the present invention between a client manager system and a plurality of database network elements that support the activation and management of the meta-service of individual command; Figure 3 is a flow chart of nodal and signal operation illustrating the operation of the interface for the management of activation commands and management of the client administrative system meta-service; Figure 4 is a flow diagram of nodal and signal operation illustrating the operation of the interface to implement the automated return; Figure 5 is a block diagram of a plurality of communication networks with a multiple layer interface of the present invention between a client manager system and a plurality of database network elements that supports meta activation and handling - individual command service; Figure 6 is a flow chart of nodal and signal operation illustrating a multi-layer interface operation for handling commands of activation and management of client administrative system meta-service; and Figure 7 is a flow diagram of nodal and signal operation illustrating the operation of the multiple layer interface to implement the automated return.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Reference is now made to Figure 2 showing a block diagram of a portion of a communications network 20 implementing an interface of the present invention (IF) 22 between a client manager system (CAS) 24 and a plurality of database network elements (NE) 26 that support the activation and management of the individual command meta-service. The interface 22, the client manager system 24, and the database network elements 26 are interconnected using a network 28 preferably comprising a network, such as an X.25 network, separate and apart from the communications network. As an example, the communication network 20 may comprise a wireless telecommunications system (e.g., cellular), with each database network element 26 comprising a database that stores permanent and temporary wireless subscriber data (e.g., a local location register (HLR)) as described above. Thus, the database network elements 26 store permanent data comprising subscriber communications service information, and temporary data comprising the current location of each subscriber. As another example, the communication network 20 comprises an Internet-type data communications network, with each database network element 26 comprising an Internet service node. The interface 22 supports the same processing based on conventional transaction, as the prior art interface 12 illustrated in Figure 1 and previously described. Those transactions involve the operation of the client administrative system 24 in the management of the permanent data stored in each database network element 26. As an additional feature, the interface 22 includes a meta-service activation and handling agent 32 This agent 32 is responsible for coordinating the activation and handling of a meta-service (ie, a packaged collection of plural individual services) in response to an individual command issued by the client administrative system 24. Agent 32 functions for ( a) identifying each activation or handling command related to the meta-service received from the plural database network elements 26 that are affected by the command (i.e., the database network elements that support or are identified in the provision of each of the individual services within the identified meta-service), (b) identify the activation action (s) om particular annexes that are going to be taken by each database network element in relation to that command, (c) identify the specific element-specific commands needed to perform those actions, (d) generate each of those element-specific commands individual in a suitable format (ie, adapted) for communication to and / understood by the identified database elements, and (e) issue the individual element-specific commands for each of those nodes. To support this operation, the agent 32 keeps track of the plural services within each meta-service, and the relationships between each of the individual services and their support or involved database network elements. services can be designated by a user (not shown) that uses a meta-service definition tool 34. The definition of the meta-service and the subscriber / subscription-related information required for activation can be entered and changed when necessary by the user for (and for storage in) the agent 32 through the meta-service definition tool 34. The agent 32 accordingly recognizes each individual service with which the base network elements of the network are to be communicated. plural data 26 necessary in order to carry out an activity of activation or management in relation to each meta-service. For each meta-service command, the plural plural database elements 26 are identified and issued in appropriately formatted individual element-specific commands. The agent 32 further receives any response for the individual element specific commands from the network elements 26, converts the response (if necessary) to an individual response in a format suitable for communication to and / understood by the client administrative system 24 which originated the meta-service command, and routes the appropriately formatted response to the originating client administrator system. Reference is now made in addition to the Figure 3, in which a nodal operation and signal flow diagram illustrating the interface 22, agent 32 in operation is shown to handle the activation and management tasks of the client administrative system meta-service 24. The administrative system client 24 sends a machine-independent (ie, generic) meta-service activation or command command 40 to interface 22. Agent 32 processes the command received in action 42 to determine which individual services are incorporated within the 40 identified meta-service of the command. The agent 32 further identifies in action 44 which of a plurality of database elements 26 need to be accessed in order to complete the activation activity or requested meta-service handling. To support the actions identification processes 42 and 44, the agent 32 keeps track of the plural services within each meta-service, as well as the relationships between each of the individual services and their support database network elements. or involved 26. Again, this information is entered into the agent 32 through the meta-service definition tool 34. The agent 32 consequently recognizes each individual service within the meta-service with which the elements of communication need to be communicated. plural database network 26 in order to perform an activation or management task related to the service.

After the identification of those elements of the database network involved 26, the interface 22 then identifies the action 46 of the particular actions that will be taken for each element of the database network in relation to the implementation of that received meta-service command 40. The actions that are to be taken may include, for example, actions of activation or administration to store certain data, modify certain data and / or delete certain data from each of the database network elements 26. The interface 22 immediately identifies the action 48 of the element-specific commands that are needed to effect those actions by each of the database network elements 26. Those element-specific commands are formatted according to a certain format and protocol associated with each of the identified database network elements 26 (as the machine-dependent language). In one implementation the original machine independent command 40 is converted into a plurality of machine dependent commands 50 adapted for the identified database network elements. The database interface 22 then outputs the properly formatted device-specific commands 50 for each of the database network elements 26 involved.

Reference is now made to Figure 4 where a nodal operation and signal flow diagram illustrating the operation of the agent 32 of the interface 22 to implement the automated return is shown. Once a properly formatted and issued command 50 has been received by one of the identified database network elements 26, that element processes the command in action 52 to perform the activation or handling task related to the meta-service (such as data storage, modification or deletion concerning one of the individual services). Once the task has been completed, the database network element 26 sends a confirmation message 54 back to the interface 22. In the interim, the interface 22 monitors the reception of the confirmation messages 54 in the action 56 in relation to each received meta-service command (40, Figure 3) to determine whether or not all confirmations have been received from the identified database network elements 26. If yes, the activation or management task related to the meta-service has been successfully completed. In case all the confirmations of a certain period have not been received, it is assumed that the task of activating or managing the meta-service was not completed in each of the identified database elements 26. In this situation, there is an unacceptable inconsistency between the services subscribed by the subscriber and the services that are implemented by the network. A return message 58 is then generated by the interface 22 and is sent to each of the database network elements 26 which respond with a confirmation message 54. In response to receipt of the return message 58, the element database network 26 acts to return its service provisioning state in action 60 to return the database network element to the service provisioning state it had prior to receipt of the properly formatted device-specific command 50 The response to the determination of monitoring in action 56, a return message of activation or handling of meta-service 62 is sent by interface 22 which informs the originating client administrator system 24 of itself command 40 concerning the Activation or management of meta-service has been completed or not advantageously. Reference is now made to Figure 5, wherein a block diagram of a plurality of communication networks 120 with a multiple layer interface of the present invention (IF) 122 between a client manager system (CAS) 124 and a plurality of database network elements (NE) 126 located within the networks 120 to support the activation and management of the individual command meta-service. The multiple layer interface 122, the client manager system 124, and the database network elements 126 (within the networks 120) are interconnected using a network 128 preferably comprising a network, such as an X.25 network. , separate and apart from the communications network 120. As an example, one of the communication networks 120 (1) may comprise a data communication network of the Internet type, and others of the networks 120 (2) may comprise a wireless communications system (eg, cellular), with respect to the communication network 120 (1) each of the database network elements 126 comprises a service node that stores data from the subscriber of the data communications service . With respect to the communication network 120 (2) each of the database network elements 126 comprises a database that stores permanent and temporary wireless subscriber data (e.g., a local location register (HLR)) . It is understood, of course, that in some cases the functionalities developed by the network elements 125 and the secondary interface of the layer 122s may be contained within a single node of the network 120. The multiple layer interface 122 supports the same processing based on conventional transaction than the prior art interface 12 illustrated in Figure 1 and previously described. Those transactions involve the operation of the client manager system 124 in the management of the data stored in each database network element 126. As an additional feature, the multiple layer interface 122 further includes a target activation and handling agent. -service 132. This agent 132 is responsible for coordinating the activation and handling of a meta-service (ie, a packaged collection of individual services) in response to an individual command issued by the client manager system 124. The agent 132 functions to (a) identify each activation or handling command related to the meta-service received from the plural database network elements 126 that are affected by the command (i.e., the database network elements that support or are involved in the provision of each of the individual services within the meta-service), (b) identify the particular actions or actions that will be taken by each database network element in relation to that command, (c) identify the individual element-specific commands necessary to perform those actions, (d) generate each of the individual element-specific commands in an appropriate (ie, adapted) format for communication to and / including network elements of identified data base, and (e) issue the individual element specific commands for each of those nodes. To support this operation, the agent 132 keeps track of the plural services within each meta-service, and the relationships between each of the individual services and their supporting or involved data base network elements. services can be designated by a user (not shown) that uses a meta-service definition tool 134. Information related to the service / meta-service and the subscriber / subscription can be entered and changed when necessary by the user to (and for storage in) the agent 132 through the meta-service definition tool 134. The agent 132 consequently recognizes each individual service that the database network elements 126 need to communicate in order to effect a activation or management task.

For each meta-service command, the appropriate plural database network elements 126 are identified and issued the appropriately formatted individual element-specific commands. The agent 132 further receives any response for the individual element specific commands received from the network elements 126, converts the response (if necessary) to an individual response in a format suitable for communication to and / understood by the client administrative system 124 that originated the meta-service command, and routed the properly formatted response to the client administrator system. With respect to this multiple layer interface architecture 122, it is noted that a primary interface layer 122p is implemented to facilitate communications with the client manager system 124 with respect to the activation and management tasks of the meta-service. It is further noted that a secondary interface layer 122s is implemented within each of the plural networks 120 to facilitate communications in each of the networks 120 with the appropriate database network elements 126. Each layer of interface 122p or 122s includes a functional agent 132 to support the coordination of transactions in relation to the activation and management of the meta-services. It is of course understood that the interface 122 in a plural network system 120 can alternatively be implemented as a single layer interface 22 in the manner illustrated in FIG.

Figure 2 and previously described. In the polished multiple layer structure, a user (not shown) can develop meta-services and enter the appropriate information related to the service / meta-service through the meta-service definition tool 134 for storage in the agent 132 of each of the primary interface layer 122p and the secondary interface layer 122s. Reference is now further made to Figure 6 wherein a nodal operation and signal flow diagram is shown illustrating the multiple layer interface 122 the agent 132 the operation for managing meta-service activation and administration tasks 124 of the client administrator system. The client manager system 124 sends a machine-independent (ie generic) meta-service activation or handling command 140 to the primary interface 122p. The primary agent 132 within the primary interface layer 122p processes the command received in the action 142 to identify which of the plural networks 120 are involved by the individual services within the identified meta-service. The command received is broken down individually into action 144 in order or orders, one for each of the stages of the networks identified 142, related to the services and meta-services of the network. The resulting commands are directed in command 146 over the secondary interface layer 122s within each of those networks 120. The secondary agent 132 within each of the secondary interface layers 122s processes the directed command 146 in action 148 to determine, for its own network 120, which of the plurality of included database network elements 126 need to be accessed to complete the activity of activation or management of meta-service requested in that network. To support the process of identifying action 148, the agent 132 in each of the secondary interface layers 122s keeps track of the plural services within each meta-service, as well as the relationships between each of the individual services and its supporting or involved database network elements 126. The secondary agent 132 consequently recognizes each individual service within the meta-service of which the plural database network elements 126 need to communicate in order to effect a Activation or management activity related to the service. After the identification of those database network elements involved 126, the secondary interface layer 122s then identifies in action 150 the particular actions that will be taken by each database network element in relation to the implementation of that received meta-service command 140. The actions that are to be taken can include, for example, activation or management actions to activate so much data, modify certain data and / or eliminate certain data from each of the basic network elements involved 126. The secondary interface layer 122s of each network 120 then identifies in action 152 the element-specific commands that are necessary to perform those actions by each of the database network elements 126 in its respective network. Those element-specific commands are formatted according to a certain format and protocol associated with each of the identified database network elements 126 (such as a machine-dependent language). In one embodiment, the original machine independent command 140, 146 is converted into a plurality of machine dependent commands 154 adapted to the identified database network elements. The secondary interface layer 122s in each network 120 then outputs the appropriate device-specific regular commands suitably formatted 154 to each of the involved database network elements 126. Reference is made to Figure 7 wherein a diagram of nodal and signal operation flow illustrating the operation of the agent 22 interface 32 to implement the automated return. Once a properly formatted and issued command 154 has been received by one of the identified database network elements 126, that element processes the command in action 156 to perform the required activation or management task. Once the task has been completed, the database network element 126 sends a confirmation message 158 back to the secondary interface layer 122s. Meanwhile, the secondary interface layer 122s monitors the reception of the confirmation messages 158 in action 160 in relation to each specific device command (154, Figure 6) to determine whether or not all confirmations have been received from the elements of the device. identified database network 126. If yes, the activation or handling task related to the meta-service in that particular network 120 has been successfully completed and a confirmation message 162 is sent to the primary layer 122p. Meanwhile, the primary interface layer 122p monitors the reception of the confirmation messages 162 in action 164 in relation to each received meta-service command (140, Figure 6) to determine whether or not all confirmations have been received from the Secondary interface layers identified 122s. in the affirmative case, the task of activation or management related to the meta-service in all the networks 120 has been successfully completed. In the event that all confirmations have not been received during a certain period, it is assumed that the task was not completed in each of the identified networks 120. In this situation, there is an inconsistency between the services subscribed to the subscriber and the services which are implemented by the networks 120. A return message 166 is generated by the primary interface layer 122p and sent to each of the secondary interface layers 122s. The return message is sent by the secondary interface layers 122s to each of the database network elements 126 that responded with a confirmation message 158. In the response to the reception of the return messages 166, the element database network 126 acts to return to its service provision state in action 168 to return the database network element to the state of service provision it was in before receiving the command suitably formatted device specific 154. A meta-service activation or handling return message 170 is also sent by the primary interface layer 122p informing the originating client administrator system 24 of whether the command 140 that is refers to the activation or management of the meta-service was terminated or not successfully. Although the preferred embodiments of the method and apparatus of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and have been described in the above detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.

Claims (17)

1. CLAIMS 1. A system comprising: a client administrator system that operates to issue an individual processing task command that refers to a meta-service; a plurality of database network elements of a communication system, the database network elements that support individual services, some of those individual services that are packaged together to form the metaservice; and an interface between the client manager system and each of a plurality of database network elements, the interface including an agent functionality that responds to the issued meta-service processing task command to identify certain individual services involved with it, identifying the database network elements that support those identified individual services, and issuing the device-specific commands for each of the identified database network elements, where the device-specific commands specify processing actions that are to be taken by the identified database network elements with respect to the individual services identified. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the communication network comprises a wireless telecommunications network and the database network elements comprise home location records of the wireless telecommunications network. 3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that the communication network further comprises a data and Internet communication network and the database network elements comprise Internet service nodes of the data communications network. from Internet. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the specified processing actions to be taken by the identified database network elements comprise certain individual service activation actions. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the processing actions specified to be taken by the identified database network elements comprise certain individual service management actions. 6. An interface between a client manager system and a plurality of network elements of a communication network database, the interface including an agent that functions to: receive an individual processing task command relative to a target -service; identify certain individual services involved by the individual meta-service processing task command; identify some of the plurality of database network elements that support those identified individual services; generate implementation commands, where each of the generated implementation commands is specifically adapted to be comprised of one of the identified database elements; and issuing the generated implementation commands to some of the database network elements, where the issued implementation commands specify the processing actions to be taken by some of the database network elements in relation to the individual services identified. The interface according to claim 6, characterized in that the communication network comprises a wireless telecommunications network and the database elements comprise domestic communication registers of the wireless telecommunications network. The interface according to claim 7, characterized in that the telecommunications network further comprises an Internet data communications network and the database network elements comprise Internet service nodes of the data communications network. from Internet. The interface according to claim 6, characterized in that the agent further functions to: receive confirmation from the database network elements in relation to the successful termination of the specified processing actions; determine whether or not a confirmation has been received from each of the identified database network elements; and issuing a service provision return command message to each database network element with a confirmation that it was received if the determination is made that the confirmation had not been received from each of the network elements of the network. Identified database. The interface according to claim 6, characterized in that the agent functions to generate additional functions to generate each implementation command in a machine-dependent language for some of the identified database network elements. 11. The interface according to claim 6, characterized in that the agent functions to generate the individual-processing meta-service task command conversions from a machine-independent language in a plurality of implementation commands each having a language machine dependent for some of the identified database network elements. 12. A method for interfacing a client manager system and a plurality of database network elements of a communication network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an individual processing task command from the administrator system of client in relation to a meta-service; identify certain individual services involved by the individual meta-service processing task command; identify some of the plurality of database network elements that support those identified individual services; generate implementation commands, wherein each of the generated implementation commands is specifically adapted to be comprised of one of the identified database elements; and issuing the generated implementation commands for some of the identified database network elements, where the issued implementation commands specify processing actions to be taken by some of the database network elements identified in relation to to the individual services identified. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that the communication network comprises a wireless telecommunications network and the database network elements comprise certain domestic location registers of the wireless telecommunications network. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the telecommunications network further comprises an Internet data communications network and the database network elements comprise service nodes of the Internet. Internet of the Internet data communications network. The method according to claim 12, further including the steps of: receiving confirmation from the database network elements in relation to the successful completion of the specified processing actions; determine whether or not a confirmation has been received from each of the identified database network elements; and issuing a message from the service provision return command to each of the database network elements from which a confirmation has been received if the determination is made that the confirmation was not received from each of them. the network elements of the database. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that the generation step further comprises the step of generating each implementation command in a machine-dependent language for some of the identified database network elements. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that the step of generating further comprises the step of converting the individual processing task command meta-service of a machine-independent language into a plurality of implementation commands that have each one a machine-dependent language for some of the identified database network elements.