A) TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention generally relates to a telecom management system and particularly relates to a telecom management system for managing wired and wireless communication. The present invention more particularly relates to a method and system for handling multiple failures in a telecom management system.

B) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Network management is conducted at different levels in various types of networks to avoid network failures and to assure network performance. In a communication network, an element management system (EMS) is normally being used to supervise and manage network elements within a network. A communication network also includes a network management system (NMS) to manage the overall network by communicating with several EMSs.

[0003] In the existing network management and telecom service provider environment, the element management systems (EMS) are typically deployed with 1+1 hot standby protection. The primary and secondary sites are geographically dispersed. The data between the primary site EMS and the secondary site EMS is synchronized using Hot Standby (HSB) link. In case of HSB link failure, any subsequent failure in the primary site EMS is impossible to protect. Thus, the HSB link acts as single point of failure (SPOF). Further, the existing solutions like 1+1, N:l, M:N need additional hardware.

[0004] Hence, there is need to provide a method and system for handling multiple failures in a telecom management system. There is also need for a method and system for multi-layer hot-standby and load balancing. There is also need for a method and system for distributing the work load of the failed EMS system among the peer EMS.

[0005] The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

C) OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The primary object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for handling multiple failures in a telecom management system.

[0007] Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for distributing a work load of the failed EMS system among the peer EMS during an EMS failure.

[0008] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for multi-layer hot-standby and load balancing during a HSB link failure and an EMS failure in a telecom management system.

[0009] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

D) SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] The various embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for handling multiple failures such as handling a Hot Standby (HSB) link failure and an Element Management Systems (EMS) failure in a telecom management system. The method comprises detecting a failure of Hot Standby (HSB) link, detecting a failure of one or more EMS, rejecting new requests pertaining to one or more EMS detected with failure, blocking communication to the one or more EMS detected with failure by instructing one or more Network Elements (NE), estimating work loads of one or more EMS by a higher level network management system, identifying the one or more Network Elements managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure, grouping one or more Network Elements based on a preset criteria, identifying one or more EMS working without failure, instructing the one or more EMS working without failure to start managing one or more groups of the Network Elements which are previously managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure and communicating with the one or more Network Elements which are to be managed by the one or more EMS working without failure. The one or more EMS working without failure retrieves the configuration information from the one or more Network Elements. The one or more EMS working without failure stores a configuration information in database and marks the management status as UP.

[0011] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of instructing the one or more EMS working without failure to start managing one or more groups of the Network Elements which are previously managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure comprises identifying one or more EMS working in full capacity and instructing one or more EMS working in full capacity to suspend low priority tasks, CPU intensive tasks and memory intensive tasks. The CPU intensive tasks and the memory intensive tasks includes collecting 24 hrs performance monitoring data, and bulk report generation for bringing down the work load of the one or more EMS working without failure.

[0012] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for handling a Hot Standby (HSB) link failure and an Element Management Systems (EMS) failure further comprises detection whether the one or more Network Elements of the one or more EMS detected with failure belong to a same administrative unit or partition layer, and ring.

[0013] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the higher level network management system groups the one or more Network Elements of the one or more EMS detected with failure based on the detection result.

[0014] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the one or more groups of the one or more Network Elements are assigned to the one or more EMS working without failure. The one or more groups of the one or more Network Elements are assigned to the one or more EMS working without failure to enable a network operator to co-relate the Network Elements and manage one or more EMS working without failure.

[0015] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.

E) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:

[0017] FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart explaining a method for handling multiple failures in a telecom management system, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0018] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system for handling multiple failures in a telecom management system, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0019] Although the specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others. This is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.

F) DETAH.ED DESCRHTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which the specific embodiments that may be practiced is shown by way of illustration. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and it is to be understood that the logical, mechanical and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the embodiments. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense.

[0021] FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for handling multiple failures such as handling a Hot Standby (HSB) link failure and an Element Management Systems (EMS) failure in a telecom management system, according to an embodiment of the present invention. With respect to FIG. 1, the method comprises the steps of: detecting a failure of Hot Standby (HSB) link (Step 101), detecting a failure of one or more EMS (Step 102), rejecting new requests pertaining to one or more EMS detected with failure (Step 103), blocking communication to the one or more EMS detected with failure by instructing one or more Network Elements (NE) (Step 104), estimating work loads of one or more EMS by a higher level network management system (Step 105), identifying the one or more Network Elements managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure (Step 106), grouping one or more Network Elements based on a preset criteria (Step 107), identifying one or more EMS working without failure (Step 108), instructing the one or more EMS working without failure to start managing one or more groups of the Network Elements which are previously managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure (Step 109) and communicating with the one or more Network Elements which are to be managed by the one or more EMS working without failure (Step 110).

[0022] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the one or more EMS working without failure retrieves configuration information from the one or more Network Elements. The one or more EMS working without failure stores the configuration information in database and marks the management status as UP.

[0023] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of instructing the one or more EMS working without failure to start managing one or more groups of the Network Elements which are previously managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure comprises identifying one or more EMS working in full capacity and instructing one or more EMS working in full capacity to suspend low priority tasks, CPU intensive tasks and memory intensive tasks. The CPU intensive tasks and the memory intensive tasks includes collecting 24 hrs performance monitoring data, and bulk report generation for bringing down the work load of the one or more EMS working without failure.

[0024] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of instructing the one or more EMS working in full capacity to suspend the low priority tasks, enables the working EMSes to share the work-load of the failed EMSes.

[0025] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method to handle multiple failures such as handling a Hot Standby (HSB) link failure and an Element Management Systems (EMS) failure in a telecom management system further comprises detection whether the one or more Network Elements of the one or more EMS detected with failure belong to a same administrative unit or partition layer, and ring.

[0026] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the higher level network management system groups the one or more Network Elements of the one or more EMS detected with failure based on the detection result.

[0027] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the one or more groups of the one or more Network Elements are assigned to the one or more EMS working without failure. The one or more groups of the one or more Network Elements are assigned to the one or more EMS working without failure to enable a network operator to co-relate Network Elements and manage one or more EMS working without failure.

[0028] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system for handling multiple failures in a telecom management system, according to an embodiment of the present invention. With respect to FIG. 2, the system 200 comprises a one or more network elements hosted on a cloud, one or more EMS comprising a database deployed at primary site and a secondary site for managing one or more network elements, and a Network Management system (NMS) at the primary site for controlling one or more EMS. In case of HSB link failure, which is a single point of failure, any subsequent failure in the primary site EMS is impossible to protect. In a telecom service provider environment, the element management systems (EMS) are deployed with 1+1 hot standby protection. The primary and secondary sites are geographically dispersed. The data between the primary site EMS and the secondary site EMS is synchronized using Hot Standby (HSB) link. In case of HSB link failure, any subsequent failure in the primary site EMS is impossible to protect. With the system and method of the present invention, on detecting the failure of HSB link, followed by the failure of an Element Management System (EMS), the higher level Network Management system (NMS), distributes the workload to other lightly loaded EMSes. Since the peer EMSes don't share the database, they can't decide on their own on work-load distribution. Since the NMS manages all the EMSes, it can know/probe the EMSes on their work load.

[0029] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. G) ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

[0030] The various embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for handling multiple failures such as handling a Hot Standby (HSB) link failure and an Element Management Systems (EMS) failure in a telecom management system.

[0031] If the work-load is high (close to 100%), then, the work-load of the working EMSes is brought down by following the steps of the present invention so that the work-load of the EMSes with failure are shared by the EMSes working without failure.

[0032] The existing solutions like 1+1, N:l, and M:N need additional hardware. Besides, the HSB link acts as single point of failure. The proposed method is implemented on the existing system and does not need additional hardware thereby saving the capital and operational expenditures. Since the work load is distributed among the co-located peer EMSes, the risk due to single point failure of HSB link is mitigated.

[0033] The proposed system enhances the life and survival of the management/monitoring system. This provides an opportunity to detect and rectify network failures and hence increases the end user satisfaction.

[0034] Although the embodiments herein are described with various specific embodiments, it will be obvious for a person skilled in the art to practice the disclosure with modifications. However, all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the claims.

[0035] It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the embodiments described herein and all the statements of the scope of the embodiments which as a matter of language might be said to fall there between.

CLAIMS
What is claimed is:

1. A method to handle multiple failures in a telecom management system, the method comprises the steps of: detecting a failure of Hot Standby (HSB) link; detecting a failure of one or more EMS;

rejecting new requests pertaining to one or more EMS detected with failure;

blocking communication to the one or more EMS detected with failure by instructing one or more Network Elements (NE);

estimating work loads of one or more EMS by a higher level network management system;

identifying the one or more Network Elements managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure;

grouping one or more Network Elements based on a preset criteria; identifying one or more EMS working without failure; instructing the one or more EMS working without failure to start managing one or more groups of the Network Elements which are previously managed by the one or more EMS detected with failure; and communicating with the one or more Network Elements which are to be managed by the one or more EMS working without failure, and wherein the one or more EMS working without failure retrieves a configuration information from the one or more Network Elements, and wherein the one or more EMS working without failure stores the configuration information in database and marks the management status as UP.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of instructing the one or more EMS working without failure to start managing one or more groups of the Network Elements comprises the steps of:

identifying one or more EMS working in full capacity; and instructing one or more EMS working in full capacity to suspend low priority tasks, CPU intensive tasks and memory intensive tasks, and wherein the CPU intensive tasks and the memory intensive tasks includes collecting 24 hrs performance monitoring data, and bulk report generation for bringing down the work load of the one or more EMS working without failure.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprises detection whether the one or more Network Elements of the one or more EMS detected with failure belong to a same administrative unit or partition layer, and ring.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the higher level network management system groups the one or more Network Elements of the one or more EMS detected with failure based on the detection result.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more groups of the one or more Network Elements are assigned to the one or more EMS working without failure, and wherein one or more groups of the one or more Network Elements are assigned to the one or more EMS working without failure to enable a network operator to co-relate Network Elements and manage one or more EMS working without failure.