A method of automatic assessment of feature compatibility in mobile networks

Abstract

Deployment and upgrade of a mobile network have always been challenging tasks. Very often they require human intervention because telecom networks are complex systems composed of different nodes that need to be compatible in order to communicate and provide network services. Therefore in current telecommunication systems a network expert must check all the requirements and compatibilities of the network prior to activation of a new service. Automation of the assessment of network compatibility is one of the key enablers for Autonomic Management of telecom networks. In this paper we describe a new method for automatic end-to-end assessment of compatibility between network features in a telecom network. The method enables fast, easy and accurate decision making regarding the planning of new feature deployment or the upgrade of already existing features. We built a prototype that demonstrates the described method. It shows that our method is not bound to any type of telecom network and could be used to automate deployment or upgrade of a multiple-domain network.