# US 2013/0159862 A1 · Automated network inventory using a user device

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- Number: US 2013/0159862 A1
- Document ID: US20130159862A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 13/331,081
- Filed: 2011-12-20
- Published: 2013-06-20
- Earliest claimed: 2011-12-20
- Assignees: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.; Verizon North Inc.
- Inventors: Jeffrey T. CARR; Mohsin A. KARIM; Warren THOMPSON; Mike R. BLASIUS; Jonathan ALLEN; David JONES; Neil TOLENTINO; Fahd BHATTY; Awais IQBAL
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20130159862A1

## CPC

- G06Q 10/087: Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
- H04W 4/02: Services making use of location information
- H04W 4/029: Location-based management or tracking services
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

A system configured to receive a request to perform a survey on a piece of equipment associated with a network; and present, for display, a user interface that allows a user, of the user device, to enter equipment information, associated with the piece of equipment, where the equipment information includes information that uniquely identifies the piece of equipment, information associated with a location of the piece of equipment, or information that identifies ownership of the piece of equipment . The system is also configured to receive, via the user interface, the equipment information; and transmit the equipment information to a server device.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method, comprising:
receiving, by a user device, a request to perform a survey on equipment within a network;
presenting for display, on the user device and in response to the request, a map associated with a geographic area, where the map includes data items that represent the equipment;
detecting, by the user device and via the map, selection of a data item that represents a first piece of equipment;
identifying, by the user device and as a result of detecting the selection of the data item, a first location associated with the first piece of equipment;
providing a user interface that allows first equipment information, associated with the first piece of equipment, to be entered, where the first equipment information includes at least one of:
information associated with the first location, or
information that uniquely identifies the first piece of equipment, retrieving, from a memory associated with the user device, second equipment information, associated with a second piece of equipment that is adjacent or connected to the first piece of equipment;
determining, by the user device, whether a condition is associated with the first piece of equipment based the first location and a second location, associated with the second piece of equipment identified by the second equipment information; and
transmitting, to a server device associated with the network, the first equipment information when a condition is not associated with the first piece of equipment.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, where the first piece of equipment is at least one of:
a utility pole,
a switching device,
a server device, or
a network node.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, where identifying the first location further includes:
identifying a location associated with the user device, where identifying the location associated with the user device includes at least one of:
computing first location coordinates, that correspond to the location associated with the user device, based on communications with one or more base stations, or
obtaining second location coordinates, that correspond to the location associated with the user device, based on a global positioning satellite (GPS) system; and
setting the first location approximately equal to the location associated with the user device.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, where identifying the first location further includes:
identifying a point, within the map, that corresponds to the selected data item; and
determining that the first location is associated with a geographic location that corresponds to the point within the map.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, via the map, selection of another data item that corresponds to a third piece of equipment;
retrieving, from the memory, equipment information associated with the third data item; and
presenting, for display, the equipment information associated with the third data item.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, via the map, selection of a point that does not correspond to any of the data items;
identifying a location, within the geographic area, that corresponds to the selected point; and
presenting, for display, another user interface that allows the user to enter equipment information associated with a third piece of equipment, where the other user interface includes coordinates associated with the identified location within the geographic area.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, further comprising:
creating another data item that corresponds to the equipment information associated with the third piece of equipment; and
presenting, for display and via the map, the other data item at the selected point.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, where determining whether a condition is associated with the first piece of equipment further includes:
determining that a distance, between the first location and the second location, is greater than a threshold; and
presenting, for display, the user interface that includes the first equipment information, where the user interface allows a user, of the user device, to modify the first equipment information to remedy the condition.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, where modifying the first equipment information causes a maintenance operation to be performed to move the first piece of equipment or the second piece of equipment to a third location to remedy the condition.

### Claim 10

A user device, comprising:
a memory to store equipment information associated with equipment within a network, where the equipment information identifies one or more geographic locations associated with the equipment or respective ownership of each piece of the equipment; and
one or more processors to:
receive a request to survey a first piece of the equipment,
present, for display and in response to the request, a first user interface that identifies a geographic area and one or more data items, associated with the equipment, that is located within the geographic area,
receive, via the first user interface, selection of a point, within the first user interface, that corresponds to a location, within the geographic area,
present, for display, a second user interface that allows the user to specify first equipment information associated with the first piece of the equipment,
receive, via the second user interface, the first equipment information,
determine whether a condition is associated with the first piece of the equipment based on the first equipment information and second equipment information associated with a second piece of the equipment,
where the second piece of the equipment is identified as being connected or adjacent to the first piece of the equipment by the first equipment information,
store, in the memory, the first equipment information when a condition is not associated with the first piece of the equipment, and
output a notification that a condition is associated with the first piece of equipment when a condition is associated with the first piece of equipment.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where the one or more processors are further to:
transmit, to a server device associated with the network, the first equipment information based on a determination that a condition is not associated with the first piece of the equipment.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where the one or more processors are further to:
create a data item, associated with the first piece of the equipment and within the first user interface, that corresponds to the selected point when a condition is not associated with the first piece of the equipment.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where the one or more processors are further to:
identify, in response to the request, a location associated with the user device,
transmit, to a server device, another request for information associated with the geographic area, where the other request includes information associated with the location of the user device,
receive, from the server device, the information associated with the geographic area, and
present the information, associated with the geographic area, for display via the first user interface.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where the first user interface allows a user, of the user device, to:
select a first point, within the first user interface, that corresponds to a first location, associated with the user device, at which the first piece of the equipment is located, or
select a second point, within the first user interface, that corresponds to a second location, that is different than the location associated with the user device, at which the first piece of the equipment is located.

### Claim 15 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where the one or more processors are further to:
detect that the second piece of the equipment is identified in the first equipment information; and
retrieve, from the memory, the second equipment information based on the detection that the second piece of the equipment is identified in the first equipment information.

### Claim 16 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where, when determining whether a condition is associated with the first piece of the equipment, the one or more processors are further to:
identify a first distance associated with a first network path that connects the first piece of the equipment to the second piece of the equipment,
identify a second distance associated with a second network path that connects the first piece of the equipment to a third piece of the equipment, and
determine that a condition is associated with the first piece of the equipment when the first distance or the second distance is greater than a threshold.

### Claim 17 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where, when determining whether a condition is associated with the first piece of the equipment, the one or more processors are further to:
identify an angle between a first span of a network path that connects the first piece of the equipment to the second piece of the equipment and a second span of the network path that connects the first piece of the equipment to a third piece of the equipment, and
determine that a condition is associated with the first piece of the equipment when the angle between the first span of the network path and the second span of the network path is less than a threshold.

### Claim 18 (depends on 10)

The user device of claim 10, where, when outputting the notification, the one or more processors are further to:
perform an operation to remedy the condition that allows at least one of:
third equipment information, associated with a third piece of equipment, to be generated,
the first equipment information to be modified, or
the second equipment information to be modified, and
output, to a server device with which a maintenance team is associated, an instruction that causes the maintenance team to at least one of:
install the third piece of equipment based on the third equipment information,
modify the first piece of equipment based on the modified first equipment information, or
modify the second piece of equipment based on the modified second equipment information.

### Claim 19

A user device comprising:
one or more processors to:
receive a request to perform a survey on a piece of equipment associated with a network,
present for display and in response to receiving the request, a user interface that allows a user, of the user device, to enter equipment information, associated with the piece of equipment, where the equipment information includes at least one of:
information that uniquely identifies the piece of equipment,
information associated with a location of the piece of equipment, or
information that identifies ownership of the piece of equipment,
receive, via the user interface, the equipment information, and
transmit the equipment information to a server device.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The user device of claim 19, where the one or more processors is further to:
present, for display, an instruction to edit the equipment information based on a determination that a condition is associated with the equipment information,
where the condition is based on a first location associated with the piece of equipment and a second location associated with another piece of equipment that is adjacent or connected to the piece of equipment.

### Claim 21 (depends on 20)

The user device of claim 20, where the piece of equipment is a utility pole,
where the equipment information also identifies one or more types of devices that are attached to the utility pole, and
where the one or more types of devices, that are attached to the utility pole, include at least one of: a power line, a fiber optic cable, a transformer, a communication line, or a radio frequency antenna.

### Claim 22 (depends on 21)

The user device of claim 21, where, when determining whether a condition is associated with the equipment information, the one or more processors are further to:
determine that a condition is associated with the equipment information when a quantity, associated with the one or more types of devices, that are attached to the utility pole, is greater than a threshold.

### Claim 23 (depends on 19)

The user device of claim 19, where, when transmitting the equipment information to the server device, the one or more processors are further to:
transmit the equipment information, to the server device, using a streaming video protocol or streaming audio protocol that allows the equipment information to be transmitted, to the server device, on a near real-time basis.

### Claim 24 (depends on 19)

The user device of claim 19, further comprising:
a camera component to:
allow an image, associated with the piece of equipment, to be taken or included in the equipment information, or
allow a video, associated with the piece of equipment, to be recorded or included in the first equipment information.

### Claim 25 (depends on 19)

The user device of claim 19, further comprising:
an audio recorder component to:
allows an audio message, associated with the piece of equipment, to be recorded or included in the equipment information.