A method and an apparatus for fault prediction in network management

Network management apparatus comprising

• network data receiving means for receiving network data that is representative of the current condition of a communications network, the network data comprising a plurality of values indicative of the performance of network elements;
• network data transformation means for transforming the received network data into a network state vector that is indicative of a current state of the network;
• and
• network state prediction means for predicting a future network state vector of the network from the current network state vector, the network state prediction means comprising a self-learning prediction module having a memory for storing at least one internal state.

Network management method for performing network management activities on a communications network, comprising:

• receiving network data that is representative of the current condition of the communications network, the network data comprising a plurality of values indicative of the performance of network elements;
• transforming the received network data into a network state vector that is indicative of a current state of the network;
• and
• predicting a future network state vector for the network from the current network state vector of the network, by applying a network state prediction that is based on a self-learning prediction algorithm having a memory for storing at least one internal state.