Intelligent alarm filtering in a telecommunications network

A method for filtering alarms generated in a telecommunications network, said method comprising the steps of:

• collecting and storing alarms generated within the network for a prescribed time period;
• when at least one of the stored alarms represents a directly detected equipment failure condition, suppressing each symptomatic condition alarm that originated at a port connected to a link fully terminated within the network;
• and
• when at least one of the stored alarms represents a directly detected failure condition and none of the stored alarms represents a directly detected equipment failure condition, suppressing each symptomatic condition alarm that originated at a port connected to a link fully terminated within the network, when said symptomatic condition alarm is at a lower signal level than said at least one directly detected failure condition alarm.

A method for establishing a period for correlating alarms detected within a telecommunications network, said method comprising the steps of:

• initiating the correlation period with the detection of a first alarm;
• detecting alarms generated subsequent to said first alarm over a first prescribed incremental time interval;
• and
• accumulating the first prescribed time interval and subsequent prescribed incremental time intervals to define the correlation period, so long as one or more alarms are detected during each of said prescribed time intervals and a predefined maximum correlation period is not exceeded by the accumulated intervals.

A system for filtering alarms generated in a telecommunications network, said system comprising:

• a network controller interconnected with one or more elements in the network,
• wherein said network controller receives and stores alarms generated by said one or more network elements for a prescribed time period;
• and
• an alarm filter, wherein said alarm filter is responsive to the network controller for determining whether at least one of the stored alarms is of a first type;
• and when at least one of the stored alarms is of said first alarm type, selectively suppressing each stored alarm of a second alarm type,
• wherein said second alarm type includes alarms originating at ports connected to links fully terminated within the network that indicate symptomatic conditions.

A method for filtering alarms generated in a telecommunications network, said method comprising the steps of:

• collecting and storing alarms generated within the network for a prescribed time period;
• and
• when at least one of the stored alarms is of a first alarm type, selectively suppressing each stored alarm of a second alarm type,
• wherein said second alarm type includes alarms originating at ports connected to links fully terminated within the network that indicate symptomatic conditions.