I-Test: integrated testing expert system for trunks

A prototype trunk-testing expert system developed by Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) is described. The integrated-testing expert-system for trunks (I-TEST) mechanizes and automates many of the conventional manual testing procedures in a switching control center (SCC) of a Bellcore client company (BCC). I-TEST demonstrates the usefulness of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) techniques into the network operations environment. I-TEST was developed in the INTELEWINDOWS environment. This environment includes a windowing system, graphical kernel system (GKS), and a set of high-performance portable C-based AI tools. I-TEST combines traditional structured procedural knowledge and a typical rule-based production system into one inference mechanism to manage a complex trunk-testing environmental in the SCC. I-TEST is an effort to use one intelligent system to integrate all of the future network testing needs, and provide an automated testing environment. The modular design and generic nature of I-TEST allow it to be easily reconfigured to include test access to additional operations systems or network elements