Expert system based automatic network fault management system

An expert system for network management is designed and prototyped to do network troubleshooting automatically. The expert system employs management information provided by a monitoring mechanism of the network. The whole spectrum of the fault management information is analyzed. The management knowledge derived is categorized into five types: the physical property, the experience in the past, the heuristic rule of thumb, the predictable problems, and the deep knowledge. These knowledge types and related rules are divided into groups to improve reasoning speed. The expert system is composed of a problem manager, a problem analyzer, and many problem solvers. A prototyped expert system, using simulated faults, shows that the expert-system-based fault management system can automatically diagnose problems and take corrective actions