Title :
Automatic alarm correlation for fault identification
Author :
Rouvellou, Isabelle ; Hart, George W.
Abstract :
In communication networks, a large number of alarms exist to signal any abnormal behavior of the network. As network faults typically result in a number of alarms, correlating these different alarms and identifying their source is a major problem in fault management. The alarm correlation problem is of major practical significance. Alarms that have not been correlated may not only lead to significant misdirected efforts, based on insufficient information, but may cause multiple corrective actions (possibly contradictory) as each alert is handled independently. The paper proposes a general framework to solve the alarm correlation problem. The authors introduce a new model for faults and alarms based on probabilistic finite state machines. They propose two algorithms. The first one acquires the fault models starting from possibly incomplete and incorrect date. The second one correlates alarms in the presence of multiple faults and noisy information. Both algorithms have polynomial time complexity, use an extension of the Viterbi algorithm to deal with the corrupted data, and can be implemented in hardware. As an example, they are applied to analyse faults using data generated by the ANS (Advanced Network and Services, Inc.)/NSF T3 network
Keywords :
computational complexity; correlation methods; fault diagnosis; finite state machines; polynomials; telecommunication network management; telecommunication network reliability; ANS; Advanced Network and Services; NSF T3 network; Viterbi algorithm; alarm correlation problem; algorithms; automatic alarm correlation; corrupted data; fault identification; fault management; network faults; polynomial time complexity; probabilistic finite state machines; Automata; Communication networks; Data analysis; Expert systems; Fault detection; Fault diagnosis; Hardware; Polynomials; Telecommunication network reliability; Viterbi algorithm;
Conference_Titel :
INFOCOM '95. Fourteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. Bringing Information to People. Proceedings. IEEE
Conference_Location :
Boston, MA
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-6990-X
DOI :
10.1109/INFCOM.1995.515921