A KNOWLEDGE BASED RESOURCE SCHEDULER FOR NETWORK MAINTENANCE

This paper presents the work developed as part of the RACE-AIM project. The AIM project is concerned with the development of a generic maintenance system (GMS) for integrated broadband communications networks (IBCN). In the network management layer of the GMS, a resource scheduler (RS) controls the allocation of resources for use by other telecommunications management network (TMN) functions such as repair requests, manual test requests, service provisioning functions and installation functions. In the light of the many conflicting scheduling criteria and the scale of the TMN resource allocation, a knowledge based scheduling approach is proposed. The design and implementation of a resource scheduler which deals with repair requests is discussed and the relevance and benefits of this work to BT's operations is outlined briefly.