MXPA98001615A - Method to optimize the configurations of the access and system link for im - Google Patents

Abstract

An initiative for network access optimization modeling (NAOMI) (202) that allows the operating personnel of an extended area service provider to configure the link connections (10, 12) of a telecommunications access network, so that that obtains access to the terminals (6, 8) of the local area access providers at a given performance level and at a minimum cost. Upon request, the NAOMI (202) optimizes the direct link connections of the terminal exchange (10, 12) and the tandem link connections (16) between the service switching center (SWC) (4), to which a provider of extended area service has access with a local area access provider, and the terminal stations (6, 8) to which the long distance calls are directed. During the operation, the NAOMI (202) first obtains the configuration information in the respective positions of the points of presence (POPs) (2) of the extended area service provider, of the tandem switches (14) of the terminal exchanges (6). , 8) and of the several direct links of terminal exchange (10, 12) and tandem links (16). The NAOMI (202) then defines a tandem service area (TSA) to contain at least one POP (2) and the terminal exchange (6, 8) through which the calls of the extended area service provider are routed.

Description

METHOD TO OPTIMIZE ACCESS AND SYSTEM LINK CONFIGURATIONS FOR THE SAME FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the provision of access by a long distance operator of the terminal exchanges of a local area service provider or a competitive access provider in a telecommunications network and, more specifically, with the optimization of direct configurations and serial or tandem link of the access network at a minimum access cost.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In a telecommunications network, an extended area service provider, for example, a long distance operator, needs to interconnect with a local exchange operator (LEC), for example, a local access service provider, so that the call, for example a long-distance call, can be routed to a central terminal of the local access service provider. Interconnecting or gaining access between an extended area service provider and a local area service provider is shown in Figure 1. As illustrated, a point of presence (POP) 2, which belongs to the P1116 / 98 X extended area service provider, is connected to a service switching center (SWC) 4, which belongs to the local access service provider or a competitive access provider (CAP). SWC 4 contains the required equipment 5 for the interconnection with the POP 2. To provide the service to the end user, for example, to the telephone client, it is shown that several terminals (EOs) such as 6 and 8, which are connected to SWC 4 through direct links from terminal exchange (DEOTs) 10a, 10b, 12a and 12b. The DEOTs 10a and 12a are conventionally referred to as terminating links while the DEOTs 10b and 12b are conventionally referred to as home links. Connected additionally to each of the terminal exchanges 6 and 8 by serial links 10c, 10d, 12c and 12d, there is a serial or tandem switch 14. The serial switch or tandem switch 14 is connected in turn to the SWC 4 by serial or tandem links 16a and 16b. Similar to the designations for the DEOTs, the serial links or tandem links 10c and 12c can be referred to as terminating serial links, while serial or tandem links lOd and 12d can be referred to as source links. Collectively, links 10c, 10d, 12c, 12d, 16a and 16b are referred to as links in series or links in tandem. 1116 / 98MX During the operation, the communications traffic that crosses between the extended area network and the terminal centers of the local area network in an ordinary way crosses or crosses through the DEOTs and the terminals 6 and 8. However, if all the circuits in the DEOTs are busy, the traffic overflow is routed to the serial links or tandem links. A configuration such as that shown in Figure 1 is conventionally referred to as a series service area (TSA). Prior to January 1, 1994, all call traffic that traverses a long distance operator to a local area exchange was charged at an equal cost determined based on minutes, with the only modification being taken into account the so-called straight line miles between the terminal and the service switching center. In this way, the cost charged to a long distance operator was substantially independent of the way the traffic was moved or moved through the network. In accordance with the above, the only main point on which the long distance operator needed to worry, in terms of movement of its traffic, was the degree of service it wanted to obtain. In other words, a long distance operator paid little attention to the - > lii6 98MX how calls were transported by local access providers as long as the calls reached the end users. All that changed when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided that after January 1, 1994, access charges should more accurately reflect the true cost of access, unlike previous arbitrary costs and fees. To introduce this cost restructuring, the FCC introduced the concept of local transportation restructuring (LTR). In essence, the LTR separates access costs into three different components. The first component is the cost charged by an access provider for a long distance operator to use its facilities connecting POP 2 with SWC 4 shown in Figure 1. This first component can be referred to as a cost of the input facility , which is a fixed cost per circuit. The second component is also a fixed cost per mile in which a long distance operator incurs when renting direct links, for example the DEOT that connects a terminal exchange with a SWC of the local access provider. In other words, a long distance operator is not charged for each call on the DEOTs that the local service provider rents, regardless of how many calls are made on the DEOTs. The third component P1--16 / 98MX is based on traffic overflow to serial links or tandem links. As before the LTR, traffic overflow to tandems is charged based on cost per minute. In view of changes to the cost structure, from the perspective of a long distance operator or an extended area service provider, there is a cost problem. This cost problem is essentially a capacity problem since the long distance service provider has to determine how many DEOTs and tandem links he must rent from a local area access provider in order to get a specific grade of service at a cost minimum. In short, the long distance operator has to balance what it considers to be an acceptable call block against the access costs it incurs. Given the fact that a long distance operator pays approximately half of its income as access costs to local area service providers, the ability for a long distance operator to optimize its access link configurations in a way that reduces At a minimum, its access costs are, therefore, of the greatest importance. - • 11--6 / 98MX SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The network access optimization modeling (NAOMI) initiative of the present invention minimizes access costs by optimizing the configuration of the access network link and provides recommendations for changes that result in lower access costs. In particular, a global configuration of the access network or of the telecommunications network is stored in a database so that the respective locations of the points of presence (POP-s) of the extended area service providers are known. , of the series switches or tandem switches and the terminal exchanges of the various access providers. When the sites of the different POPs, serial switches or tandem switches (tandems) and terminal exchanges are known, the relative distances between the various POPs and the terminal exchanges can be calculated. The various links that are customizable to transport traffic between the different POPs and terminal exchanges are also stored in the database. In addition, the addresses whose traffic can cross or cross over the respective links, are stored, so that the NAOMI system knows if a given link is to originate traffic, to terminate traffic or is capable of Plllb / 98MX ? -s-íí-teSÍTC *, transport bidirectional traffic. Whether a link is a direct terminal exchange (DEOT) link or a tandem link is also stored as data in the database. Some terminal stations are not DEOT capable as they do not have the necessary equipment. Other access capabilities of the terminal stations are also stored. The information additionally available for the NAOMI system of the present invention is the particular access provider to which the terminal belongs. There is a plurality of access providers, each of which can control several terminal stations.

These access providers can be LECs, regional Bell companies (RBOCs) or telecommunications companies (telegrams) or competitive access providers (CAPs). In addition to the global configuration of the telecommunications network, the cost information related to the various access providers and their respective terminals, are also stored. This cost information includes the various costs that an extended area service provider needs to pay to a local access provider in order to access their terminal exchanges. As mentioned above, these costs include the cost of the entry installation, the fixed cost related to the rental or acquisition of the various links and the varied cost of the installation.

PÜ16 / 98MX overflow of traffic to the tandems. The NAOMI system defines a serial or tandem service area (TSA) to cover the POP that will be used by the long distance operator to access the terminal to which a long distance call will be directed. A TSA is defined to include at least the POP and the terminal exchange of interest and any tandem that the terminal is under-surveyed. If it happens that the tandem also subatts to other terminal, those other terminals are also included in the TSA. The tandems that are connected to those other terminals are also included in the same TSA. In this way, the terminal exchanges and the additional tandems are added to the configuration of a TSA until there are no more tandems or sub terminals. The traffic profile or traffic pattern of each of the terminal exchanges in the TSA is recorded for a predetermined period of time, for example a 24-hour period. The traffic profile is broken down based on a given period of time, for example, on a time basis, so that the NAOMI system knows how much of the traffic is originating, ending, is 800 or is some other special service. Depending on the capabilities of each individual terminal, in accordance with the P111Í. / 98MX above, the traffic overflow is routed. After the particular TSA has been defined, the NAOMI system uses the data that was stored in its database in relation to the distances between the various POPs and terminals, the access capabilities of the terminals of interest, the data of cost related to the access provider to which the terminals of interest belong and the traffic pattern related to the terminals of interest to configure the DEOT connections and the tandem link between the POP of the long distance operator and the terminal of interest to obtain an optimized configuration for said TSA at a minimum access cost. To ensure that the telecommunications network is configured optimally, since a long distance operator or an extended area service provider actually has access to several local area access providers and some competitive access providers, the various POPs that belong to the extended area service provider can be configured with the various terminal stations belonging to the various local area access providers to define a plurality of serial or tandem service areas. In this way, it can be considered that the network of P11Í6 / 98MX telecommunications comprises several TSAs. To obtain a minimum access cost for all subscribers of the extended area service provider, all defined TSAs can be configured to have direct and serial link or tandem configurations optimized for a given grade or quality of service at a minimum cost. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optimized link configuration for an access network that results in reduced access costs for an extended area service provider. Another objective of the present invention is to provide recommendations for changes in the link configuration for the operating personnel, ie the engineers and traffic managers, of an extended area service provider, so that the operating personnel rents or acquires only the minimum number of links from the various local access service providers for a particular quality of service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent and the same invention will be better understood with reference to the following description. -? lild / 98MX of one embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is an illustration of a serial or tandem service area used to explain the background of the invention and the definition of a TSA by the NAOMI system of the present invention; Figure 2 is a general view of the interrelationships between the NAOMI system of the present invention, its databases and its operative personnel; Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating the different application processes performed by the NAOMI system of the present invention; Figure 4 is a diagram that focuses on the updated access configuration process illustrated in Figure 3; Figure 5 is a diagram that focuses on the prepared user optimization request process illustrated in Figure 3; Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating in additional detail the process of modifying a TSA shown in Figure 5; Figure 7 is a diagram that further elaborates the operations performed with the optimized DEOT and the tandem configuration process illustrated in Figure 3; Figure 8 is a diagram that focuses on the PÍ116 / 98MX process of optimization results provided shown in Figure 3; Figures 9-11 are illustrations of different TSA; Figure 12 is a flow diagram illustrating exemplary steps for defining a TSA by the NAOMI system of the present invention; Figure 13 shows the various data stores of the NAOMI system of the present invention; Figure 14 is an on-screen broadcast of a summary of an exemplary TSA showing the different links and terminal exchanges in an exemplary TSA; Figure 15 is an exemplary graphical display of an exemplary TSA with tandem links; Figure 16 is another graphical display illustrating an exemplary TSA from a terminal center perspective; Figure 17 is an exemplary graphical representation representative of the optimization summary showing the cost savings due to the links that have been resized according to the recommendation of the NAOMI system; Figure 18 is an exemplary display P1Ü6 / 98MX that shows the result of an optimization that recommends increasing the number of circuits of a tandem link; Figure 19 is an exemplary display of a 24 hour traffic profile for a terminal exchange; and Figure 20 is an exemplary display of the cost data of an access provider.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES With reference to Figure 2, the interrelation between the network access optimization modeling initiative system (NAOMI) of the present invention and its external environment is shown. Specifically, the NAOMI system, designated 202, is connected thereto to a recovery system 204, which in turn is communicatively connected to several databases. The first of these databases is a database of the national traffic analysis system (NTAS) 206 that provides traffic statistics to the NAOMI 202 system. The traffic statistics provided by the NTAS 206 database include details of calls that are generated each time a call is made to the extended area service provider or the long distance operator of the NAOMI system. The primary use of these call details records is for billing purposes. In PJ.116 / 98 X a predetermined time interval, eg, every Monday morning, all traffic statistics captured from call detail records of calls made through the extended area service provider during the week Previously, they were accumulated and stored in the NTAS 206 database so that the extended area service provider knows the amount of traffic that is being transported in each of its switches through its links. Given the information, the extended area service provider can determine the profile or traffic pattern of each terminal exchange to which the calls are directed. In this way, traffic statistics is a component that allows the extended area service provider to determine the configuration of the telecommunications network. A second database that is connected to the retrieval system 204 is the database of the circuit-tracing order tracking system (SCOTS) 208. It is towards this database that the information related to an access work order is entered. of the operating personnel of the extended area service provider to order the types of links of the local exchange operators (LECs) or of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs). By recovering the state of the circuits of the SCOTS 208 database, the NAOMI 202 system can 11Í6 / 98MX determine the configurations of the network for its optimization process, discussed later. A third database that is connected to the recovery system 204 is a network provisioning database (NETPRO) 210 similar to the SCOTS database 208, the database? ETPRO 210 is also used by the service provider Extended area to obtain the state of the circuits in the network so that you can determine the resources you have and the information you need to size the circuits of the links and the point of presence (POP) that you will use to route a call to a local area service provider. A fourth database that is connected to the retrieval system 204 is a database of the integrated reference information system (IRIS) 212 that is used to store information concerning each site of the access network. The data stored in the IRIS database 212 includes the locations of the POPs to allow the determination of the distance between each POP and a particular terminal. In addition, the data that relates to whether each terminal is adaptable to have a direct link connected to it is stored in the IRIS database 212. Other information stored in the IRIS database 212 includes whether the P1116 / 93MX central terminal is adaptable or not to transport service 800. The information stored in the database IRIS 212 is updated and can be entered directly into the system NAOMI 202. The last database connected to the recovery system 204 is a base of access cost determination system (ACDS) data 214. Similar to the IRIS 212 database, the information stored in the ACDS 214 database can be entered directly into the NAOMI 202 system. The ACDS database 214 contains the quotas , fees or costs that are charged to the extended area service provider when you have access to the links and terminal exchanges of a local area service provider or a competitive access provider. So far this is important since different local area service providers have different rates and, in accordance with the above, the different link configurations are loaded differently. It is also shown that the NAOMI 202 system will be connected to the operating personnel of the extended area service provider, as exemplified by the traffic engineer 216 and the administrator of the regional access administration (RAM) 218. As will be further clarified forward, a traffic engineer can - • Í116 / 98MX request that the NAOMI 202 system optimize the configuration of the link connections between a POP and a terminal exchange. Once this is done, the optimization response is provided by the NAOMI 202 system to the traffic engineer who then places an order to the LEC (s) either to rent or acquire additional links or disconnect the links already connected. The RAM administrator 218, on the other hand, provides a particular threshold and configuration settings such as, for example, an acceptable usage percentage of blocking calls to a NAOMI 202 system for its optimization process. The threshold and configuration settings are used by the NAOMI 202 system in its optimization configuration processes. The exhibits and reports are produced by the NAOMI 202 system for the RAM 218 administrator as a feedback. Although not shown, both traffic engineer 216 and administrator RAM 218 are interconnected with the NAOMI 202 system via terminals that can be connected to a local area network (LAN). The input and output data are presented to the traffic engineer and the RAM administrator on a terminal screen or as printed copies. The NAOMI system 202 comprises a processor that can be a minicomputer such as for example the line P1Ü6 / 98MX VAX manufactured by Digital Equipment (DEC) or a personal computer that uses microprocessors manufactured by the Intel Company. Alternatively, the NAOMI system may comprise a workstation such as, for example, any of those manufactured by Sun Company, Hewlett-Packard etc. The retrieval system 204 in turn comprises a processing unit that can be either a stand-alone computer unit or in practice, it can be incorporated in the NAOMI 202 system. The different functional processes executed by the NAOMI 202 system are illustrated in FIG. Figure 3. As illustrated, the operational personnel of the extended area service provider can issue a request for optimization preparation to the NAOMI system which is fed into the application process 304. In response to the request, the necessary data is retrieved from the different databases shown in Figure 2 and, the results of the request are shown to the operating personnel such as, for example, the traffic engineer and / or the network administrator RAM. As shown specifically in Figure 3, there are eight different application processes executed by the NAOMI system to fulfill an optimization request. The information required by the different processes is retrieved from the databases that are part of P1Ü6 / 98MX of the NAOMI system. The eight processes or application modules are: a process 301 for updating the access configuration, a process 302 for identifying the alarm condition, a process 303 for initiating the scheduled revision, the aforementioned process 304 for preparing the optimization request of user, a process 305 for the optimized DEOT and the tandem configuration, a process 306 for providing the results of the optimization, a process 307 for managing the RAM configuration and a process 308 for reporting the access performance. With reference to the process 301 for updating the application of the access configuration, it can be seen that this process is provided with several entries. Some of these entries include data from the external databases shown in Figure 2. For example, the cost update data, the site update data and the traffic update data are supplied to the 301 application process as tickets. In addition, the state of the circuits, in terms of the dimensioning of the circuits such as digital level 3 data (DS3) may also be provided to the process 301 to update the application of the access configuration. Additional access configuration information, such as information Traffic from the terminal and the POP from the IRIS database 212 retrieved and stored in a NAOMI system access configuration database 310 is entered into the application process 301. Similarly, the information related to the access speeds for each access provider is retrieved from the ACDS database 214 and stored in the access configuration database 310. The traffic information related to the links, the terminal exchanges defined by the particular TSA, for example, the TSA of Figure 1, is also stored. For historical reporting purposes, the average and high usage speeds for each terminal in a TSA are calculated and stored, for example, monthly. The application process 301, as shown in Figure 3, provides an output to a store 426 of the access provider and another output to an exception reporting store 420. There are several subprocesses executed under the access configuration application update process 301 to obtain information from different databases and to organize the retrieved data in a particular way, so that they can be used by the NAOMI system. These subprocesses are shown in Figure 4. The first process thread 301 of P1116 / 98MX access configuration application update is a 411 subprocess of the terminal exchange update. As shown, the update data of the terminal exchange, retrieved from the IRIS database 212 and stored in the store 310 of the access configuration, is entered as an access capability of the terminal exchange to the subprocess 411. Other part of the information related to the access capacity of the terminal is the size of the links, as represented by the DS3 provisioning data retrieved from the NETPRO 210 database that is also introduced to the terminal 411 update subprocess . The creation of a new terminal or the deletion of an old terminal is reported as an exception report to an exception report store 420. The information related to the terminal is stored in a terminal 422 warehouse. The warehouse 422 of the terminal plant in the Figure 13 also shows that it includes information related to the identifier of the terminal, the local area service provider or the access provider to which the particular terminal belongs, the date of creation of the information related to said terminal , the code of the common local language identifier (CLLI) of the terminal, its P1116 / 98MX vertical and horizontal coordinates (V &H) of the network, the capacity of the terminal exchange for DEOT access, bidirectional access and direct access such as, for example, via DS3 links and the host of the terminal exchange. As indicated above, upon receipt of the update information from the terminal of a new terminal, the terminal 411 update of the terminal generates an update for the terminal and reports such as an exception report. of traffic update to store 420 of exception report. If information is received related to the update of a terminal exchange for an existing terminal, the subprocess 411 replaces the information of the present terminal with the information of the updated terminal. Once a particular setting, such as for example a DS3 setting has been assigned to a terminal exchange by the operating personnel, such as the RAM administrator, the same setting is assigned to the new terminal with the same CLLI code from central terminal. If the terminal exchange update is not received for an existing terminal exchange within a given period of time, the terminal exchange is suppressed and this deletion is reported in the exception report PÍÜ6 / 98MX update of traffic to warehouse 420 of exception report. Any changes in the provisioning status of the network are also reported as an exception in exception reporting store 420. Each POP configured to be part of the telecommunications network is updated by subprocess 412 of POP update. The updated information of each POP, retrieved from the IRIS database 212 and stored in the access configuration store 310, is fed to the subprocess 412 to update the POP. Additional information related to each POP is fed to subprocess 412 from POP store 424. As shown in Figure 13, the POP store 424 contains the following information for each POP: an identifier for that POP; the owner or operating personnel of that POP; the date of creation of the present POP data; the access provider or the local access transport area (LATA) in which the POP is located, the vertical and horizontal coordinates (V &H) where the POP is located, the service switching center (SWC) by means of which POP has access to the LATA and the circuit restrictions, if any, that this POP has. Circuit restrictions may include, for example, whether a POP is adaptable for access, termination or bidirectional traffic.

P --- U6 / 98MX = ------- The POP update sub-process 412 periodically receives, for example weekly, the POP update information. With the reception of the POP update information, if it is for a new POP, a new POP is created and this creation is reported in the traffic update exception report, it is sent to the exception report store 420. If the update information received is for an existing POP, the POP information present related to that POP is replaced by the updated information. If POP update information is not received for an existing POP within a given period of time, then that existing POP is suppressed and this deletion is reported in the traffic update exception report to exception reporting store 420. Once the circuit restriction setting for a POP has been specified by the operating personnel, the same setting is used for any new POP with the same POP identifier. A third thread to update the access configuration is subprocess 413 to update the access provider. Here, the speed information for each access provider is retrieved from the ACDS database 214 and stored in the access configuration store 310 within the NAOMI 202 system.

P1116 / 98MX creation of a new access provider or deletion of an old access provider, is reported in the traffic exception report and sent to the exception reporting store 420. Similar to the other threads of the application process 301, a periodic update, for example, a weekly update, is supplied to the subprocess 413 to update the access provider. Upon receipt of the update information, if a new access provider is requested, subprocess 413 to update the access provider creates a new access provider and reports this addition on its traffic update exception report. If the information received is to update an existing access provider, the information of the access provider present for the access provider is replaced with the updated information. If updated information is not received for an existing access provider, that access provider is suppressed and the deletion is reported in the traffic update exception report. The data related to several access providers are stored in an access provider store 426. The particular data stored in the access provider store 426 for each access provider is shown in Figure 13. For example, each access provider is provided with an identifier so that it can P11 --- 6 / 98MX identify. The operating personnel responsible for configuring the access provider, for example Bell Atlantic or Ameritech, is also provided as an entry in the access provider store 426. In addition, the creation date of the latest available information is also stored. The different costs for an extended area service provider to obtain access to the particular access provider are provided as a cost of the entry facility, a fixed DEOT cost, a cost of DEOT miles and a tandem usage cost. Note that the costs for different input installations vary, depending on whether an installation is adaptable for DSl or DS3. Similarly, the cost for different types of fixed address connections also varies. As previously mentioned, the different costs or rates for different access providers may be different. The next subprocess performed by the access configuration application update process 301 is subprocess 414 to update the traffic statistics. As an input, the subprocess 414 receives the traffic update information from the NTAS database 206. With the reception of the traffic update information which may be on periodic bases such as, for example, weekly, the P1116 / 98MX subprocess 414 for updating traffic statistics creates traffic statistics present for each link and central terminal of the network and sends said updated information to a traffic statistics store 428, which is also shown in Figure 13. With the receiving periodic link traffic statistics, subprocess 414 to update traffic statistics creates a new link identified with a timestamp for that weekly update. When it receives the periodic traffic statistics from the terminal, the thread 414 to update the traffic statistics creates new terminal station statistics and identifies them with a timestamp. With the completion of a periodic traffic statistics update, subprocess 414 for updating traffic statistics initiates an alarm verification, which will be discussed later. In addition, when you complete your periodic traffic statistics update, thread 414 to update traffic statistics starts the creation of a TSA, as indicated by the output of traffic statistics store 428 to subprocess 415 to create the area of tandem service, which will be discussed later. In addition, subprocess 414 to update P1116 / 98--1X traffic statistics, delete the periodic statistics of the link traffic and the traffic statistics of the terminal exchange after a given period of time, for example, four weeks. The traffic statistics stored in the traffic statistics store 428 include the tandem switch ID, the CLLI of the terminal exchange, the CLLI of the tandem link, the link group number and the time CCS, which is the time period used in network optimization that is equal to 100 seconds of call. The next subprocess of the process 301 to update the access configuration application is subprocess 415 to create the tandem service area. Before discussing the details of subprocess 415, note that a TSA, as mentioned with reference to Figure 1, is defined by a set of tandem links and terminal exchanges whose traffic underlies tandem links. The NAOMI system of the present invention optimizes the number of tandem links and the direct link connections of the terminal exchange (DEOTs) of the TSA. As shown in Figure 1, a TSA usually only has one POP, one tandem switch and one terminal exchange. However, in the overlap configuration of the. Figure 9 for which the same components as those in Figure 1 were labeled the same, shown P1116 / 98MX that a TSA is defined by a single tandem switch and multiple POPs. The TSA configuration of Figure 9 is due to the overlap in the use of the tandem access link between the terminal 6 and the terminal 8. Note that the termination tandem and the DEOT service for terminal 6 is supplied by the POP 2, while the DEOT and tandem service for the terminal exchange 8 is provided by the POP 20, which obtains access to the access provider through the SWC 22. The DEOTs that connect the SWC 22 with the terminal exchange 8, designated 22a and 22b, are different from the DEOTs that connect SWC 4 to terminal 6. SWC 22 is connected to tandem switch 14 only by a tandem termination link 24. A variant of an overlapping TSA configuration is shown in the Figure 10. However, here, the tandem link connection between the SWC 22 and the tandem switch 14 is bidirectional. In this way, the TSA of Figure 10 provides a configuration where the terminal exchange 6 is served by a "closer POP" 2b with a non-final tandem link 16 that overflows to another tandem link 24 of POPs. For this configuration, the tandem link 24 of the POP 20 is sized to include the traffic overflow of the terminal exchange 6. Another special TSA case is shown in the Figure P1116 / 9SMX 11. For this configuration, the terminal exchange 6 uses a bidirectional DEOT 10 and a tandem termination link 10D to connect to an access tandem switch 14 provided by another access provider. At the same time, the terminal exchange 6 is connected by a tandem termination link 10c to a terminating tandem switch 26 provided by a different access provider. Although the NAOMI system dimensions each tandem link separately, a single TSA defined is used to maintain the concept that each terminal is assigned only a single T? A. Although Figures 1, 9, 10 and 11 show a maximum of two POPs, two terminal stations and two tandems, it should be noted that these are special cases only for illustration. In reality, each TSA can encompass or comprise a large number of POPs, tandem switches and terminal exchanges. The following is testimony to the definition of a TSA. A flow chart illustrating the definition of a tandem service area is shown in Figure 12. First, a tandem link is identified by block 1202. The tandem link is then identified as part of the TSA that will be created by the block 1204. The operation then proceeds to find if there is a terminal exchange that sub-ports the identified tandem link.

P1116 / 98MX This is represented by decision block 1206. If this is not the case, it is considered that the TSA has been defined and the process is stopped. For the case in which there are no terminals that subattend a tandem, a TSA is not defined. If there is at least one terminal exchange that underlies the identified tandem link, that terminal is considered to be part of the TSA, as designated by block 1208. Other terminal exchanges that subtend to the same identified tandem link are probably added to the TSA After which, a determination is made as to whether any of these terminal exchanges has escaped to other tandem links. This is represented by block 1210. If there is none, it is considered that the TSA has been defined by block 1212. The process is then stopped. If they exist in the additional tandem that subattend from any of the added terminal exchanges of the TSA, those unsupervised tandem links are added to the TSA, through block 1214. The process is then repeated by determining if any terminal exchanges that subtend to those tandem links now identified. Thus, in accordance with the flow diagram of Figure 12, a TSA can in fact encompass a plurality of tandems and terminal stations. Going back to Figure 4 and focusing on the P1116 / 98MX subprocess 415 to create a tandem service area. Note that once a TSA is created, responsible TSA or user and the appropriate review program are assigned for said TSA. This can be done by the application process 304 for preparing the user optimization request and, specifically, by means of one of its subprocesses such as the subprocess 544 of modifying user tandem service area, shown in the Figure 5. Although new TSAs are generated for each periodic period of time, for example, weekly, once the review program and the responsible user are assigned, that information is transported to each weekly version of the TSA. As a new TSA is created, each POP and central terminal of the new TSA is verified to verify that the information necessary to calculate the cost within said TSA is available. A TSA whose vertical and horizontal coordinates (V & H) of the terminal exchange, access provider of the terminal exchange, tandem access provider or V & H POP coordinates are not available will be placed on the flag containing error data and it is reported in the exception report in warehouse 420 of exception reports. With the completion of the periodic update of traffic statistics, subprocess 415 creates new - P1116 / 98MX TSAs by default. Each TSA is identified by its tandems and POPs and the traffic usage indicator (TUI) of the traffic routed through its links. A link with an exception TUI may be assigned as a TSA with the exception of TUI. These exception TUIs are stored in an exception TUI store 430. An exception TUI can be for example, a use 800. As a TSA is created, the V &H coordinates for each terminal exchange are validated. If the V & H coordinates are not found, the lost terminal data is reported in the traffic update exception report and the TSA that contains erroneous data is identified. Similarly, the V & H coordinates of each POP SWC are also validated. If the V & H coordinates of a POP are not found, that lost POP data is also listed in the traffic update exception report and the TSA containing erroneous data is identified again. The same validation process is repeated for the access provider assigned to each terminal. If the speed information for that access provider can not be found, it is also reported in the traffic update exception report and the TSA that contains erroneous data is identified. The TSAs configured with link traffic that has more time than a period of P111S / 98MX given, for example, four weeks, are deleted. As shown in Figure 13, the store 437 of TSA has stored therein data that is related to the identifier of each TSA. The traffic engineer who is in charge of the TSA is designated the owner of the TSA. In addition, the TSA warehouse includes the date of creation of the TSA and its traffic usage indicator (TUI). The outputs of subprocess 415 to create a tandem service area are supplied to a tandem link store 432, to a terminal plant traffic store 434 and to a control store 436 of the TSA. As shown in Figure 13, the tandem link store 432 contains the CLID of the tandem identifier, the upper CLLI and the direction of the tandem link, i.e., access, determination or bidirectional. The traffic store 434 of the terminal contains the terminal ID identifier CLLI, the time CCS, the traffic flow direction of the terminal exchange is adaptable to be determination or access or both, the tandem link to which it is connected the terminal exchange and the identifier of the POP to which the terminal is directly connected through a DEOT. The control room 436 of the tandem service area contains the review program.

PH16 / 98MX The next subprocess of the process 301 to update the access configuration is the thread 416 of the circuit update. On a periodic basis, for example weekly, the circuit update information of the SCOTS database 208 and the NETPRO database 210 is supplied to the circuit update subprocess 416. The circuit update information is stored in a circuit store 438, shown in Figure 13 as resident within the access configuration store 310. When a traffic engineer receives an access work order, he can decide to take action by first checking the state of the circuit as it is stored in the circuit store 438. When the circuit update subprocess 416 receives the updated circuit information, it orders the actions to be performed to install or activate the circuits. The updated circuit information replaces the previous circuit information. As shown in Figure 13, the circuit store 438 has stored therein for each circuit, the identifier of the switch to which the circuit is connected, the link group member to which the circuit belongs, the circuit ID, your account and your status. The last subprocess of the application process P1116 / 98MX 301 to update the access configuration is the subprocess 417 to maintain the monthly record of the terminal, shown in Figure 4. The monthly traffic statistics are stored for each terminal of the T? A in the store 440 of the monthly history of the terminal exchange, shown in Figure 13 as part of the access configuration store 310. The average monthly speed and the high speed of use of the originating and terminating traffic are calculated from the periodic traffic of the terminal for each of the terminals. The monthly statistics stored are used on appropriate bases for the reports. The monthly records of the terminal exchange that exceed a predetermined period of time, for example, 13 months, are deleted. Thus, as shown in Figure 13, the monthly history store 440 of the terminal has, for each of the terminal exchanges, the terminal's terminal identifier, its monthly average, the uses of normal and maximum origin and its average monthly, the normal and maximum termination traffic uses. Returning to Figure 3, after the periodic updating of the data in the access configuration store 310 through the application process 301 has been completed to update the configuration of the P1116 / 98MX 'access, the normal traffic statistics for each link are reviewed by the NAOMI system to determine if link performance thresholds have been exceeded or that an error condition exists. When the NAOMI system detects a tandem or DEOT alarm condition, the TSA containing the link in the alarm state is identified as a candidate for optimization. This process is performed by application process 302 to identify the alarm condition. In particular, as shown in Figure 3, supplied to the application process 302 to identify the alarm condition, there are entries from the access configuration store 310, in the form of link traffic and thresholds from a threshold storage store 312. performance, also shown in Figure 13. As shown in Figure 13, warehouse 312 of the performance threshold contains the identifier of each link to the traffic engineer that is responsible for the link, the creation date of the related performance thresholds. with the link and the utility threshold of the tandems. From the access configuration store 310 shown in Figure 13, it can be seen that the link traffic can be obtained from the traffic statistics store 428 and from the traffic storage 434 of the terminal.

P1116 / 98MX _ &: A TSA that has been identified by the application process 302 of the alarm condition identifier is input to the optimization candidate store 314. As shown in Figure 13, the optimization candidate store 314 contains, for each candidate TSA, its identifier, the traffic engineer responsible for the TSA, the date on which it was considered as a candidate for optimization, the reason for because it was selected as a candidate for optimization, the source from which the alarm was detected and the creation of an access work order (AWO) flag to indicate to the traffic engineer that the TSA requires optimization. During the operation, the application process 302 for identifying the alarm condition urlifies the most common traffic of a link to identify any alarm conditions. If a link is a tandem link, if its traffic usage indicator (TUI) is not identified as an exception TUI (by exception TUI warehouse 316) and, if its utilization speed meets or exceeds the performance threshold for tandem use (as indicated by the performance threshold store 312), it is determined that the TSA containing the link is a candidate for optimization. The reason for identifying the 'TS as a candidate for optimization for this example is its "tandem use". On the other hand, P1116 / 98MX if the link is a DEOT, if its TUI is not identified as an exception TUI and if its rate of use is below the performance threshold for a DEOT use, that TSA containing the DEOT is considered to be a candidate for optimization. The reason provided for the designation of that TSA as a candidate for optimization for this example is the "use of DEOT". When a candidate for optimization is created due to an alarm condition, the traffic from the terminal exchange present for TSA and the default performance thresholds to be used in the optimization are specified. However, if the difference between the account of the circuit enabled from the link and the count of the hit circuit of the link satisfies or exceeds the performance threshold of the circuit enabled against the hit circuit, an access work order is created for the link and the Exposed reason in the optimization candidate store for this optimization is "enabled against hit". A "hit greater than the enabled one" is used as a reason for a link in alarms if the count of the hit circuit of the link is greater than the count of the enabled circuit of the link. In the case where a bidirectional link only has one-way traffic, an access work order is created to identify the link that is in an error condition and the reason provided is P1116 / 98MX "bidirectional one-way". If a link is a DEOT, if its TUI is not an exception TUI and if it does not have a tandem link specified for its traffic overflow, an access work order is created that identifies the link that is in an error condition . In addition, the reason given for this error is "there is no tandem". If there is both a direct access link and a direct termination link for the same POPs and central terminal and, the bidirectional reporting parameters of the performance threshold are adjusted or placed in "report", an access work order is created for the terminal central pair and tandem switch that identifies the possibility of combining the direct links in a single bidirectional direct link. The reason provided for the access work order is then "possible bidirectional". If a single address link has two-way traffic and the traffic CCS exceeds the test traffic performance threshold, an access work order is created for the link that identifies an error with the reason that the work order of access is "one-way and two-way". If there is more than one tandem link of origin for the same POPs and tandem within a TSA, an access work order is created for the TSA and the error condition is identified as "multiple tandems of the same".

P1116 / 98MX address. "On the other hand, if there is more than one tandem termination link for the same POPs and tandem within a TSA, an access work order is created for that TSA and the ratio provided is" multiple tandem the same address. "Finally, if there is either an originating or terminating tandem link and a bidirectional tandem link for the same POPs and tandem within a TSA, an access work order is created that identifies the error as" multiple tandem of the same address. "There are thus several alarm conditions that can be identified for the different links within a TSA The next process that the NAOMI system performs is the application process 303 to initiate the scheduled review shown in the Figure 3. Application process 303 is guided or driven by an internal clock which can also be used to regulate subprocess 417 to maintain the monthly history of the process. The terminal path shown in Figure 4. For the application process 303, an entry is provided from the access configuration store 310 as a TSA revision increase signal on periodic basis. In this way, each TSA is reviewed periodically to determine if that TSA is maintained or continued-configured in an optimal way. When programming periodic reviews, the P1116 / 98MX full access network, not only those locations with alarm conditions, is monitored continuously, the program for periodic reviews can be developed by the traffic engineer administrator and stored in the warehouse 436 tandem service area of warehouse 310 of the access configuration shown in Figure 13. With the completion of a scheduled review, the TSA under review is identified as a candidate for optimization and the reason is provided as "scheduled review. The candidate is supplied as an exit to the warehouse 314 of candidates for optimization A TSA is not considered to be a candidate for optimization for a scheduled review and that TSA contains erroneous data, in which case, that TSA is issued to a warehouse 420 of exception report, also shown in Figure 13. When you create a candidate for optimization for a scheduled review, profiles In the present terminal, the default performance thresholds and the access providers of that TSA are used for optimization. In addition, after an optimization candidate is created for a scheduled review, that last scheduled review date of the TSA is updated with the current update date. The following application process performed by P11K-./98MX the NAOMI system is the application process 304 for preparing the user optimization request shown in Figure 3. The application process 304 is particularly useful because a traffic engineer is frequently asked to evaluate a TSI with respect to future traffic increases, the addition of new terminals, the assignment of a terminal to a different POP, etc. By incorporating application processes 304, the NAOMI system allows the traffic engineer to specify a user or a specific version of a TSI with changes in its POP and terminal sites, tandem and traffic links of the terminal. In addition, it allows the traffic engineer to specify a user version of the performance thresholds and cost data of the access provider. There are several subprocesses of the application process 304. These subprocesses are shown in Figure 5 as a subprocess 541 for modifying the user terminal, a subprocess 542 for modifying the user POP, a subprocess 543 for modifying the user access provider , subprocess 544 for modifying the tandem service area of the aforementioned user, a subprocess 545 for modifying the performance threshold and a subprocess 546 for initiating the optimization requested by the user.

P1116 / 98MX Subprocess 541 for modifying the user terminal allows the operating personnel of the NAOMI system to create a user version of a terminal exchange. This terminal exchange can then be used for the generation of the terminal exchange traffic for a user TSA. Operative staff can create a new terminal when assessing the impact of new sites within an access network. To create a user terminal, the user or the operating personnel need to specify the CLLI code of the user terminal, the local access and transport area (LATA) of the terminal, the vertical and horizontal coordinates of the exchange terminal, the access provider of the terminal and if the terminal has bidirectional capability, DEOT capacity, is provisioned with DS3 or has DS3 switching capability. It is considered that the user or the traffic engineer who created the user terminal is its user. In addition, the terminal exchange can be selected from a list of all terminal exchanges located within a specified LATA or specified TSA or in some other way. The selected terminal can be displayed to the user, through a terminal not shown, or • supplied as a printed report. If the identifier of the terminal exchange is modified, then that P1116 / 98MX modification is noted in terminal store 422, which is also shown in Figure 13. A terminal exchange can be suppressed by a user who created or owns it. This deletion is only allowed if it is specified that the terminal has no traffic. The subprocess 542 for modifying the user POP is the next function executed by the application process 304. It is activated when a POP modification request is entered by a user. The data that is related to the POP that will be modified is retrieved from the POP store 424. The modified POP is reinserted into the POP store 424 after the modification. The modified POP is shown to the user. Specifically, the POP identifies the SWC to which the extended area service provider has access to the local area access provider. The amount in miles from the SWC to the terminal exchange is used by the NAOMI system to calculate one of the access costs. From the POP store 424, it can be seen that to create or modify a POP, the POP identifier, its LATA and its horizontal and vertical coordinates are used. If a POP is a restricted circuit, for example, if the POP is a cabinet or rented POP, as discussed above or restricted to DEOT circuits or P11K- / 98MX -?ace?-. tandem link, is also specified. It is identified that the POP belongs to the user who created it. Similar to subprocess 541, a user can select a POP from a list of all POPs, whether it belongs to a specified user or falls within a specified LATA. In addition to an exhibition, a printed report can also be provided to the user. A user can also delete their own POP, as long as tandem links do not exist in addition to that POP. Another subprocess that is executed by the application process 304 is subprocess 543 to modify the user's access provider. As previously indicated, the access provider can be a local exchange operator (LEC) or a competitive access provider. Access costs (for the extended area service provider) are based on the costs of the entry facility, the fixed rate or costs, the number of miles and the per-minute costs charged by the access provider . Note that most of these costs are governed by the FCC and, in fact, may be different for different access providers. For the NAOMI system, a user can create a user access provider whose speeds can * be used to optimize the TSA. Upon receipt of the supplier's request P1116 / 98MX 4 user access, subprocess 543 for modifying the user access provider, retrieves the appropriate data from the access provider store 426. Once modified, the user access provider is issued by subprocess 543 to the access provider store 426 as an update. The information related to the access provider modified by the user can be shown to the user or provided as a printed report. When you create a user access provider, the access provider identifier, your input installation costs, your fixed and mile DEOT costs, your tandem fixed costs per minute and per mile, and non-recurring costs (NRCs) are provide thread 543 to modify the user access provider. It is considered that the user that modifies the access provider is the owner of that access provider. The access provider can be selected from a list of all access providers or can be selected from a list of all access providers that belong to a specified user. A selected user access provider can be deleted only if that access provider does not specify the terminal exchange. Subprocess 544 for modifying the user tandem service area was previously discussed with P1116 / 98MX regarding the definition and creation of a TSA. To repeat it, it is considered that a tandem service area comprises a set of tandem links and all the terminal exchanges that subtend to those tandem links. The data relating to TSA that will be modified is provided to subprocess 544 to modify the tandem user service area from the tandem service area store 438. In addition, the subprocess 544 retrieves the information related to the terminal plant 422 of the terminal exchange and the POP data of the store 424 of POP. Your output can be shown to the user as a video display or as a printed output. There are several subprocesses of subprocess 544. These subprocesses are shown specifically in Figure 6. As shown in Figure 6, there are three subprocesses executed by subprocess 544. These subprocesses are identified as subprocess 6441 to modify the control of the service area user tandem, subprocess 6442 to modify the tandem user link and subprocess 6443 to modify the traffic of the user terminal. Subprocess 6441 is used to identify the TSA and also to specify the user responsible for that TSA and the TSA review program. -The review program is retrieved from warehouse 436 for control of the tandem service area. To the P1116 / 98MX as before, once revised, the program date is updated. A user of the NAOMI system can request the modification of the TSA when using subprocess 6441. Some of the parameters that can be modified include the name of the TSA, its responsible user and its review program. A TSA can be selected from a list of TSAs, all TSAs that belong to a particular user, a list of the default TSAs or the TSAs that belong to a LATA. In addition, all TSAs that have tandem links connected to a particular tandem switch site or through a specified POP site or a specified terminal can also be selected. As a safeguard, only a user with a given authorization level can modify a selected default TSA control. Data relating to different users of the NAOMI system is stored in a user store 442 shown in Figure 13. A percentage that will be applied to all CCS of hourly traffic for all traffic of the terminal exchange within a user TSA. Selected can also be specified. Subprocess 544 has a second thread 6442 to modify the tandem user links. As discussed above, a tandem link carries the traffic that subatts the terminal and is P1116 / 98MX identified by the POP and the tandem site connected through the link and the link address. The data relating to the tandem link is retrieved by subprocess 6442 from the tandem link store 432. In addition, subprocess 6442 retrieves data from POP store 424. When using thread 6442, a tandem link can be created to service a user TSA. The tandem link can be selected from a list of all the tandem links of a specific TSA. When a user deletes a selected tandem link, all terminal exchanges that subattend to that tandem link also have to be suppressed. The information that is related to the selected tandem link can be provided as an exhibition or as a report to the user. The thread 6443 to modify the traffic of the user terminal is used to modify the DEOT and tandem link configuration of the TSA. When evaluating future traffic trends and their impact on access configuration, a user must be able to modify the total traffic of a terminal exchange. As input, the thread 6443 retrieves information from the POP store 424 and from the terminal 422 store. In addition, it recovers, from the 433 store of traffic of the terminal, the various data that are related to the traffic that crosses through P1116 / 98MX of the terminal exchange of interest. It is activated when a modification request is received and its output can be provided as an exhibition or as a printed report to the user. Similar to the other subprocesses, subprocess 6443 allows a user to request the creation of a user terminal central traffic that subatts a tandem link within a user's TSA. Subprocess 6443 also allows a user to select a terminal exchange traffic from a list of all terminal exchange traffic for a specific TSA. In addition, the monthly histories of a selected terminal exchange traffic can be displayed to the user. In addition, the user can specify the percentage that will be applied to all CCS of time traffic for a terminal exchange traffic, as shown in the traffic store 433 of the terminal. With reference to Figure 5, another subprocess of the application process 304 for preparing the user optimization request is subprocess 545 to modify the performance threshold. A performance threshold is a set of parameters used by the NAOMI system to identify alarm conditions, to determine decision points in its optimization process and to control its data management activities. The default performance threshold is maintained by an administrator P1116 / 98MX traffic engineer, but any user of the NAOMI system can create a user performance threshold for optimization. The performance threshold data is retrieved by subprocess 545 of the performance threshold store 312, in response to a request for modification of the performance threshold. Only a user with administrator authorization can create the default performance threshold. See Figure 2 for the RAM administrator 218. The types of thresholds required include the tandem usage threshold, the DEOT utilization threshold and the hit-enabled circuit threshold. Other parameters supplied to subprocess 545 include the number of days to retain the access work order, the minimum percentage change for the creation of the access work order, the bidirectional reporting parameter, and the maximum test traffic. A user performance threshold can be created by a user for their own use. The last subprocess of the application process 304 for preparing the user optimization request is subprocess 546 to initiate the optimization requested by the user. This subprocess allows a user to request the optimization of a TSA at any time. The TSA can be a default (present) configuration or a user-defined configuration.

P1116 / 98MX For this subprocess, a threshold of use for TSA and tandem links is provided as an input. Subprocess 546 issues a candidate TSA for optimization to the warehouse 314 of candidates for optimization. In this way, the stored candidata TSA is then fed to the application process 305 to optimize the DEOT and tandem configuration shown in Figure 3. Once the TSA to be optimized is identified as a candidate for optimization, the various are determined. costs of the access provider. These costs may include the access costs per circuit for both links, the DEOT and the tandem for each of the terminal exchanges in the TSA. The NAOMI system then calculates the minimum number of DEOT and tandem links necessary to support the traffic load at the specified tandem usage level or quality or grade of service. In this way, the application process 305 for optimizing the DEOT and tandem configuration optimizes the configuration of direct and tandem links by determining an optimal or smaller number of said links to connect the POP of the extended area service provider and the central or central Private terminals of the access provider at a minimal cost. There are two main functions performed by the application process 305. These functions are the P1116 / 98MX determination of the different costs associated with the optimization and sizing of direct and tandem links. These subprocesses are represented by subprocess 751 to calculate the access costs of the terminal exchange and subprocess 752 to calculate the DEOT and tandem size, respectively, shown in Figure 7. With reference to subprocess 751 to calculate the access cost of the terminal, the costs per circuit to have access to each terminal in the TSA identified as candidate and retrieved from the warehouse 314 of candidates for optimization, is calculated for the DEOT and tandem links. The quotas or fees used are those of the access provider whose terminal exchange is identified in the traffic store 434 of the TSA terminal and the access provider store 426 assigned to the tandem location. Also provided as inputs to subprocess 751 for calculating the access cost of the terminal exchange are the ID of the access provider, the indicator has provisioned DS3 and the vertical and horizontal coordinates retrieved from the terminal 422 store. If a terminal exchange has DS3 capability or not, it is also retrieved from terminal store 422. If the terminal exchange was already accessed through P1116 / 98MX a DS3 link or specified as DS3 capable, the DS3 costs are used. If the terminal is identified as having no DS3 access capability, DSl costs are used. When it is identified that a terminal exchange will be serviced by an intermediate core, the DEOT costs are calculated using the DS3 costs of the POP to the intermediate core and the DSl costs of the intermediate core to the terminal exchange. Recovering the costs per circuit for the DEOT service using the access charges identified for the access provider of the access provider store 426, the costs per circuit for the DEOT service are calculated. Similarly, the cost per circuit for the tandem link service is calculated using the access charges identified for the access provider specified for the tandem location. If an access provider for a terminal or a tandem site is not specified, the access fees of the National Association of Central Operators (ECA) submitted by the ÑECA to the FCC are used. Also calculated as a cost is the cost per circuit for the DEOT service that uses the amount in miles from the terminal to the POP to which the DEOT connects. The cost per circuit for the tandem link service that uses the number of miles from the terminal exchange to the POP to which the tandem switch is connected, P1116 / 98MX is also calculated. As previously indicated, depending on the capacity of the terminal, that is, having capacity DS3 or DSl, DS3 or DSl costs are used to calculate the access charge per circuit to the terminal. In addition, from the access provider store 426, the costs of the entry facility that relate to obtaining access by the POP to the local access provider are recovered to calculate the fixed charges of the entry facility. , subprocess 751 to calculate the access cost of the terminal calculates a cost per DEOT circuit of the terminal as the sum of the cost per circuit of the input installation, the fixed rate cost of the circuit and the cost of the fee in the number of miles of the circuit for the miles of the SWOT DEOT to the terminal station. The cost per tandem minute circuit of the terminal is calculated by subprocess 751 as the sum of the cost per circuit of the input installation, the fixed minute circuit of the cost of the use rate and the cost per mile per minute of Rate of use of the circuit multiplied by the miles of the tandem SWC to the terminal exchange. The respective dimension of the DEOT and tandem links is calculated by subprocess 752 to calculate P1116 / 98MX the size DEOT and tandem. The access configuration for all terminal stations served by a TSA is evaluated using the hourly and per-circuit traffic costs for each of the terminal exchanges and the tandem usage thresholds. As inputs, the thread 752 for calculating the DEOT and tandem size, retrieves the usage threshold data from the candidate store 314 for the optimization and the traffic of the terminal, the costs, etc., which were introduced to the 751 subprocess and they were calculated in this way. Subprocess 752 then calculates an optimal recommended configuration of the DEOTs and tandem links needed to service the candidate TSA and an estimated cost for the optimal configuration. The TOT and DEOT link sizes of the TSA with respect to the number of circuits per link, are optimized to minimize the access cost. The optimal number of DEOTs and tandem links of a TSA is determined using each CCS of the terminal's traffic time adjusted by the traffic multiplier of the candidate for optimization. If the exchange does not have the capacity to carry the bidirectional service, the DEOT and tandem link configuration is "optimized when using unidirectional links to that terminal exchange, if a terminal exchange does not have the capacity to receive traffic.

P1116 / 98MX DEOT, DEOT is not recommended by the optimization process that will be connected to that terminal. If that terminal has the capacity of the service switching point (SSP), the DEOT and tandem link optimization process, configures the size of the terminal exchange to include 800 traffic with other source traffic for said terminal exchange. On the other hand, if the terminal does not have the SSP capability, the DEOT and tandem link optimization process sizes the access to the terminal exchange for traffic 800 separately from the other source traffic. In that case, it is not recommended that the DEOT transport 800 traffic to that terminal. From thread 752 to calculate the DEOT and tandem size, the access evaluation data for the TSA to be optimized is produced and stored in an access evaluation warehouse 320. As shown in Figure 13, the access evaluation store 320 stores for each TSA an identifier, the running date of the optimization for the TSA, the reason for the optimization, the optimal number of tandem links and DEOTs for each terminal, the estimated cost to service the entry TSA at its current utilization level, and the estimated cost to service the recommended TSA configuration at the requested utilization level. With the creation of access assessment data for TSA P1116 / 98MX ßfe-. ' identified as candidate in store 314 of candidates for optimization, that candidate for optimization is deleted from store 314 of candidates for optimization. An exemplary algorithm that can be used to perform the optimization process, includes first constructing an objective function that represents the main components of the local transport restructuring cost (LTR), namely, the rented DEOT costs, the overflow costs of DEOT per minute towards the tandem and the costs of the entry facility. The objective function could be used as a basis to determine the costs of any given TSA configuration. With a configuration in which several DEOTs have been specified (for example, for the operations discussed with reference to Figure 12 to define the TSA), the DEOT overflow traffic could be calculated using the conventional Erlange-B statistics and the required number of tandem circuits that correspond to a specified degree of service calculated using the conventional Neal-Wilkinson theory for telephony. The actual optimization could then be conducted as an iteration over a multi-branched tree structure. The root of the tree corresponds to zero DEOTS in each of the TSA's central terminals and, each of the other nodes in the tree corresponds to a specific number of P1116 / 98MX DEOTS in each terminal. An additional DEOT is added as the process moves from node to node down the tree. The iteration is done starting at the root and systematically moving down the branches of the tree. As it moves, the "best solution found so far" is maintained and a lower limit on the best possible solution is calculated by continuing down to a lower branch, calculating the cost of the DEOTS in the next lower node of the tree. When the lower limit exceeds the best solution so far, the branch is "pruned" and the process returns upwards on the tree one node at a time and proceeds to analyze a new branch. When all branches are pruned, the "best solution so far" provides the solution with the lowest cost for the optimization process that is being considered. For this analysis, it is assumed that a TSA represents the smallest configuration of the terminal exchanges, the DEOT links and the tandem links for which a valid optimization can be performed. Once the result of the optimization is obtained, it can be provided as an exhibition to the user. This application process is represented by the application process 306 of providing optimization results shown in Figure 3. Specifically, the user of the NAOMI system can review P1116 / 98MX the results of optimization at two levels of detail, namely, the data provided by the access evaluation warehouse 320 that provides a summary view of the recommended DEOT and tandem link configuration, and the access work orders generated from that access evaluation that identifies specific changes that will be made to the size of the existing links. The access work order is stored in a work order store 318. The two levels of detail are further illustrated in Figure As shown in Figure 8, subprocess 861 for administering the access evaluation identifies the recommended DEOT and tandem link configuration for the TSA based on the traffic profiles of the terminal, the tandem usage thresholds and the costs of Access of the access provider of which the TSA is a part. Upon receipt of an evaluation review request, the data relating to the access evaluation is retrieved from the access evaluation warehouse 320 and the data relating to the TSA is retrieved from the warehouse 438 of the tandem service area. With the NAOMI system, a user can select an access evaluation from a list of all access evaluations for a specific TSA or some other. Additionally, a user can select a P1116 / 98MX access evaluation with an optimization start date in it, before or after a specified user date or from a list of all access evaluations that belong to or are assigned to a specific user. The evaluation exhibit can be provided to a user as a video display through its terminal or as a printed report. Only a user authorized by the administrator can delete all access evaluations with a date of creation of the same, before or after a date specified by the user. When an access evaluation is deleted, all access work orders associated with that access evaluation are also deleted. To avoid confusing data, an access evaluation that is more than 13 months old is deleted. The other subprocess of the application process 306 for providing the optimization results is subprocess 862 for managing access work orders. When a TSA is evaluated and it is determined that the configuration of that TSA is capable of being improved, an access work order is created for each link that needs to be changed, added or deleted. The traffic engineer then uses the access work order to track or track the service changes that will be made, the P1116 / 98MX access network and report this to your administrator and the states of the changes. The information of an access work order is presented in a format that facilitates the initiation of a circuit order form. The information from the SCOTS and NETPRO databases provides a present state of the circuits impacted by an access work order. As shown in Figure 8, several entries are delivered to subprocess 862 to manage access work orders, in response to a request to review the work order. These entries include data from the access evaluation store 320, the circuit store 438, the warehouse 438 of the tandem service area, the traffic statistics store 428 and the performance threshold store 312. In addition, the access work order is entered from the work order 318 store. In terms of any access work order, subprocess 862 for managing the access work order determines the costs of the recommended TSA configuration by adding the non-recurring costs (NRCs) charged by the access provider to obtain the configuration with the product of the daily cost of the DEOT and optimal tandem link configuration multiplied by the service days threshold. An additional explanation of these non-recurring costs will be provided P1116 / 98MX later with reference to the exhibits presented to the user in Figures 17 and 20. In addition, the costs of the original DEOT and tandem link configuration, at their normal utilization level of the TSA, is determined by multiplying the daily costs of the present configuration by the service threshold. If the difference between the normal configuration costs and the recommended configuration costs does not exceed the minimum threshold for creating the access work order, the access evaluation is identified as "not recommended due to the NRCs". If the link statistics exist for the traffic of the terminal exchange on which the access work order is based, the link is changed, as well as the number of circuits that will be added or deleted, are identified. Different variations of displays that contain different information may be provided to the user either in a video format or in a printed one. Some of the exhibits provided to the operating personnel of the NAOMI system that can improve the understanding of the invention are discussed herein. With reference to Figure 14, a summary of the TSA showing the links and the terminal exchanges of an exemplary TSA are shown. The name of the TSA is identified as ABLNTXOR15T (T15T) in 1402 of the summary line of the TSA. The POP of the TSA is identified P1116 / 98MX as AIN and designated at 1402a. The type of traffic that crosses a TSA ('15T) is determined to be a designated standard traffic type in 1402b. The three tandem links associated with the TSA '15T designated 1404a, 1404b and 1404c, are shown under the heading "Tandem Links". One of the tandem links, namely LUB2-1291 ('291), designated at 1404a, is highlighted. The tandem link '291 is identified by its switch LUB2 and port 1291 with the switch. By scanning or scanning along the tandem link highlighted line '291, it can be seen that the tandem link was modified for the last time on August 24, 1994, at 4:48:05. The circuit ID is also identified, as is the user. For the highlighted tandem link '291, four DEOTs are displayed that subtend or overflow from it. These DEOTs are identified in 1406a ('212), 1406b (' 254), 1406c ('255) and 1406d (' 336). Each of the four DEOTs is identified with its own circuit ID and, although not shown, the address capacity of each link is either termination, access or bidirectional, it is also identified. Proceeding in descending order on the screen of Figure 14, the number of terminal stations that subtend the highlighted tandem link 291 is shown. Since there are four DEOTs, there must exist at least P1116 / 98MX * .- four terminal stations. However, as shown in Figure 14, there are five terminal exchanges, designated 1408a, 1408b, 1408c, 1408d and 1408e. In fact, they can be additional terminal exchanges that subtend to the tandem link '291. The reason for the multiple number of terminal stations is due to the fact that some of these terminal centers may not have DEOT capacity. In other words, a user can not configure a terminal exchange that does not have DEOT capability to accept a DEOT. Alternatively, it could be that the cost-benefit ratio is not good when connecting a given DEOT of a particular POP to the terminal exchange. For example, the traffic that crosses from the POP to the central terminal does not justify paying a DEOT due to its low volume. If that is the case, all the traffic that crosses between that particular POP and the given terminal exchange has to pass over the tandem links. According to the above, there are more than four terminal exchanges shown in Figure 14. With respect to the terminal centrals that subtend towards the tandem link '291, the originating traffic that crosses through each of the terminal exchanges is shown under the EOOrig heading. The next column with the EOOrigdOO header shows the number of minutes for which 800 calls originate P1116 / 98MX from that central terminal. For example, for the 1408a terminal exchange ('CGO), there were 390 minutes of 800 origin calls. In contrast, only one minute of 800 origin calls from the terminal exchange at 1408b (' DSO) for a 24-hour period speak. hours. The next two columns, identified as EOTBH and EOTerm, respectively, show that there was zero minutes for the terminal exchange shown. This may be due to the fact that none of these terminal exchanges shown is bidirectional. Rather, all of these terminal exchanges are access terminal exchanges, so termination traffic is not received. The next column entitled DaydOO shows the total number of minutes during a 24-hour time period in which traffic 800 crosses through the terminal exchanges. The last column shows the number of minutes that traffic passes through each of the terminals. Figure 15 is a graphical view of a TSA with tandem links. The name of the exemplified TSA is identified by the highlighted line 1502 as BFLONYFR20T (r20T). The POP to which the TSA is connected ('20T) is identified as BUF, as designated in 1502a. The type of service again is the standard, as designated in 1502b. It shows that the POP BUF is represented by a flag on the screen.

P1116 / 98MX 38? Connected to the POP BUF are three tandem links, identified as SRD1-1362 (* 362), PGH4-3170 ('170) and SRD1-1360 (' 360, respectively.) It is shown that the tandem link '362 will be connected from the BUF of POP to the tandem switch BFLONYER20T ('20T) having the same name as the TSA' 20T It is shown that the other two tandem links' 170 and '360 are connected to the tandem switch BFLONYFR50T (' 50T) Of the three tandem links , note that the arrows for links '362 and' 170 are directed to the POP BUF whereas the '360' link is directed to the '50T tandem switch' By convention, this means that the '362 and' 170 tandem links are access links, while the tandem link '360 is a terminating link, note also that only the access link' 362 connects to the POP BUF with the tandem switch '20T, while both links, the access' 170 and the termination tandem '360 connect to the POP BUF with the tandem switch' 50T As for the different links, it can be seen that the link '362 has 72 circuits and that it will be used at a utilization rate of 34%. On the other hand, link '170 has 936 circuits that operate at a utilization rate of 53%. Finally, the link '360 has 960 circuits and will be used at a rate of 32%. A utilization rate of 100% means that the link P1116 / 98MX is completely full of traffic and that additional calls will be blocked. From the point of view of a traffic engineer, this is something that should not be allowed to happen. The operating personnel of an extended area service provider can adjust the usage threshold to any desired number. For the present discussion, adopt a default utilization rate (of traffic traversing a link) of 75%. This 75% usage rate can also be referred to as the level of use level of the service. In essence, it provides a threshold that tells the traffic engineer how much blocking he is allowed to have. Knowing what kind of call blocking is acceptable is of course an economic and marketing decision. On the other hand, if a call is not completed, a service provider will have no income. On the other hand, if the connection or access rate is such that it is ensured that all calls will not be blocked, the cost of this non-blocking could conceivably be more than the income received. In this way, the work of the traffic engineer is to ensure that the links are dimensioned so that no traffic or only a minimum amount of traffic has been blocked, and also that the links are not sized so large that the provider of extended area service pay for circuits that you did not use.

P1116 / 98MX Again with reference to Figure 15, it can be seen that the use rate of 34% for link '362 is a bit low, compared to 75% of predetermined use. In this way, when the TSA is shown as newly optimized, it resizes the capacity of the '362 link, so that the cost of using that link is balanced again, with the capacity of the link operating at more than 34%. Note, however, that due to the way in which the rates are set by the access provider, it may turn out to have a better cost-benefit relationship having many DEOTs so that the utilization rate in the tandem links remains low. Note also that the percentage of use for each link is monitored and can be tied to the alarms so that when the rate of use of a link becomes too low (or high), a request is sent to optimize the TSA. A graphic display showing a TSA from the perspective of a terminal exchange is shown in Figure 16. The exemplary terminal is iified as AMRLTXEVCGO ('CGO). The POP to which the terminal is connected is iified as AML. Showing that it is connected between the AML and the terminal exchange 'CGO, there are two links DEOT LUB2-1251 (t251) and LUB2-1265 (' 265). It is shown that each of the DEOT links has 24 circuits. The link DEOT '251 is a link P1116 / 98MX access, while the link DEOT '265 is a termination link. As shown, the traffic overflow of the access DEOT '251 goes to the tandem link IRV3-1209 (' 209), while the termination traffic of the DEOT '265 goes to the tandem link LUB2-15 ('15). The tandem link '209 is connected to the tandem switch AMRLTX0215T (' 215T), while the tandem link '15 is connected to the tandem switch CDWRTXXA01T (01T). The tandem access link '209 has a usage rate of 36%, while the tandem termination link '15 has a usage rate of 17%. Both rates are acceptable given the arbitrary default use rate of 75%. What Figure 16 shows is that both DEOT '251 and' 265 links are filled to enable their traffic overflow to be routed to the tandem links. This is the way it should be, since there is a fixed cost associated with each DEOT link, without considering the rate of use for those links. Conversely, the cost to use tandem links is based on a time and based on the number of miles. One thing to note about the tandem access link '209 is that it has 240 circuits. The reason that there are so many circuits connected to this tandem link is that there may be several terminal exchanges that subtend to it. Therefore, it needs to be sized to a sufficient size P1116 / 98MX so that it can adequately service all of its undersized terminals. Figure 17 is an exemplary optimization summary that shows particularly the cost savings if the links are resized as recommended by the NAOMI system. It is shown that the TSA is the same as that shown in Figure 15, namely, BELONYFR20T ('20T), and the POP is the BUF and the type of service will be standard. See designation 1702. The same TSA was optimized, as indicated in 1704. The utilization threshold, shown in 1706, used for optimization was adjusted by 75%. The recovery dates, designated in 1708 as 90 days, provide a period of time to recover the non-recurring cost, which is the cost incurred by the extended area service provider to request that changes be made to the links of the access network. 90 days is an arbitrary number that allows the extended area service provider to determine if the changes are cost-effective. At this point, the optimization of the link configuration has been run and some "" "" recommendations have been made to the traffic engineer to inform him of the changes that must be made to optimize the link configuration at a minimum access cost. P1116 / 98MX In this way, in the lower panel, designated 1710, of the screen of Figure 17, it can be seen that before TSA '20T was optimized, one day it cost $ 3,406.98 for access charges. After optimization, the cost drops to $ 2,754.27 per day. There is a non-recurring charge of $ 8,119.00 for the access provider to reconfigure its link connections as calculated through the NAOMI system. Multiplying the number of days (90) with the daily cost, produces $ 306,629.10 for the link configuration without optimization; while with optimization, the cost of 90 days, including the non-recurring charge, is $ 256,003.30. Thus, there are savings of approximately $ 50,000 for the TSA '20T at the end of the recovery period. Note that in order to truly optimize the system, if a terminal exchange of a TSA is reconfigured, all the TSA connection connections need to be reconfigured as well, as all the terminal exchanges of that TSA are affected by the optimization. In other words, after the optimization by the NAOMI system, the traffic engineer needs to follow all the recommendations made in order to ensure that an optimized link configuration was made for the TSA. Figure 18 shows the recommendations P1116 / 98MX presented to the traffic engineer about the best way to size a particular tandem link for the TSA shown in Figure 17. As indicated in 1802, the original utilization rate was 77%, which is greater than 75% predetermined. There are also 72 circuits either acquired or leased for that particular link, as designated in 1804. The link is considered bidirectional, as indicated in 1806. With optimization, there must be 96 circuits, as indicated in 1808. In this way, the NAOMI system, after carrying out the optimization process, recommends that 24 new circuits, designated in 1810, be added to the link. With the 24 additional circuits, the optimization rate for the optimized link goes down to 56%, as designated in 1812. Figure 19 is an exemplary display of a profile or traffic pattern that is represented by the profile icon for example. traffic 1602, shown in Figure 16. In essence, if the traffic profile icon 1602 is activated in Figure 16, the display of Figure 19 results. Figure 19 shows the traffic pattern of the calls that traverse to a central m terminal through the termination, origin and 800 links. As shown, the origin link carries 102 CCS of traffic between the 0700 and 1200 hours, with 22 CCS of P1116 / 98MX traffic arriving at 0900 hours. No traffic occurred on any termination link or 800. This traffic profile thus enables the traffic engineer to size the source link to be large enough to carry the traffic load of a peak hour. The shown fact that there is no termination traffic or special service traffic 800 indicates that the terminal exchange of Figure 19 is a home exchange terminal whose links are access links. The cost data for an access provider is shown in Figure 20. The exemplary access provider in Figure 20 is Southwestern Bell. See 2002. Figure 20 specifically shows the non-recurring costs for different types of link connections that are loaded by the access provider to change its link configuration. As shown, the connection cost for a DSl link is $ 456.00, indicated in 2004, while the connection cost for a DS3 link is $ 496.00, indicated in 2006. However, there are no disconnection costs for any of them. the DSl or DS3 links. See, 2008 and 2010, respectively. The other charges shown are the different rates or fees that are allowed under the LTR. As shown, the fees are broken down into charges that occur in the service switching center, indicated in "-Channel Term", of P1116 / 98MX $ 1,696.04. This is the cost that is charged to an extended area service provider or to a long distance service provider to connect with a local exchange operator. There is also a charge under "MUX". This is a charge to multiplex a beam of circuits, for example, 672 circuits that come from the long distance operator to the 24 circuit links that will be sent through the multiplexing equipment. The MUX charge of $ 815.00 is the monthly charge for the use of the multiplexing equipment in the service switching center, which belongs to the access provider. The part of the screen under "Banded Mileage" shows the amount in miles that separates the SWC and the terminal exchange or, more specifically, the equipment at the terminal exchanges. The equipment charges at the terminal are imposed against the extended area service providers, in addition to the per mile / per minute charge for the different links in the TSA link configuration. Essentially what the "Banded Mileage" shows is that the access provider can charge an extended area service provider based on different miles-band bands for the rent of the DEOTS and tandem link circuits. While the present invention is subject to many variations, modifications and changes in detail, it is intended that all the material described in all this P1116 / 98MX specification and shown in the accompanying drawings is interpreted only as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. In accordance with the foregoing, it is intended that the invention be limited only by the spirit and scope of the claims appended thereto.

P1116 / 98MX

Claims (51)

1. NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION Having described the present invention, it is considered as a novelty and, therefore, the content of the following CLAIMS is claimed as property: 1. In a telecommunications network that includes an extended area service provider that has a plurality of points of presence (POPs) and a plurality of local area access providers, each having a plurality of tandem switches and terminals, a method for effecting an optimized configuration of tandem and direct link connections between at least a point of presence (POP) of the extended area service provider and at least one terminal of a local area access provider, for a particular grade or quality of service at a minimum access cost, comprises the steps of: (a) determine the rctive locations of POPs, tandem switches and terminal exchanges within the network; (b) determining the access capabilities of a terminal exchange of the local area access provider to which access is sought by a POP of the extended area service provider; (c) obtain the related cost information P1116 / 98MX with the use of the direct link and tandem between the POP and the terminal exchange; (d) identify the telecommunications traffic pattern of the terminal plant; (e) defining a tandem service area to include at least one POP, the terminal exchange and at least one tandem switch; and (f) use data that relate to at least the relative distance between the said POP and a terminal exchange, the access capabilities of the terminal, the cost information and the traffic pattern to determine the best form to configure the direct and tandem links to connect the POP to that terminal, in order to perform within the tandem service area an optimized link configuration at a minimum access cost. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of (e) defining a tandem service area further comprises the steps of: identifying the tandem switch connected to a terminal exchange to route the traffic overflow between a central exchange terminal and a POP; configure any other terminal stations also connected to the tandem switch as part of the tandem service area; P1116 / 98MX identify any other tandem switches connected to each of the other configured central stations; configure any other tandem switch identified as part of the tandem service area; and repeat the previous steps for each tandem switch identified in the tandem service area. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of (b) further comprises the step of: determining the traffic capacities and the connection capabilities of a terminal exchange and the circuit capacity of each link connection with a central terminal. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of: defining the traffic capabilities of a terminal exchange that will be access, determination and / or bidirectional and the connection capabilities to include any or both tandem link connections and direct terminal exchange (DEOT) link connections. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of (c) further comprises the step of: determining any fixed costs charged by the access provider of a terminal exchange and the rctive costs of connecting a direct link and a P1116 / 98MX tandem link to the terminal exchange. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of (d) further comprises the step of: collecting the telecommunication usage quotas for the terminal plant in a given period of time. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: recovering from the database means those data related to any or all of the rctive locations of the POPs, of the tandem switches and of the terminal exchanges, the access capabilities of the terminal exchanges, the cost information related to the direct and tandem links and the traffic patterns of the terminal exchanges in the tandem service area. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: presenting the optimized link configuration resulting from the passage of (f) to the operating personnel. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of: generating access work orders from which the changes in the tandem service area can be implemented to put its link configuration P1116 / 98MX compliance with the optimized link configuration. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: establishing alarm operating conditions for the defined tandem service area; and identify the tandem service area for optimization when operating with alarm conditions. The method according to claim 10, wherein the tandem service area is optimized at the discretion of the operating personnel. The method according to claim 10, wherein one of the alarm operating conditions established for the tandem service areas comprises a communication usage rate of at least one link in the tandem service area; and wherein an alarm condition is satisfied each time the usage rate is greater than a predetermined percentage of the link usage capacity. The method according to claim 10, wherein one of the alarm conditions established for the tandem service area comprises a communication usage rate of at least one direct link thereof; and where the alarm condition is satisfied each time the rate of use is less than the rate of use of P1116 / 98MX direct link communications. The method according to claim 1, wherein the links of the link connections between a POP and a terminal exchange can carry one-way and bidirectional communications, the method comprises the additional steps of: establishing alarm conditions for the area of tandem service, alarm conditions will be selected from the group consisting of (i) bidirectional links that operate with one-way communications, (ii) multiple one-way links that operate to achieve bidirectional communications, (iii) one-way links that they operate with bidirectional communications and, (iv) multiple tandem links of the same address. 15. A method for optimally configuring direct link and tandem connections between an extended area network and terminal exchanges of access providers through the points of presence (POP) of the extended area network, which includes steps of: (a) obtaining the access capabilities that define the data of the terminal exchanges from which access is obtained from the POPs: (b) obtain the cost data that belong to the direct link and tandem capabilities of the terminals that will be accessed and their respective P1116 / 98MX access providers; (c) obtain the characteristic data of the telecommunications traffic patterns of the terminals that will be accessed; (d) define tandem service areas that will be configured with direct link and tandem connections of the terminals that will be accessed and the POPs, in such a way that each defined tandem service area includes at least one terminal exchange, at least one POP and, at least one tandem switch; (e) identify the tandem service areas that are candidates for optimization; and (f) for each identified tandem service area, perform an optimized link configuration for a particular grade or quality of service at a minimum access cost to it, calculating a minimum number of direct link and tandem connections for each area of tandem service identified based on at least the data obtained in the steps of subsections (a), (b) and (c) for each identified tandem service area. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the steps of: identifying the candidates for optimization in step (e) as all tandem service areas; P1116 / 98MX and optimize the candidates defined in step (b) in accordance with step (f) periodically. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the steps of: establishing alarm operation conditions for each defined tandem service area; and identify the candidates for the optimization in step of (e) as those tandem service areas that operate under alarm conditions. 18. The method according to claim 15, where the candidates for optimization are selected at the discretion of the operating personnel. The method according to claim 15, wherein to define each tandem service area in step (d) the method further comprises the steps of: identifying a first tandem link connected to a first tandem switch through which it is routed the overflow of traffic that passes between a terminal exchange and a POP of each tandem service area; configure any other terminal stations also connected to the first tandem switch as part of each tandem service area; identify any other tandem link connected to each of the other terminals P1116 / 98MX configured; configure any tandem switch connected to any other tandem link identified as part of each tandem service area; and repeat the previous steps for each tandem link in each tandem service area. The method according to claim 15, wherein the access capabilities defining the step of (a) comprises the step of: determining the traffic and connection capabilities of each of the terminal exchanges. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of: defining each terminal station that is adaptable to transport one-way or two-way communications; and defining each terminal that is adaptable both for tandem link connections and for direct link connections of the terminal exchange (DEOT). 22. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of (b) further comprises the step of: determining the cost of the input facility loaded by the access provider of each terminal exchange to which it was accessed and the cost to connect direct links and tandem to each terminal that was used P1116 / 93MX access. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of (c) further comprises the step of: collecting the rate of use of telecommunications for each of the terminals that were accessed in a given period of time. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of: recovering from the database medium the data related to any, or to all the POPs, the tandem switches and the terminal exchanges, the access capabilities of the exchanges terminals, the cost data related to the direct and tandem links and the traffic patterns of the terminals that will be accessed. 25. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of: presenting the optimized link configuration resulting from the passage of (f) for each tandem service area identified to the operating personnel. 26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising the step of: generating work orders from which the changes can be implemented for each of the identified tandem service areas to put their P1116 / 98MX 8 Link configuration in accordance with the optimized link configuration. 27. In a telecommunications network that includes an extended area service provider that has a plurality of points of presence (POPs) and a plurality of local area access providers each has a plurality of tandem switches and terminals, system for performing optimized configuration of direct link and tandem connections between at least one point of presence (POP) of the extended area service provider and at least one terminal exchange of a local area access provider for a degree or particular service quality at a minimum access cost, comprising: a database medium for storing the respective locations of the POPs, the tandem switches and the terminal exchanges within the network, and the related cost information with the use of the direct link and tandem between at least one POP and a terminal exchange; means for determining the access capabilities of a terminal exchange of the local area access provider to which access is sought by a POP of the extended area service provider; a means to collect the traffic pattern of P1116 / 98MX telecommunications from a terminal exchange; and a processor means for defining a tandem service area to include at least one POP, a terminal exchange and at least one tandem switch, the processor means further utilizes data that is related at least to the relative distance between a POP and a terminal exchange, the access capabilities of a terminal exchange, the cost information and the traffic pattern to determine the best way to configure direct and tandem links to connect a POP with a terminal exchange to perform within a service area tandem an optimized link configuration at a minimum access cost. 28. The system according to claim 27, where the processor means defines the tandem service area: identifying the tandem switch connected to a terminal exchange to route the traffic overflow between a terminal exchange and a POP; configure any other terminal stations also connected to the tandem switch as part of the tandem service area; identify any other tandem switch connected to each of any other configured central exchanges; P1116 / 98MX configure any other tandem switch identified as part of the tandem service area; and repeat the previous steps for each tandem switch in the tandem service area. 29. The system according to claim 27, wherein the means for determining further determines the traffic capabilities and the connection capabilities of a terminal exchange and the circuit capacity of each connection link with a terminal exchange. The system according to claim 29, further comprising: a means for defining the traffic capabilities of a terminal exchange to which access will be had, termination and / or bidirectional capabilities and connection capabilities to include either any or both tandem link and direct terminal link (DEOT) connections. The system according to claim 27, wherein the means for determination further comprises: means for recovering any fixed cost charged by the access provider of a terminal exchange and the respective costs of connecting a direct link and a tandem link to said terminal central terminal. 32. The system according to claim 27, wherein the collection means collects usage rates. P1116 / 98MX telecommunications for the terminal in a given period of time. The system according to claim 27, further comprising: a means for recovering from the database medium the data related to any or all of the respective locations of the POPs, the tandem switches and the terminal exchanges, the capabilities terminal access, cost information related to direct and tandem links and traffic patterns of the terminal exchanges in the tandem service area. 34. The system according to claim 27, further comprising: a terminal means for displaying the optimized link configuration performed by the processing means to the operating personnel, the terminal means allows operating personnel to optimize the tandem service area. 35. The system according to claim 34, wherein the terminal means further generates work orders from which the changes in the tandem service area can be implemented to bring its link configuration in accordance with the optimized link configuration. 36. The system according to claim 27, which P1116 / 98MX further comprises: a means to establish operational alarm conditions for the defined tandem service area; and a means to identify the tandem service area for optimization when operating with alarm conditions. 37. The system according to claim 36, wherein the means for establishing, establishes one of the operational alarm conditions for the tandem service areas to include a communication usage rate of at least one link in the area of tandem service, an alarm condition that will be satisfied each time the usage rate is greater than a predetermined percentage of the capacity to use a link. 38. The system according to claim 36, wherein the means for establishing, establishes one of the alarm conditions for the tandem service area to include a communication usage rate of at least one direct link thereof, an alarm condition that will be satisfied each time the usage rate is less than the communication usage rate of a direct link. 39. The system according to claim 27, wherein the links of the link connections between a POP P1116 / 98MX and a terminal exchange can carry one-way and bi-directional communications; The system also includes: a means to establish alarm conditions for the tandem service area, the alarm conditions will be selected from the group consisting of (i) bidirectional links that operate with one-way communications, (ii) multiple links of one way they operate to obtain bidirectional communications, (iii) one-way links operating with bidirectional communications and (iv) multiple tandem links of the same address. 40. A system for optically configuring direct link and tandem connections between an extended area network and terminal centers of access providers through points of presence (POPs) of the extended area network, comprising: a means to obtain the data that define the access capabilities of the terminal stations from which POPs access is to be accessed, the cost data pertaining to the direct and tandem link capabilities of the access providers of the terminal to which there is access and data characteristic of the traffic patterns of telecommunications from the terminals that will be accessed;, and a processor means to define areas of P1116 / 98MX tandem service that will be configured with direct link and tandem connections of the terminal exchanges that will be accessed and POPs such that each defined tandem service area includes at least one terminal exchange, at least one tandem switch and at least one POP and, to identify the tandem service areas that are candidates for optimization, the processor means makes an optimized link configuration for a particular grade or quality of service at a minimum access cost for the same area of tandem service identified by calculating a minimum number of tandem and direct link connections for the tandem service area identified based at least on the access capability data, the cost data and the traffic pattern data obtained for the identified tandem service area. 41. The system according to claim 40, wherein the processor means further identifies all tandem service areas as candidates for optimization, the processor means further performs an optimized link configuration on a periodic basis for all tandem service areas. 42. The system according to claim 40, further comprising: a means for establishing operating conditions Alarm P1116 / 98MX for each defined tandem service area; and wherein the processor means identifies the candidates for optimization as those tandem service areas that operate in alarm conditions. 43. The system according to claim 40, further comprising: a terminal means from which operating personnel can select at their discretion the candidates for optimization. 44. The system according to claim 40 wherein the processing means identifies each tandem service area. identifying a first tandem link connected to a first tandem switch through which the traffic overflow crossing or crossing between a terminal exchange and a POP of each tandem service area is routed; configure any other terminal stations also connected to the first tandem switch as part of each tandem service area; identify any other tandem link connected to each of any other configured terminal stations; configure any tandem switch connected to any other tandem link identified as part of P1116 / 98MX each tandem service area; and repeat the previous steps for each tandem link in each tandem service area. 45. The system according to claim 40, wherein the means for obtaining it determines the traffic and connection capacities of each of the terminal stations. 46. The system according to claim 45, further comprising: means for defining each terminal exchange to be adaptable to transport one-way or two-way communications and both tandem link and terminal direct link (DEOT) connections. 47. The system according to claim 40, wherein the means for obtaining further comprises: a means for identifying the cost of the input facility loaded by the access provider of each terminal exchange to which it was accessed and the cost of connecting direct and tandem links with each terminal that was accessed. 48. The system according to claim 40, wherein the means for obtaining further comprises: a means for collecting the rate of use of telecommunications for each of the terminals that were accessed in a period of time P1116 / 98MX given. 49. The system according to claim 40, further comprising: a means for recovering from data base data related to any or all POPs, tandem switches and terminal exchanges, the access capabilities of the terminal exchanges , the cost data pertaining to the direct and tandem links and the traffic patterns of the terminals that will be accessed. 50. The system according to claim 40, further comprising: a terminal means for presenting to the operating personnel the optimized link configuration effected by the processor means for each identified tandem service area. 51. The system according to claim 50, wherein the terminal means further comprises: means for generating work orders from which changes can be implemented in each of the identified tandem service areas to put their link configuration in accordance with the optimized link configuration. P1116 / 98MX SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A network access optimization (NAOMI) modeling initiative (202) that allows operating personnel of an extended area service provider to configure link connections (10, 12) of a network of access to telecommunications, so that it obtains access to the terminals (6, 8) of the local area access providers at a given performance level and at a minimum cost. Upon request, the NAOMI (202) optimizes the direct link connections of the terminal exchange (10, 12) and the tandem link connections (16) between the service switching center (SWC) (4), to which a provider of extended area service has access with a local area access provider, and the terminal stations (6, 8) to which the long distance calls are directed. During the operation, the NAOMI (202) first obtains the configuration information in the respective positions of the points of presence (POPs) (2) of the extended area service provider, of the tandem switches (14) of the terminal exchanges ( 6, 8) and of the various direct links of terminal exchange (10, 12) and tandem links (16). The NAOMI (202) then defines a tandem service area (TSA) to contain at least one POP (2) and the terminal exchange (6, 8) through which calls are routed from the service area provider of area Extended P1116 / 98MX, P1116 / 98MX