Operational Support System for Telecommunication Services

Abstract

A system is disclosed that includes a business application service and a business integration service. The business application service receives a customer care service request via a first protocol. The business application service also transmits a request for information based on the customer care service request to a business integration service. The business integration service receives the request for information from the business application service. The business integration service receives requested information via a second protocol from at least one resource of a plurality of distributed telecommunications resources. The business integration service includes a domain object layer to receive the requested information and to transform the received requested information into a data object instance to be read by a resource connector layer. The resource connector layer reads the data object instance and transmits the requested information to the business application service.

1 . A system, comprising:
 a business application service to receive a customer care service request associated with a customer care service, the customer care service request received via a first protocol of a first plurality of protocols, the business application service to transmit a request for information based on the customer care service request; and   a business integration service to receive the request for information from the business application service, to receive requested information via a second protocol of a second plurality of protocols from at least one resource of a plurality of distributed telecommunications resources;   wherein the business integration service comprises:
 a domain object layer to receive the requested information from the at least one resource of the plurality of distributed telecommunications resources and to transform the requested information into a data object instance; and 
 a resource connector layer to read the data object instance and to transmit the requested information to the business application service. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an infrastructure supporting the business application service and the business integration service. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the infrastructure includes at least one of a logging service, a directory service, a security service, a message service, a persistence management service, an application management service, a transactional management service, and a business process management service. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the business integration service includes at least one of a product information module, a location information module, a billing information module, a network resource information module, a service request information module, a network address information module, a resource management module, a service management module, a product availability management module, a customer information management module, and a trouble management module. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the requested information includes at least one of product data, subscription data, accounting data, and inventory data. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the customer care service request is related to one of a mass market sales negotiation service, a business ordering service, a problem resolution service, a self-service, and a convergent information inquiry service. 
     
     
         7 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, at a business application service, a particular customer care service request via a first protocol of a first plurality of protocols from one source of a plurality of distributed sources of customer care service requests, wherein the particular customer care service request comprises a request for information to support at least one of a billing operation, an assurance operation, and a fulfillment operation in a telecommunications system;   transmitting the request for information from the business application service to a business integration service;   receiving, at the business integration service, requested information via a second protocol of a second plurality of protocols from at least one resource of a plurality of distributed telecommunications resources;   transforming, at the business integration service, the requested information into a data object instance;   converting the data object instance into a converted data object instance having a particular format to be received by the business application service; and   transmitting the converted data object instance from the business integration service to the business application service.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein at least one of the billing operation, the assurance operation, and the fulfillment operation is associated with a customer care process. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the customer care process includes at least one sales and order handling process to support a particular fulfillment operation. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the customer care process includes at least one problem handling and quality of service management process to support a particular assurance operation. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the customer care process includes an invoicing collections process to support a particular billing operation. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein at least one of the billing operation, the assurance operation, and the fulfillment operation is associated with a service development process. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the service development process includes at least one of service planning and development, service configuration, service problem resolution, service quality management, and rating and discounting. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein at least one of the billing operation, the assurance operation, and the fulfillment operation is associated with a network process. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the network process includes at least one of network planning and development, network provisioning, network inventory management, network maintenance and restoration, and network data management. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the plurality of distributed telecommunications resources includes a plurality of operational support systems, wherein each operational support system is associated with at least one of a local exchange carrier, a vendor, a trading partner, and a data storage system. 
     
     
         17 . A distributed telecommunications computing system, comprising:
 a memory to store a customer service request received by a business application service from one source of a plurality of sources of customer service requests, each source of customer service requests providing a request via a different protocol of a first plurality of protocols, the memory to store information retrieved from one or more resources of a plurality of distributed telecommunications resources in response to the customer service request, each distributed telecommunications resource providing retrieved information via a different protocol of a second plurality of protocols; and   a processor to:
 retrieve information from the one or more resources of the plurality of distributed telecommunications resources based on the customer service request; 
 transform the retrieved information into at least one data object; and 
 converting the at least one data object into a format to be read by the business application service. 
   
     
     
         18 . The distributed telecommunications computing system of  claim 17 , wherein the plurality of distributed telecommunications resources includes at least one operational support system. 
     
     
         19 . The distributed telecommunications computing system of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one operational support system performs a function from a group consisting of address validation, channel facility assignment, loop qualification of a digital subscriber line (DSL), due date negotiation, dispatch facilitation, telephone number pooling, common language location information inquiry, primary interexchange code and local primary interexchange code reference, network channel and network channel interface inquiry, customer service information access, a pending/poster order list and details, provisioning an order list and detail, bulk workload assessment, feature availability inquiry, universal service order code and feature ID lookup, address inquiry by working telephone number, telephone number inquiry, telephone number reservation, telephone number confirmation, telephone number cancellation, and channel facility assignment inquiry. 
     
     
         20 . The distributed telecommunications computing system of  claim 17 , wherein the plurality of sources includes a desktop application, a web browser, an interactive voice recognition system, and a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) interconnect.