Abstract: A computer implemented method to specify a software defined network (SDN) for deployment by an SDN controller, the SDN controller being adapted to configure a plurality of physical network components to deliver communication services, the method including generating a model of the physical network components by accessing each of a plurality of data sources; defining the model including an indication of a location, type and interconnections of physical components based on the data sources; associating each indication in the model with a degree of confidence of accuracy of the indication based on the degree of confidence information from the data sources; accessing a set of rules defining relationships between types of physical component; refining the model based on the rules including adjusting a degree of confidence of accuracy of indications in the model based on satisfaction of the rules; and selecting a subset of network components in the refined model for inclusion in the SDN specification.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to model physical infrastructure of a transmission network for a utility service, the physical infrastructure including a set of physical components in the network, including accessing each of a plurality of physical infrastructure data sources, each data source including records each storing information on at least a subset of the set of physical components including a location and type of each physical component in the subset, wherein each record has associated an indication of a degree of confidence of an accuracy of the record; generating a model of the physical infrastructure including an indication of a location and type of physical components based on the data sources, wherein records of the data sources having common location and type are aggregated for indication in the model; associating each indication in the model with a degree of confidence of accuracy of the indication based on the degree of confidence information from the data sources; accessing a set of rules defi

Abstract: A data management process determines, from user-implemented provisional reservations (400) for data processing resources, a projected total capacity requirement for each said data processing resource, by maintaining a record (9, 90, 91) recording previous such reservations made by each user and comparing each reservations with records (87, 88, 89) of the actual resources used, to provide an estimate of resources required to meet the projected capacity requirement, and to provide data for a demand management processor (2), which control associated configurable data processing equipment (1) to provide the resources required to meet the estimated capacity required. The process takes account of over- and under-ordering of capacity by comparing each reservation (400) with the use actually made (600), and includes a record (10) of ad-hoc (unreserved) usage.

Abstract: A computer implemented method of defining a deployment specification for one or more infrastructure components as part of a transmission network for a utility service in a defined geographic region, the region having associated environmental characteristics identifying environmental features of the region, and the region including a plurality of locations each having associated location characteristics.

Abstract: A method of maintaining a plurality of infrastructure components as part of a transmission network for a utility service in a defined geographic region having associated environmental characteristics, wherein each infrastructure component is deployed at a location in the region having associated one or more location characteristics and is of a component type having associated one or more infrastructure characteristics. The method including for each infrastructure component, executing a classifier based on one or more of the infrastructure characteristics, the location characteristics, and the environmental characteristics to forecast a measure of susceptibility of the infrastructure component to one or more operational impediments.

Abstract: A method of defining a deployment specification for one or more infrastructure components as part of a transmission network for a utility service in a defined geographic region includes receiving a deployment specification for each of a plurality of deployment options, each received specification including a location and type of one or more infrastructure components for deployment in the region, each type of infrastructure component having associated infrastructure characteristics, and each location having associated location characteristics.

Abstract: This invention provides a method for ranking contextual data of a plurality of data packages in a Knowledge Management System (KMS) as a computer system configured to store information on the maintenance of an apparatus, wherein each data package of the plurality of data packages includes a data part relating to maintenance of the apparatus, a first metadata part for the data part having a first metadata value and representing a first contextual information type and a second metadata part for the data part having a second metadata value and representing a second contextual information type, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a first and second relevance value for the first and second contextual information type respectively for a first data package, wherein the first and second relevance values represent the relevance of the first and second contextual information types of the first data part to the maintenance of the apparatus; receiving a third and fourth relevance value for the first and second

Abstract: A computer implemented method of adapting a software defined network (SDN), the SDN operating with a set of network appliances in communication via network connections and the SDN comprising a control component operable in communication with at least a subset of the network appliances to control communication via the SDN, the method including receiving a representation of the logical arrangement of the SDN including a definition of appliances configured to provide communication for the SDN and network connections therebetween; receiving a measure of a performance metric for the SDN; receiving a forecast demand for the SDN; using a heuristic search to search a library of possible adaptations to the logical arrangement to identify a sequence of adaptations of the SDN that, when implemented, satisfy the forecast demand for the SDN and provide an improved measure of the performance metric of the SDN; applying the identified sequence of adaptations to the SDN by modifying the logical arrangement for use by the con

Abstract: A computer implemented method of scheduling maintenance tasks for a target device, the device having a unique device type, comprising: retrieving, from a sequential transactional database, a series of transactions for each of a plurality of devices having the device type, each transaction corresponding to a change of state of one of the other devices; training a recurrent neural network based on each retrieved series of transactions as a predictor of a subsequent change of state of a device having the device type; retrieving, from a sequential transactional database, a series of transactions for the target device, each transaction corresponding to a change of state of the device; predicting a next maintenance task for the target device based on the series of transactions for the target device applied to the recurrent neural network; scheduling the predicted next maintenance task for the target device.

Abstract: A method for deploying virtualized network functions (VNFs) as virtualized implementations of logical network devices in a virtualized computing environment for providing network services, the method including determining a VNF deployment plan including a specification, for each point in time over a planning period, of zero or more VNF instances to be released at the point in time and zero or more VNF instances to be deployed at the point in time, wherein the deployment plan is determined by an optimization function based on: a constraint on a number of VNFs in all states of undeployed, being deployed, deployed and being release; constraints based on a demand for VNFs defined by characteristics of the VNFs and the virtualized computing environment; and constraints based on a capacity of the virtualized computing environment to accommodate a resource consumption of the VNFs, and wherein the optimization function is configured to minimize one or more of: a number of VNFs in a deployed state; and a resource cost

Abstract: A method of dimensioning a link in a telecommunications network, and a device for implementing the method, the method including determining, for a first plurality of sets of traffic observations, wherein each set of the first plurality of sets includes a series of traffic observations each indicating the amount of traffic on a link within an observation interval of a particular duration for that set, a peak value of a traffic observation of the series of traffic observations within each set of the first plurality of sets and an average value of the series of traffic observations within each set of the first plurality of sets; calculating a first peak to average ratio for each observation interval duration based on the determined peak and average values within each set of the first plurality of sets; determining a goodness of fit value for a power function of the first peak to average ratio against its respective observation interval duration; selecting a dimensioning interval duration based on the determined

Abstract: A method for deploying virtualized network functions (VNFs) as virtualized implementations of logical network devices in a virtualized computing environment for providing network services, the method including determining a VNF deployment plan including a specification, for each point in time over a planning period, of zero or more VNF instances to be released at the point in time and zero or more VNF instances to be deployed at the point in time, wherein the deployment plan is determined by an optimization function based on: a constraint on a number of VNFs in all states of undeployed, being deployed, deployed and being release; constraints based on a demand for VNFs defined by characteristics of the VNFs and the virtualized computing environment; and constraints based on a capacity of the virtualized computing environment to accommodate a resource consumption of the VNFs, and wherein the optimization function is configured to minimize one or more of: a number of VNFs in a deployed state; and a resource cost

Abstract: A computer implemented method of adapting a software defined network (SDN), the SDN operating with a set of network appliances in communication via network connections and the SDN comprising a control component operable in communication with at least a subset of the network appliances to control communication via the SDN, the method including receiving a representation of the logical arrangement of the SDN including a definition of appliances configured to provide communication for the SDN and network connections therebetween; receiving a measure of a performance metric for the SDN; receiving a forecast demand for the SDN; using a heuristic search to search a library of possible adaptations to the logical arrangement to identify a sequence of adaptations of the SDN that, when implemented, satisfy the forecast demand for the SDN and provide an improved measure of the performance metric of the SDN; applying the identified sequence of adaptations to the SDN by modifying the logical arrangement for use by the con

Abstract: An optimum configuration of resources in a network function virtualisation data network is identified by assembling candidate configurations of resources (243), each configuration being an arrangement of the resources into clusters selected such that each cluster provides one or more required services, (212, 213) and assessing the candidate configurations (step 400) to identify an optimum configuration, the assessment of each configuration including measurement of latency (195) in physical links between the resources and, for each candidate configuration, determination of the total latency between the resources within each cluster of the configuration, for a predicted level and pattern of traffic associated with the required service to be operated by each cluster.

Abstract: A computer implemented method of optimization of a software defined network (SDN) for a network application, the SDN including an SDN controller for configuring a plurality of network components to deliver a network service for the network application, each network component having a measurable metric for each of a plurality of characteristics of the component relating to a performance of the component, the method including accessing, for each network component, a measure for each of the metrics to classify the component for a characteristic corresponding to the metric according to a fuzzy logic classification scheme; defining a plurality of configurations of network components suitable for providing the network service; and selecting a configuration of the network components to provide the network application based on an optimization function optimizing the network components in terms of classifications of each network component.

Abstract: This invention provides a method for ranking contextual data of a plurality of data packages in a Knowledge Management System (KMS) as a computer system configured to store information on the maintenance of an apparatus, wherein each data package of the plurality of data packages includes a data part relating to maintenance of the apparatus, a first metadata part for the data part having a first metadata value and representing a first contextual information type and a second metadata part for the data part having a second metadata value and representing a second contextual information type, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a first and second relevance value for the first and second contextual information type respectively for a first data package, wherein the first and second relevance values represent the relevance of the first and second contextual information types of the first data part to the maintenance of the apparatus; receiving a third and fourth relevance value for the first and second

Abstract: A method of dimensioning a link in a telecommunications network, and a device for implementing the method, the method including determining, for a first plurality of sets of traffic observations, wherein each set of the first plurality of sets includes a series of traffic observations each indicating the amount of traffic on a link within an observation interval of a particular duration for that set, a peak value of a traffic observation of the series of traffic observations within each set of the first plurality of sets and an average value of the series of traffic observations within each set of the first plurality of sets; calculating a first peak to average ratio for each observation interval duration based on the determined peak and average values within each set of the first plurality of sets; determining a goodness of fit value for a power function of the first peak to average ratio against its respective observation interval duration; selecting a dimensioning interval duration based on the determined

Abstract: A method for designating a class of data content for determining how the content will be handled by a content delivery network (CDN) into one of: a transport designation by which content is transported from an entrance node to one or more edge nodes; a caching designation by which the content is stored at one or more edge nodes; and a hybrid designation by which content is stored at a node in the CDN for subsequent transport to one or more edge nodes in the CDN, the method comprising: determining a set of one or more transport designation options; determining a set of one or more caching designation options; determining a set of one or more hybrid designation options; determining a normalised measure resource requirement for each of the transport, caching and hybrid designation options; and selecting one designation option for the class of content from all of the transport, caching and hybrid designation options by an optimisation function for selecting the designation option based on the determined normalise

Abstract: A data management process determines, from user-implemented provisional reservations (400) for data processing resources, a projected total capacity requirement for each said data processing resource, by maintaining a record (9, 90, 91) recording previous such reservations made by each user and comparing each reservations with records (87, 88, 89) of the actual resources used, to provide an estimate of resources required to meet the projected capacity requirement, and to provide data for a demand management processor (2), which control associated configurable data processing equipment (1) to provide the resources required to meet the estimated capacity required. The process takes account of over- and under-ordering of capacity by comparing each reservation (400) with the use actually made (600), and includes a record (10) of ad-hoc (unreserved) usage.

Abstract: A method for designating a class of data content for determining how the content will be handled by a content delivery network (CDN) into one of: a transport designation by which content is transported from an entrance node to one or more edge nodes; a caching designation by which the content is stored at one or more edge nodes; and a hybrid designation by which content is stored at a node in the CDN for subsequent transport to one or more edge nodes in the CDN, the method comprising: determining a set of one or more transport designation options; determining a set of one or more caching designation options; determining a set of one or more hybrid designation options; determining a normalised measure resource requirement for each of the transport, caching and hybrid designation options; and selecting one designation option for the class of content from all of the transport, caching and hybrid designation options by an optimisation function for selecting the designation option based on the determined normalise