Patents by Inventor Lee Dennis Bengston

Lee Dennis Bengston has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6418117
    Abstract: To ensure the integrity of a telecommunications network provisioned with a distributed restoration algorithm (DRA), a communications network is provided for routing signaling messages such as DRA restoration and maintenance messages among the various nodes of the network. Thus, while data is sent among the nodes via the working links interconnecting the various nodes, signal messages are communicated among the various nodes by way of the independent communications network, which may be a wide area network. By reallocating the signal messages to a separate network, an efficient telecommunications network is effected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: MCI WorldCom, Inc.
    Inventors: Jasvantrai C. Shah, Lee Dennis Bengston, Clint Allen Wagner, Hal Badt
  • Patent number: 6337846
    Abstract: In a telecommunications network provisioned with a distributed restoration algorithm, the spare links via which disrupted traffic may be rerouted are categorized into different quality levels based upon their respective anticipated near term availability and reliability. There are a number of categories ranging from dedicated high quality spare links along fully functional spans to low quality spare links that act as replacements for multiple working links in the same span as the failed working link.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: MCI WorldCom, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee Dennis Bengston, Hal Badt
  • Patent number: 6222821
    Abstract: To revert the topology of a network to its original or normal state after an alternate route has been found for bypassing traffic away from a malfunctioned link that has since been repaired, an Operation Support System (OSS) sends to each of the custodial sender/chooser nodes and the tandem nodes that form the alternate route respective commands to revert the operation(s) that each node had performed during distributed restoration. The OSS is able to identify the custodial nodes by the fact that those nodes perform more operations than the tandem nodes. The operations that were performed during the distributed restoration process were recorded and the thus restored topology of the network is mapped and stored. Upon receipt from the different nodes that the malfunctioned link has been repaired, the OSS sends to each of the nodes a specific command to perform the inverse of the operation(s) that that node had performed during the restoration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2001
    Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation
    Inventors: Mark Wayne Sees, Will Russ, Lee Dennis Bengston, Clinton Allen Wagner
  • Patent number: 5680326
    Abstract: To estimate an optimal amount of spare capacity for a network so that efficient distributed restoration of the network can take place in the event of a network failure, parameter assumptions and network design guidelines are provided to a network modeling tool to generate a desirable amount of spare links for the network. The spare links are allocated to the different nodes of the network. After a failure in the network, the result of the restoration of the network due to the failure is reported to the controller of the system. If necessary, the parameter assumptions and network design guidelines are updated and fed back to the network modeling tool for further refining the spare capacity of the network. An optimal amount of spare capacity is thus achieved by a continuous redeployment of the spare capacity output provided by the network modeling tool. Simulated failures and subsequent restorations of the network are provided to an exerciser periodically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 21, 1997
    Assignee: MCI Corporation
    Inventors: Will Russ, Mark Wayne Sees, Lee Dennis Bengston, Clinton Allen Wagner
  • Patent number: 5657320
    Abstract: The present invention provides to a distributed restoration scheme a set of timers so that multiple senders and choosers can more fairly contend for the spare capacity of a telecommunications network. In particular, a preactivation timer would force a sender that had reserved excess spare capacity of the network for restoring its own failed links to release any unused spare capacity prior to the time that it terminates its operation, provided that it has found an alt-route or alt-routes for its failed link. An alarm validation timer and a hold off timer in the invention scheme further provide for respective validation and detection that a detected fault is not transient or intermittent in nature and that a restoration process is needed to find the alt-routes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 12, 1997
    Assignee: MCI Corporation
    Inventors: Will Russ, Mark Wayne Sees, Lee Dennis Bengston, Clinton Allen Wagner