Abstract: A network capacity management system and method are disclosed. In one form, a capacity management system for use with an optical network includes a network capacity management engine operable to actively access a network element. The system further includes a network-based application interface associated with the network capacity management engine. The application may facilitate providing information associated with a network element to a user in near real-time.

Abstract: The present invention discusses a computerized method for managing a communication network through processing data used in a Capacity Management System (CMS) associated with the communication network. A configurable grammar, such as an XML grammar with regular expressions, is used to implement various aspects of network management. Data management includes pre-processing data (transferring data, decompressing data, parsing data), loading data into a relational database, and data analysis. Results of data analysis can be used to determine a network condition, and thereby to enable network management.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for storing element information. A method incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, creating a structured text object that includes information representing a collection of metrics for a tracked network node. The network node may be, for example, a computing device, a communication link, and/or an interface mechanism. In practice, the text object may be compressed into a binary element, and the binary element may be stored in a data store.

Abstract: A system includes a capacity management tool. The capacity management tool is configured to be coupled to one or more of an application layer, a physical layer, and a transport layer of a processor-based network. In a particular embodiment, the capacity management tool is further configured to extract data from one or more of a network connectivity database, a customer provisioning and services ordered database, a customer equipment database, a network element management system database, and a server and application management system database. The capacity management tool can be further configured to correlate the data to manage the capacity of the network or isolate congestion points in the network.