An intelligent assistant for the management of telecommunications network services

The complexity in the provision of telecommunications services has increased tremendously as a result of full network digitization. A rule-based system that fills a practical need of telecommunications network operators such as Hong Kong Telecom has been developed. It provides an intelligent interface between the mainframe-based Service Order Processing System and the digital exchanges. The system is designed using conventional rule-based expert system techniques. We describe its design and knowledge domain involved. A prototype is being tested. This is the first such system designed specifically for service provisioning in real operating environments that has been reported in the literature to the best of the authors´ knowledge