A distributed architecture for customer network control

A distributed control architecture to provide both customer and telephone company control over the transport network is presented. The architecture allows the telephone company direct control over its customers service requests and the administration of customer and network databases. The distributed architecture will enhance efficiency, availability and responsiveness (faster transactions) of the network services. Functional partitioning and database partitioning are two key features in the proposed architecture, which also allows for a flexible operations system environment. The impact of intelligent terminal equipment on control architecture is discussed as well as the partitioning of control intelligence throughout the network. A phased-evolution plan is proposed as a way for the telephone companies to start with simple capabilities and advance them as the network grows.<>