SONET equipment cost modeling based on AI technology

The SONET network was designed to reduce the complexity, cost and number of transmission systems in the public network. To gain the full economic and service benefits which SONET may offer, new network planning tools must be developed. Domain knowledge representation and the cost calculating algorithm are keystones for successful SONET planning. This paper presents a flexible SONET equipment cost modeling. The key concepts are generic equipment tree and a parameter controlled top-down search. All available SONET equipment can be represented in a tree structure. A feasible equipment configuration can be generated by the top-down search and control parameters to calculate the installed first cost of the required network elements in various applications