“TERESA: An Integrated System for Network Diagnoses”

Abstract

The TERESA system (Trouble Evaluation and Resolution via Expert System Application) is a distributed expert system that provides automated diagnoses of transmission problems in AT&T’s digital communication network. Its domain of operation is challenging, requiring collection and analysis of large amounts of information from equipment and systems in disparate locations and cooperation among the processors in the distributed system. Through its distributed design, TERESA secures reliable local communications with operations support systems throughout the network and can serve users in a variety of locations. TERESA employs its wide area networking capability to obtain global alarm correlation information and to perform cooperative trouble diagnosis from both ends of a circuit. The trouble shooting application program is an expert system knowledge base consisting of rules garnered from human experts.

This paper examines how database, communications, and expert system technology are integrated in TERESA to provide reliable, fault-tolerant automation of network maintenance tasks.