MICE: A Facility Maintenance Expert System (NOT KNOWN IF PUBLISHED BECAUSE AUTHOR HAS LEFT AT&T)

This paper describes the Metropolitan Inter-office Carrier Expert (MICE). MICE is an expert system that pinpoints the cause of chronic digital carrier failures. Metropolitan digital carrier networks are heterogeneous transmission paths composed of DS1 terminating equipment, multiplexers, and various transmission facilities. Every piece of equipment and facility comprising a carrier is a potential failure point. The current method of maintaining this network is through the use of Operations Systems that collect and report alarms generated by carrier equipment.