Untersuchung von HelpDesk-Systemen der Kommunikationsbranche

The fast availability of technical solutions is important to businesses facing problems occurred in the IT infrastructure. The removal of these problems can be ensured by means of helpdesk systems (labor organization). The helpdesk system is supported by independently operating IT systems such as trouble ticket systems, network management systems, and network documentation systems. The subject of this study is the further development and integration of these IT support systems. The concept of the trouble ticket systems is further developed into flexibly customizable information management and information exchange systems. A generic model of a helpdesk application has been developed for this purpose. The core of the generic model is a state-space-based control system which represents a new form of controlling, regulating, and monitoring information flows in helpdesk systems. The applicability of the generic model has been proved by means of a prototype implementation. Since all trouble ticket systems analyzed in the scope of the study are based on a client-server architecture, possible advantages of using another type of architecture for setting up a helpdesk application have to be verified. As an example, an architectural concept has been designed for a helpdesk application based on mobile agents. This concept offers advantages regarding the utilization of the network resources. Its high potential for the development of adaptation and automation options by far exceeds the one of current client-server-based systems. Umbrella management systems are used for network management. They merely provide monitoring features. Due to their architecture, they cannot perform automated network management. The basic requirement for the automation of network management is the network documentation. In the scope of this study, a layer-model of the network documentation has been created. This model divides the network into the functional layers as required for a network documentation. This new type of network documentation permits the integration of up-to-date operating state data into the network model. By linking the topology information with the operating state data, new approaches for creating model-based impact and root cause analyses have been developed. For the purpose of setting up automated network management, an architectural concept for active network management has been created in the scope of this study. In contrast to existing systems, this concept does not limit the number of error cases that can be processed automatically.