Improving Fault Device Identification Method using Alarm Clustering Approach

Identifying the fault device is one of the important tasks for network operators so that operators can immediately take action for the fault device in a communication network. Many methods have been developed to automate the identification of the fault device, and these methods assume only a single cause, such as hardware failure, which generates alarms. However, alarms are generated simultaneously due to multiple events (i.e., failure, construction work, and notification for operators) in a production communication network. This paper addresses the challenge of identifying fault devices in communication networks, which is complicated by the simultaneous occurrence of alarms from multiple events. We introduce a method utilizing alarm clustering to improve the accuracy of fault device identification by effectively distinguishing between these mixed alarms. Our evaluation was conducted using dataset in a real-world production environment more than one month and demonstrated significant enhancements in identifying faulty devices.