TIRKS

TIRKS was originally an acronym for the Trunks Integrated Record Keeping System developed by the Bell System during the late 1970s. This Operations Support System was developed for inventory and order control management of interoffice trunk circuits that interconnect telephone switches. It grew to encompass and automate many functions required to build the ever-expanding data transport network. Supporting circuits from POTS and 150 baud modems up through T1, DS3, SONET and DWDM, it continues to evolve today, and unlike many software technologies today, provides complete backward compatibility. TIRKS was recently updated with a Java GUI, XML API, and WORD Sketch, which provides graphical views of the TIRKS Work Order Record and Details Document as well as SONET and DWDM networks. When TIRKS became a registered trademark in 1987, it became technically improper to use it as an acronym. TIRKS was one of many OSS technologies transferred to Bell Communications Research as part of the Modification of Final Judgment related to the AT&T divestiture on January 1, 1984. In the 1990s, the Facility and Equipment Planning System (FEPS) and Planning Workstation System (PWS) products were incorporated into the Telcordia TIRKS CE System now owned and managed by Telcordia Technologies and still in use at AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, and Cincinnati Bell Telephone. See [http://www.telcordia.com/products/tirks/index.html] for details.