Evaluation of mobile device state and performance metrics for diagnosis and troubleshooting of performance issues

• US 10,162,693 B1
• Filed: 10/18/2012
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Contino, Jeffrey Ronald, Delker, Jason R., Salge, Jason, Stone, M. Jeffrey, Waldrop, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Henderson, Esther B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Ronak
• Application Number:
  US13/655,333
• Time in Patent Office: 2,259 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0742 in a data processing system embedded in a mobile device, e.g. mobile phones, handheld devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

A method of troubleshooting a mobile device receiving at a diagnostic server an initial snapshot of characteristics from a mobile device, wherein the initial snapshot includes metrics that will identify the mobile device, elements that will expose a performance issue related to the mobile device, and metrics that enable determination of a corrective action for remedying the performance issues, determining with a diagnostic processor the performance issue based on the initial snapshot, receiving at an evaluating server an after-care snapshot of the characteristics from the mobile device after a corrective action has been performed on the mobile device, and determining with an evaluating processor whether the corrective action remedied the performance issue based on the after-care snapshot.

Claims

1. A method of troubleshooting with a diagnostic agent on a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device, the diagnostic agent prior to contacting a customer service representative or a diagnostic server wirelessly for diagnosis and solution, and storing, by the mobile device, the diagnostic agent to a non-transitory memory of the mobile device, wherein the diagnostic agent includes instructions that cause the mobile device to monitor parameters of the mobile device and to record events related to the parameters into a log file stored in the non-transitory memory of the mobile device;

receiving, in a non-transitory memory at a diagnostic server from the diagnostic agent executed by a processor on the mobile device, an initial snapshot of characteristics from the mobile device via the diagnostic agent, wherein the initial snapshot of characteristics includes an identity of the mobile device, a state of the mobile device, and metrics related to the mobile device that enable determination of at least one corrective action for remedying performance issues;

determining, by the diagnostic server, a performance issue associated with at least the mobile device based on the initial snapshot;

automatically initiating, by the diagnostic server, a corrective action based on the determination of the performance issue, wherein the corrective action is performed on the mobile device in response to the initiating;

subsequent to the automatic initiation of the corrective action, receiving, in a non-transitory memory at the diagnostic server, an after-care snapshot of the characteristics from the mobile device in response to the corrective action being performed on the mobile device;

determining, by the diagnostic server, that the corrective action remedied the performance issue for the mobile device based on the after-care snapshot;

after a predefined period of time after acquisition of the after-care snapshot, receiving, in a non-transitory memory at the diagnostic server, a second after-care snapshot of the characteristics from the mobile device, wherein the after-care snapshot and the second after-care snapshot comprise mobile device performance information;

determining, by the diagnostic server, that the corrective action continued to remedy the performance issue for the mobile device based on the second after-care snapshot;

receiving, by the diagnostic server from a plurality of mobile devices, a plurality of snapshots that each correspond with one mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices associated with a service provider;

determining, by the diagnostic server, that a pattern exists from the plurality of snapshots, wherein the pattern is related to information provided by a diagnostic agent on at least one of the plurality of mobile devices;

identifying, by the diagnostic server, a potential issue in the plurality of mobile devices and determining a solution to the potential issue based on the pattern determined; and

updating, by the diagnostic server, the plurality of mobile devices with the solution, wherein each of the plurality of mobile devices is updated with the solution before the potential issue manifests on the plurality of mobile devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the diagnostic server, the corrective action based on the determination of the performance issue; and

providing, by the diagnostic server for the mobile device via a network, a message having a description of the performance issue determined and the corrective action initiated for remedying the performance issues.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial snapshot of characteristics comprises at least one of:

a log file, a memory dump, a serial number of the mobile device, a serial number of hardware included in the mobile device, a serial number of software installed on the mobile device, a serial number of firmware installed on the mobile device, on/off settings on the mobile device, or user settings of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial snapshot of characteristics comprises:

a log file, a memory dump, a serial number of the mobile device, a serial number of hardware included in the mobile device, a serial number of software installed on the mobile device, a serial number of firmware installed on the mobile device, on/off settings on the mobile device, and user settings of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the monitored parameters and the log file are included in at least one of the initial snapshot or the after-care snapshot.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance issue comprises at least one of:

handset malfunctions, a connectivity issue associated with communicative coupling to a network, dropped calls, hardware malfunctions, software issues, damage to the mobile device, or battery performance that is determined by the diagnostic server as being inferior based on data analyzed from a data store.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of mobile devices has not implemented a corrective action.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

updating, by the diagnostic server, a list of corrective actions in the non-transitory memory of a data store in response to identifying the potential issue.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

initiating, by the diagnostic server, a second corrective action to at least one of the plurality of mobile devices based the potential issue and prior to the at least one mobile device manifesting the potential issue.

7. A method of troubleshooting with a diagnostic agent executing on a mobile device, comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device, the diagnostic agent prior to contacting a customer service representative or a diagnostic server wirelessly for diagnosis and solution, and storing, by the mobile device, the diagnostic agent to a non-transitory memory of the mobile device, wherein the diagnostic agent includes instructions that cause the mobile device to monitor parameters of the mobile device and to record events related to the parameters into a log file stored in the non-transitory memory of the mobile device;

receiving, in a non-transitory memory at a diagnostic server from the diagnostic agent executed by a processor on the mobile device, an initial snapshot of mobile device characteristics associated with the mobile device, wherein the initial snapshot comprises mobile device state information and static diagnostic information;

determining, by the diagnostic server executing a diagnostic application that configures a processor, that the mobile device has a performance issue based on an analysis of the mobile device state information and the static diagnostic information;

determining, by the diagnostic server, corrective action that is recommended for the mobile device based on the performance issue and past corrective actions taken on other mobile devices that experienced the performance issue, wherein the past corrective actions are stored in a non-transitory memory of a solutions data store communicatively coupled with the diagnostic server;

updating, by the diagnostic server, the corrective action based on a determination that a pattern exists from a plurality of snapshots from a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the pattern is related to information provided by a diagnostic agent on at least one of the plurality of mobile devices;

automatically initiating, by the diagnostic server, implementation of the updated corrective action on the mobile device based on determining the performance issue, past corrective actions taken on the other mobile devices, and the pattern determined, wherein each of the plurality of mobile devices implements the updated corrective action before the potential issue manifests on the plurality of mobile devices;

subsequent to the automatic initiation of the updated corrective action, receiving, at the diagnostic server via the diagnostic agent of the mobile device, an after-care snapshot of the mobile device characteristics in response to implementation of the updated corrective action on the mobile device;

determining, by the diagnostic server, a success rate for the updated corrective action implemented on the mobile device based on at least the after-care snapshot;

after a predefined period of time after acquisition of the after-care snapshot, receiving, at the diagnostic server via the diagnostic agent on the mobile device, a second after-care snapshot of the characteristics from the mobile device, wherein the after-care snapshot and the second after-care snapshot comprise mobile device performance information; and

determining, by the diagnostic server, that the corrective action continued to remedy the performance issue for the mobile device based on the second after-care snapshot.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining, by the diagnostic server, a next corrective action in response to the success rate determined for the corrective action being below a threshold, wherein the threshold corresponds with failure to resolve the performance issue.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

updating, via the diagnostic server, a list of corrective actions in the non-transitory memory of the solutions data store that reflects results of implementing the updated corrective action on the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the solutions data store comprises an association of at least one performance issue with an identity of a type of mobile device and with at least one recommended solution of a plurality of recommended solutions, each recommended solution being a corrective action.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each recommended solution indicates the frequency with which the implementation of that recommended solution resulted in a successful resolution of the performance issue, and wherein the determining the corrective action comprises selecting one of the plurality of recommended solutions having a highest success rate in resolving performance issues of other mobile devices.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the after-care snapshot is received, in a non-transitory memory coupled to the diagnostic server, less than about a day after implementation of the updated corrective action on the mobile device.