System facilitating prediction, detection and mitigation of network or device issues in communication systems

• US 10,419,274 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2017
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.), AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stephens, Michael, Brisebois, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Cho, Hong S
• Application Number:
  US15/836,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20190182105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 648 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Systems, methods and/or machine-readable storage media facilitating prediction, detection and mitigation of network or device issues in a communication system are provided. An embodiment can comprise: determining whether an identified problem of a device has an associated defined solution stored in a repository of information; transmitting solution information representative of the associated defined solution to the device for application of the solution information to the device in a manner determined to have less than a defined amount of impact on the device and in accordance with defined security protocols of the device; and assessing a performance of the device after application of the solution information to the device to determine whether the solution information solved the identified problem. In some embodiments, solution detection can be performed such that based on a determination that the identified problem has been removed, the change that caused the identified problem can be determined.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

determining whether an identified problem of a device has an associated defined solution stored in a repository of information;

transmitting solution information representative of the associated defined solution to the device for application of the solution information to the device in a manner determined to have less than a defined amount of impact on the device and in accordance with defined security protocols associated with the device; and

assessing a performance of the device after the application of the solution information to the device to determine whether a corrective configuration solved the identified problem, wherein the solution information comprises the corrective configuration comprising computer executable code, wherein the assessing the performance comprises;

comparing a first performance of the device prior to the transmitting the solution information comprising the corrective configuration to a second performance of the device after the transmitting the solution information comprising the corrective configuration; and

in response to determining that the second performance of the device more closely satisfies a defined condition for the device than the first performance of the device, determining that the corrective configuration is selectable to solve the identified problem.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the corrective configuration comprises a first corrective configuration and the operations further comprise:

selecting between the first corrective configuration and a second corrective configuration based on a comparison between a first confidence factor value associated with the first corrective configuration being determined to solve the identified problem and a second confidence factor value associated with the second corrective configuration being determined to solve the identified problem.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

monitoring a trend of a metric value associated with performance of the device; and

predicting that the device is going to have the identified problem prior to the identified problem occurring based on a result of the monitoring of the trend.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

updating information of the repository to indicate that the corrective configuration is a candidate corrective configuration for the identified problem based on the determining that the second performance of the device more closely satisfies the defined condition for the device than the first performance of the device, wherein the repository stores corrective configurations.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise:

performing solution detection such that based on a determination that the identified problem has been removed, identifying a change that caused the identified problem.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing a confidence factor value in the repository to indicate that the corrective configuration is associated with a defined confidence factor value for the identified problem, wherein the defined confidence factor value for the corrective configuration is based on a determination of how well the corrective configuration has satisfied the defined condition for the device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the repository comprises:

first previous solution information applied to types of devices, second previous solution information applied to brands of devices, third previous solution information applied during a defined event, fourth previous solution information applied during a defined condition, or fifth previous solution information applied during the identified problem.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a mobile device.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a network device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device comprises an internet of things device.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

in a network comprising the repository to which the device is communicatively coupled, cataloging in the repository a change that occurred within an amount of time, wherein the amount of time is defined from before or after a time that the identified problem was resolved.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a group of network devices to which to deploy the corrective configuration based on the change and conditions of the group of network devices.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device is a first device, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from a second device for the apparatus to apply the solution information to the second device based on the second device matching, in the repository, the identified problem with a condition of the second device.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the repository comprises an open source repository accessible by third-party devices to allow the third-party devices to add or access the identified problem and the solution information for the identified problem.

15. A method comprising:

determining, by a first device comprising a processor, whether an identified problem of a second device has an associated defined solution stored in a repository of information;

transmitting, by the first device, solution information representative of the associated defined solution to the second device for application of the solution information to the second device in a manner determined to have less than a defined amount of impact on the second device and in accordance with defined security protocols associated with the second device; and

assessing, by the first device, a performance of the second device after the application of the solution information to the second device to determine whether a corrective configuration solved the identified problem, wherein the solution information comprises the corrective configuration comprising computer executable code, and wherein the assessing the performance comprises;

comparing a first performance of the second device prior to the transmitting the solution information comprising the corrective configuration to a second performance of the second device after the transmitting the solution information comprising the corrective configuration; and

in response to determining that the second performance of the second device more closely achieves a defined condition for the second device than the first performance of the second device, determining that the corrective configuration is a choices that is appropriate to solve the identified problem.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the repository comprises an open source repository accessible by third-party devices to allow the third-party devices to add or access the identified problem and the solution information for the identified problem.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

identifying, by the first device, a group of network devices to which to deploy the corrective configuration based on conditions of the group of network devices and a change that occurred within an amount of time, wherein the amount of time is defined from before a time that the identified problem was resolved.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

determining whether an identified problem of a device has an associated defined solution stored in a repository of information;

transmitting solution information representative of the associated defined solution to the device for application of the solution information to the device in a manner determined to have less than a defined amount of impact on the device and in accordance with defined security protocols associated with the device; and

assessing a performance of the device after the application of the solution information to the device to determine whether a corrective configuration solved the identified problem, wherein the solution information comprises the corrective configuration comprising computer executable code, wherein the assessing the performance comprises;

comparing a first performance of the device, the first performance being from a first time that is prior to the transmitting the solution information comprising the corrective configuration, to a second performance of the device, the second performance being from a second time that is after the transmitting the solution information comprising the corrective configuration; and

in response to determining that the second performance of the device better satisfies a defined criterion for the device than the first performance of the device, determining that the corrective configuration is able to solve the identified problem.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

updating information of the repository to indicate that the corrective configuration is a candidate corrective configuration for the identified problem based on the determining that the second performance of the device better satisfies the defined criterion for the device than the first performance of the device, wherein the repository stores corrective configurations comprising the corrective configuration.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

based on a determination that the identified problem is no longer present, identifying a change that occurred within an amount of time that caused the identified problem, wherein the amount of time is defined from after a time that the identified problem was resolved.