ISDN disconnect alarm generation tool for use in voice over IP (VoIP) networks

• US 20030023714A1
• Filed: 05/31/2001
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Farber, Sol, Ziegler, Fred R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,051,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/08 ISDN systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/08 Indicating faults in circuits or apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1245 where a network other than PSTN/ISDN interconnects two PSTN/ISDN networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13162 Fault indication and localisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13163 Fault alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13166 Fault prevention
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0025 Provisions for signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0087 Network testing or monitoring arrangements

Abstract

An alarm generation tool that operates within a Voice over IP (VoIP) network environment to generate alarms based on ISDN disconnect cause codes. The tool examines call-specific usage records associated with VoIP traffic to detect ISDN disconnect cause codes and determines failure rate information from failure-type disconnect cause codes among the ISDN disconnect cause codes on a per-gateway basis. The tool generates alarms when the failure rate information, such as failure rates and/or counts, exceeds defined thresholds.

Claims

1. A method of detecting network failures in a Voice over IP (VoIP) network comprising:

producing failure rate information from VoIP call usage records associated with VoIP call traffic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein producing comprises:

examining the VOIP call usage records at given time intervals; and

producing the failure rate information for each of the given time intervals.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining, for each time interval, if the failure rate information exceeds a defined threshold; and

generating an alarm if it is determined that the failure rate information exceeds the defined threshold.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein producing comprises:

extracting information from the VOIP call usage records;

generating from the extracted information a list identifying disconnect cause codes for each network element for which such information is collected and associating with each of the disconnect cause codes a count corresponding to a number of occurrences in the VOIP call usage records; and

determining, for each network element, a total count corresponding to a total number of the disconnect cause codes and a failure count corresponding to a number of failure type disconnect cause codes included among the identified disconnect cause codes.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the network element is a VOIP gateway.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the disconnect cause codes are ISDN disconnect cause codes.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the failure rate information is produced for each network element.

8. The method of claim 7, where the failure rate information comprises a failure rate based on the determined failure count and total count.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the failure rate is specified as a percentage of disconnect cause codes represented by the failure type disconnect cause codes.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the failure rate information further comprises the failure count.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining if the failure rate information exceeds a defined threshold comprises determining if the failure rate exceeds a predetermined failure rate threshold and the failure count exceeds a predetermined failure count threshold and wherein generating an alarm comprises generating an alarm if both of the thresholds are exceeded.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein generating comprises:

reporting the failure rate information electronically.

13. A method of detecting network failures in a Voice over IP (VoIP) network comprising:

producing a failure rate from VOIP call usage records associated with VOIP call traffic for a given time interval;

determining if the failure rate exceeds a defined threshold; and

generating an alarm if it is determined that the failure rate exceeds the defined threshold.

14. A method of identifying network failures in a Voice over IP (VoIP) network comprising:

generating alarms from VoIP call usage records.

15. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for identifying network failures in a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, comprising instructions for causing a computer to:

produce failure rate information from VoIP call usage records associated with VOIP call traffic;

determine if the failure rate information exceeds a defined threshold; and

generate an alarm if it is determined that the failure rate information exceeds the defined threshold.