System, tool and method for network monitoring and corresponding network

• US 20030219018A1
• Filed: 05/20/2003
• Published: 11/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke KPN NV
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke KPN NV
• Inventors: Van Der Burg, Johannes Cornelis, Scheers, Harry Wilhelmus
• Granted Patent: US 7,466,672 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/12 Counting circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2254 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

A system, method and tool for monitoring switching events in a network with at least two nodes, and a corresponding network, the system, method and tool including means for representing the events originated from different nodes as data in a uniform format, and means for counting the occurrence of events in a node of the network wherein switching events being represented as the same data are counted as the same event.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring switching events in a network with at least two nodes, the system comprising:

means for representing the switching events originated from different nodes as data in a uniform format; and

means for counting the occurrence of the switching events in the nodes of the network as the counting of said data wherein switching events being represented as the same data are counted as the same event.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein switching events having the same routing destination are represented as the same data.

3. The system as recited in claim 2 wherein a subset of said events are counted, said subset being defined based on the network quality perception of a subscriber of the network.

4. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein the counted data are processed according to predetermined rules and wherein the processed data are compared with threshold levels.

5. The system as recited in claim 4 further comprising means for adapting said threshold levels on-line depending on the analysis of the processed data.

6. The system as recited in claim 4 wherein the counting data and/or the processed data are listed in separate object-types of events.

7. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein said network is a communications, optionally mobile communications, network and wherein said nodes are switching centres.

8. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein said network is a network for communication between a first communication device and a second communication device, the network comprising network elements and a switching centre management system, the network elements being linked together and comprising switching centres as said nodes and said centres being arranged, in use, to generate at least one switching event to the other network elements during a connecting phase of the communication between the first communication device and the second communication device, and the switching centre being arranged to count the switching events, and wherein the switching centre management system is being connected to the at least one switching centre and being arranged to read the values of the switching event counters, and wherein the system is arranged to perform the representation of the switching events in said uniform format to obtain classified switching events by using number analysis of a phone number selected by the first communication device to address the second communication device during the connecting phase.

9. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the classified switching events are divided into at least two of the following categories

traffic destinations of the phone number selected;

traffic signalling relating to traffic management functions for the communication between the first and second communication device;

processing load of the at least one mobile switching centre.

10. The system as recited in claim 8 further comprising a control computer system (CPC) and at least one information management system (IM1), the control computer system (CPC) comprising a processor (21), memory units (18, 19, 22, 23, 24), and an input/output port (31), the processor (21) being connected to the memory units (18, 19, 22, 23, 24) and to the input/output port (31), the control computer system further being arranged to communicate via the input/output port (31) to the switching centre management system (SCMS) and to the at least one information management system (IM1) which is capable of displaying information related to the classified switching event counters.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 wherein the control computer system (CPC) is arranged to carry out at least one of the steps of the following procedure:

reading the values of the classified switching event counters from the switching centre management system (SCMS);

storing the read values of the classified switching event counters in a traffic database file (TDF) in the memory units (18, 19, 22, 23, 24) of the control computer system (CPC);

comparing the values of the classified switching event counters in the traffic database file (TDF) with respective threshold values stored in a threshold data file (TF) in the memory units (18, 19, 22, 23, 24), for determining if a value of a classified switching event counter is within a normal operating range;

storing the value of the classified switching event counter in an output alert file, if the value of the classified switching event counter is out-of-normal-operating-range;

outputting the stored values of classified switching event counters in the output alert file to the switching centre management system (SCMS)

Collecting the output alert file by at least one information management system (IM1).

12. The system as recited in claim 11 wherein the switching centre management system (SCMS) repeats the reading of the values of the switching event counters of the plurality of switching events from the at least one mobile switching centre (MSC) at a regular interval, whereupon the switching event counters in the at least one mobile switching centre (MSC) are reset to zero.

13. A network for mobile communication with at least two nodes, the network comprising a system for monitoring switching events in the network, the system comprising:

means for representing the switching events originated from different nodes as data in a uniform format; and

means for counting the occurrence of the switching events in the nodes of the network as the counting of said data wherein switching events being represented as the same data are counted as the same event.

14. A tool for monitoring switching events in a network with at least two nodes, the tool being compiled on a computer environment or stored on a memory carrier, the tool comprising:

means for representing the switching events originated from different nodes as data in a uniform format; and

means for counting the occurrence of the switching events in the nodes of the network as the counting of said data wherein switching events being represented as the same data are counted as the same event.

15. A method for monitoring switching events in a network with at least two nodes, the method comprising the steps of:

representing the switching events originated from different nodes as data in a uniform format; and

counting the occurrence of switching events in the nodes of the network as the counting of said data wherein switching events being represented as the same data are counted as the same event.

16. A method for improving the quality of a network with at least two nodes, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring switching events in the network;

representing the switching events originated from different nodes as data in a uniform format; and

counting the occurrence of switching events in a node of the network as the counting of said data wherein switching events being represented as the same data are counted as the same event;

processing the counted data according to predetermined rules comparing the processed data with threshold levels; and

adapting the network elements based on an analysis of the number of times threshold levels have been passed.