Network subscriber usage recording system

• US 20040039809A1
• Filed: 06/03/2003
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Ranous, Alexander Charles, Baumann, Michael James, Raventos, Joan Simon, Mayo, Glenna G., Meyer, Jeffrey David
• Granted Patent: US 8,463,617 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network subscriber usage recording system and method with configurable audit system. In one embodiment, a network subscriber usage recording system comprises an encapsulator for reading a plurality of network subscriber metadata records from a network data source and converting the network data records to a plurality of data normalized metered events. An aggregator is provided for processing the data normalized metered events to create aggregated normalized metered events. An auditor is provided for generating audit normalized metered events based on the data normalized metered events.

Claims

1. A network subscriber usage recording system comprising:

an encapsulator for reading a plurality of network subscriber metadata records from a network data source and converting the network subscriber metadata records to a plurality of data normalized metered events;

an aggregator for processing the data normalized metered events to create aggregated normalized metered events; and

an auditor for generating audit normalized metered events based on the data normalized metered events.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a storage system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the auditor periodically stores the audit normalized metered events in the storage system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the auditor periodically stores the audit normalized metered events in the storage system according to a defined policy.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the auditor collects audit attributes, an audit attribute defined as a usage processing metric associated with the data normalized metered events.

6. The system of claim 1, the auditor further comprising an audit point located in the network subscriber usage recording system where audit attributes are collected.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the audit point is located in the encapsulator or the aggregator.

8. The system of claim 6, further wherein the auditor is configured to perform an audit operation on the usage data at the audit point to generate the attribute.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of network data records comprise a data set, and wherein the auditor is configured to operate on the data set for processing large volumes of network data.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising an exception audit applied to the data sets, to enable detailed audit of individual data events to provide fine audit granularity down to individual records or record fields.

11. The system of claim 1, comprising a collector that comprises the encapsulator and the aggregator.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the collector comprises the auditor.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the network subscriber metadata records are Internet data records.

14. A network subscriber usage recording system comprising:

a collector comprising;

an encapsulator for reading a plurality of network subscriber data records from a network data source and converting the network metadata records to a plurality of data normalized metered events;

an aggregator for processing the data normalized metered events to create aggregated normalized metered events;

an auditor for generating audit normalized metered events from the data normalized metered events; and

an audit server in communication with the collector, wherein the audit server retrieves audit normalized metered events from the collector.

15. The system of claim 14, the collector further comprising a query manager, and the audit server is configured to query the collector via the query manager for retrieving and processing the audit normalized metered events.

16. The system of claim 14, the collector further comprising a data storage system having audit normalized metered events stored therein, and the audit server retrieves the audit normalized metered events from the data storage system.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the audit server is configured to analyze the audit normalized metered events and generate an audit report.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising a user interface in communication with a configuration server for configuring the audit server.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising a user interface in communication with the audit server for configuration of the auditor.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising a report server in communication with the audit server configured to generate audit reports based on the audit normalized metered events.

21. A network subscriber usage recording system comprising:

a collector comprising;

an encapsulator for reading a plurality of network subscriber metadata records from a network data source and converting the network data records to a plurality of data normalized metered events;

an aggregator for processing the data normalized metered events to create aggregated normalized metered events; and

an auditor for generating audit normalized metered events from the data normalized metered events, the auditor comprising a first audit point located at the encapsulator and a second audit point located at the aggregator.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the auditor operates to generate input data set audit normalized metered events from data normalized metered events at the first audit point.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the auditor is configured to generate exception audit normalized metered events from data normalized metered events.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the auditor operates to generate input source audit normalized metered events from data normalized metered events at the first audit point.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the auditor operates to generate output dataset audit normalized metered events from data normalized metered events at the second audit point.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the auditor is configured to generate a collector audit normalized metered event from the data normalized metered events or audit normalized metered events.

27. The system of claim 21, the auditor having an audit verification rule applied to the audit normalized metered events at the collector and generating alert outputs based on the audit verification rule.

28. A network subscriber usage system having a multiple level distributed data storage system, the system comprising:

a set of networks data collectors, wherein at least one network data collector receives network accounting data from a network subscriber metadata source, processes and stores the network accounting data at the at least one network data collector, the set of network data collectors comprising an auditor for generating audit data representative of the network accounting data; and

another network data collector, wherein the another network data collector receives processed network accounting data from the at least one network data collector, processes and stores the network accounting data at the another network data collector, another network data collector comprising at least one auditor for generating audit data representative of the network accounting data.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising an additional network data collector, wherein the additional network data collector receives processed network accounting data from the at least one network data collector or the another network data collector, processes and stores the network accounting data at the additional network data collector, comprises at least one auditor for generating audit data representative of the network accounting data.

30. The system of claim 28, further comprising an audit server that receives the audit data from the at least one network data collector and another network data collector for multiple level audit analysis.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein the network usage system is an Internet network usage system, and wherein the network accounting data is Internet accounting data.

32. A network usage system having a multiple level distributed data storage system, the system comprising:

a first network data collector comprising a first encapsulator, a first aggregator, a first auditor and a first data storage system;

a second network data collector comprising a second encapsulator, a second aggregator, a second auditor, and a second data storage system; and

a data correlator collector comprising a third encapsulator, a third aggregator, a third auditor, and a third data storage system, wherein the third encapsulator is in communication with the first data storage system and the second data storage system.

33. The system of claim 32, further comprising an aggregator collector comprising a fourth encapsulator, a fourth aggregator, a fourth auditor, and a fourth data storage system, wherein the fourth encapsulator is in communication with the third data storage system.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the first encapsulator receives network data from a network data source and converts the network data to a standard data format defined as normalized metered events;

and the first aggregator processes the normalized metered events, and performs data reduction on the normalized metered events.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the auditor generates audit data based on the normalized metered events, wherein the audit data comprises audit normalized metered events.

36. The system of claim 32, further comprising an audit server configured to receive audit data from the first auditor, the second auditor, and the third auditor;

the audit server providing multilevel audit analysis based on the audit data.

37. A method for recording network subscriber usage comprising:

defining a collector including an encapsulator, an aggregator and a data storage system;

operating the encapsulator to read a plurality of network subscriber metadata records from a network data source and convert the network data records to a plurality of normalized metered events;

aggregating the plurality of normalized metered events to create a plurality of aggregated normalized metered events; and

storing the aggregated normalized metered events in the data storage system.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising defining the aggregator to include volatile memory and storing the aggregated normalized metered events periodically and temporarily in the volatile memory.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising defining an auditor and a query manager to provide audit normalized meter events pertaining to the aggregated normalized metered events temporarily in the volatile memory.

40. The method of claim 37, further comprising defining a configuration server in communication with the encapsulator, the aggregator, and the data storage system;

and storing configuration data for the encapsulator, the aggregator and the data storage system in the configuration server.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising transferring the configuration data to the encapsulator, the aggregator and the data storage system at start-up.

42. The method of claim 37, further comprising defining a query manager in communication with the data storage system for managing queries of the data storage system.

43. The method of claim 37, further comprising defining an operational audit event and statistics log in communication with the encapsulator, the aggregator, and the data storage system;

and collecting statistics associated with the encapsulator, the aggregator, and the data storage system in the operational audit event and statistics log.

44. The method of claim 37, further comprising parsing the network subscriber metal data records from a usage data source, read by the encapsulator.

45. A network subscriber usage system having an audit system comprising:

a plurality of audit points;

a plurality of audit operations, wherein at least one audit operation is associated with each audit point for generating an audit attribute associated with an audit point; and

a plurality of audit verification rules, each audit verification rule configured to process at least one of the audit attributes contained in an audit normalized metered event.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein at least one of the audit operations, audit attributes and audit verification rules are custom user-configured.

47. The system of claim 45, wherein at least one of the audit operations, audit attributes and audit verification rules are pre-defined.

48. The system of claim 45, further comprising an audit set defined by a specific combination of audit points, audit operations, audit attributes and audit verification rules for auditing a desired audit behavior.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the audit set can be disabled.

50. The system of claim 48, wherein the audit set is a correlation audit set configured to perform auditing of data correlation.

51. The system of claim 48, wherein the audit set is a session management audit set, configured to perform auditing of session management.

52. The system of claim 45, further comprising an audit scope consisting of a combination of audit points, audit operations and audit verification rules within the audit system.

53. The system of claim 45, further comprising an audit verification rule configured to be applied at the time of processing of network data.

54. The system of claim 45, comprising a multilevel data recording system having one data collector at each level, wherein at least one audit point is located at each data collector.

55. The system of claim 45, wherein the network subscriber usage system is a wireless network subscriber usage system.