Health reporting mechanism for inter-network gateway

• US 20050216729A1
• Filed: 03/29/2004
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Global LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Albright, Martin C., Hadzidedic, Lejla, Joels, Jo Ann, Lutovsky, Sandra Elaine
• Granted Patent: US 8,230,058 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/153
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0844 with user authentication or key authentication, e.g. ElGamal, MTI, MQV-Menezes-Qu-Vanstone protocol or Diffie-Hellman protocols using implicitly-certified keys

Abstract

A method of monitoring the stability of a network includes polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway. In one example, the data is related to one or more of a flowcache, a virtual private routed network, or an internet key exchange security association. The data can then be processed to generate a number of parameters and a health report can be generated based on the parameters.

Claims

1. A method of using a data communications network, the method comprising:

receiving at a gateway device a first communication from a first network that is addressed for a network element of a second network, wherein the second network is based on a different technology than the first network and wherein the gateway device comprises a layer 3 gateway;

transmitting the first communication from the gateway device to the second network;

receiving at the gateway device a second communication from the second network that is addressed for a network element of the first network;

transmitting the second communication from the gateway device to the first network;

periodically polling the gateway device to obtain operating parameters related communications between the first and second networks;

analyzing the operating parameters; and

generating a health report related to at least the gateway device, the health report being based upon analysis of the operating parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein polling the gateway device to obtain operating parameters comprises obtaining information related to a flowcache.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein polling the gateway device to obtain operating parameters comprises obtaining information related to an internet key exchange security association.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein polling the gateway device to obtain operating parameters comprises obtaining node configuration information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the node configuration information comprises a number of layer 3 connections.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the node configuration information comprises a number of VPRN (virtual private routed network) connections.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the node configuration information comprises a number of IPSec tunnels.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the first network comprises the Internet.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the second network comprises at least one of a frame relay network, an asynchronous transfer mode network, private internet protocol network or an internet protocol virtual private network.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the gateway further implements a firewall function when transmitting communications between the first and second networks.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the operating parameters comprises comparing the operating parameters to a threshold value.

12. The method of claim 11 and further comprising setting a flag if the operating parameters exceed the threshold value.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein comparing the operating parameters to a threshold value comprises comparing the operating parameters to a warning threshold value and also comparing the operating parameters to an augment threshold value.

14. A method of monitoring the stability of a network, the method comprising:

periodically polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway, the data related to at least one of a flowcache, a virtual private routed network, or an internet key exchange security association;

processing the data to generate a number of parameters;

generating a report based on the parameters; and

automatically transmitting the report, the report being transmitted without human intervention.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the data comprises data related to a flowcache, a virtual private routed network, and an internet key exchange security association.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein generating a report comprises indicating whether any of the parameters indicate a possibility of a network instability.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein generating a report comprises generating a report that has a warning flag if a parameter exceeds a first threshold and generating a report that has an augment flag if a parameter exceeds a second threshold.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway comprises collecting data related to a flowcache.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the parameters comprise statistics related to flows, predicted flows, connections, conversations and packets.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway comprises collecting data related to a virtual private routed network.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway comprises collecting data related to an internet key exchange security association.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the parameters comprise a count of number of dead IKE SAs.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway further comprises collecting data related to card toggles, CPU utilization or memory utilization.

24. In a system for monitoring the stability of a data communications network, a computer program operable to periodically gather information related to the network and provide a report related to the gathered information, the computer program comprising:

computer program code for automatically, periodically polling a plurality of inter-network gateways to collect data related to the inter-network gateway, the data related to at least one of a flowcache, a virtual private routed network, or an internet key exchange security association;

computer program code for processing the data to generate a number of parameters;

computer program code for generating a report based on the parameters; and

computer program code for automatically transmitting the report, the report being transmitted without human intervention.

25. The computer program of claim 24 wherein the program code operates on a UNIX-based operating system.

26. The computer program of claim 24 wherein periodically polling the gateways comprises initiating a SNMP connection with each of the gateways.

27. The computer program of claim 24 wherein periodically polling the gateways comprises initiating a CLI connection with each of the gateways.

28. The computer program of claim 24 and further comprising computer program code for writing data collected from the gateways into a file.

29. The computer program of claim 28 wherein the computer program code for writing data comprises computer program code for writing raw data into a raw data file and computer program code for writing summary data into a summary data file.

30. The computer program of claim 24 wherein the computer program code for automatically transmitting the report comprises computer program code for automatically transmitting an ASCII file via e-mail.

31. An apparatus for use in monitoring the stability of a network, the apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

an interface mechanism coupled to the processor;

wherein the processor runs software to periodically poll an inter-network gateway through the interface mechanism to collect data related to the inter-network gateway, the processor further processing the data to generate a number of parameters, generating a report based on the parameters, and causing the report to be transmitted to a remote location.

32. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the data related to at least one of a flowcache, a virtual private routed network, or an internet key exchange security association.

33. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the data comprises data related to all of a flowcache, a virtual private routed network, and an internet key exchange security association.

34. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway comprises collecting data related to a flowcache.

35. The apparatus of claim 34 wherein the parameters comprise statistics related to flows, predicted flows, connections, conversations and packets.

36. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway comprises collecting data related to a virtual private routed network.

37. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein polling an inter-network gateway to collect data related to the inter-network gateway comprises collecting data related to an internet key exchange security association.

38. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein generating a report comprises indicating whether any of the parameters indicate a possibility of a network instability.

39. The apparatus of claim 38 wherein generating a report comprises generating a report that has a warning flag if a parameter exceeds a first threshold and generating a report that has an augment flag if a parameter exceeds a second threshold.