Measurement, reporting, and management of quality of service for a real-time communication application in a network environment

• US 20060031469A1
• Filed: 06/29/2004
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vijayan, Geetha, Olsson, Stig Arne, Potok, Ralph John, Clarke, Michael Wade
• Application Number:
  US10/880,275
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031469A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

An example of a solution provided here comprises providing a measurement process including: (a) transmitting a test stream over a transmission path; and (b) measuring a quality-of-service indicator for a real-time communication application based on the transmitting; utilizing the measurement process, in continuously sampling a plurality of transmission paths in the real-time communication application'"'"'s production environment; collecting data from the measurement process; comparing measured values to a threshold value; outputting a representation of compliance or non-compliance with the threshold value; and outputting a trend report based on the data; whereby the real-time communication application may be managed with reference to the threshold value. Such a solution may be selected for a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol application, a video conference application, or a speech-recognition application, to give some non-exclusive examples. One such example comprises measuring a speech-quality indicator for a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol application.

Claims

1. A method of quality assurance in a network environment, said method comprising:

providing a measurement process including (a)-(b) below;

(a) transmitting a test stream over a transmission path;

(b) measuring a quality-of-service indicator for a real-time communication application based on said transmitting;

utilizing said measurement process, in continuously sampling a plurality of transmission paths in said real-time communication application'"'"'s production environment;

collecting data from said measurement process;

comparing measured values to a threshold value;

outputting a representation of compliance or non-compliance with said threshold value; and

outputting a trend report based on said data;

whereby said real-time communication application may be managed with reference to said threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said sampling a plurality of transmission paths further comprises:

sampling a transmission path within a site; and

sampling a transmission path between sites.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing said representation in managing the operation of said real-time communication application; and

comparing results for said transmission path within a site to results for said transmission path between sites.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

setting a new threshold value; and

managing said real-time communication application with reference to said new threshold value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said real-time communication application is chosen from:

a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol application;

a video conference application; and

a speech-recognition application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said measuring a quality-of-service indicator further comprises one or more of the following:

utilizing perceptual evaluation of speech quality;

measuring transport delay; and

measuring packet loss.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said measuring a quality-of-service indicator further comprises measuring:

an audio-quality indicator,

or a video-quality indicator,

or both.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting a test stream further comprises transmitting a reference file.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating statistics, based on said data; and

outputting said statistics.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an alert via a system-management computer, when results of said comparing indicate an error.

11. A method of quality assurance in a network environment, said method comprising:

utilizing a measurement process including (a)-(d) below;

(a) transmitting a test stream over a call path in a voice-over-IP application'"'"'s production environment;

(b) receiving said test stream;

(c) measuring a speech-quality indicator for said voice-over-IP application, based on said transmitting and receiving;

(d) repeating the above three steps periodically;

with said measurement process, sampling a call path within a site;

with said measurement process, sampling a call path between sites;

collecting data from said measurement process;

comparing results of said measuring to a threshold value; and

outputting a representation of compliance or non-compliance with said threshold value.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

with said measurement process, sampling a plurality of call paths between sites; and

outputting a representation of a plurality of call paths from a first site to other sites.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein:

said speech-quality indicator is a measurement of perceptual speech quality.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said comparing results further comprises comparing results expressed as a mean opinion score, to a threshold value expressed as a mean opinion score.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

utilizing said representation in managing the operation of said Voice-over-Internet-Protocol application.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

utilizing said representation in evaluating new infrastructure components in said production environment.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving input specifying a call path of interest;

retrieving stored data associated with said call path of interest; and

comparing measured values to a unique threshold value, for said call path of interest;

whereby data mining and evaluation are performed for said call path of interest.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving input identifying a call path within a first site, and a call path within a second site;

retrieving stored data associated with said identified call paths; and

comparing measured values to a threshold value, for each of said identified call paths;

whereby data mining and evaluation are performed for said first site and said second site.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein said outputting a representation of non-compliance further comprises outputting said results in a special mode.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said outputting in a special mode further comprises outputting in a special color.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said special color is red.

22. A system of quality assurance in a network environment, said system comprising:

means for transmitting a test stream over a transmission path;

means for measuring a quality-of-service indicator for a real-time communication application based on said transmitting;

means for continuously sampling a plurality of transmission paths in said real-time communication application'"'"'s production environment;

means for collecting data from said measurement process;

means for comparing measured values to a threshold value;

means for outputting a representation of compliance or non-compliance with said threshold value; and

means for outputting a trend report based on said data.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said means for continuously sampling a plurality of transmission paths further comprises:

means for sampling a transmission path within a site; and

means for sampling a transmission path between sites.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for adjusting said threshold value.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein said real-time communication application is chosen from:

a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol application;

a video conference application; and

a speech-recognition application.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein said means for measuring a quality-of-service indicator further comprises one or more of the following:

means for utilizing perceptual evaluation of speech quality;

means for measuring transport delay; and

means for measuring packet loss.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein said means for transmitting a test stream further comprises means for transmitting a reference file.

28. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for calculating statistics, based on said data; and

means for outputting said statistics.

29. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for providing an alert, to an end-to-end management site, via a system-management computer, when results of said comparing indicate an error.

30. The system of claim 22, further comprising data mining means for:

receiving input specifying a transmission path of interest;

retrieving stored data associated with said transmission path of interest; and

comparing measured values to a unique threshold value, for said transmission path of interest.

31. The system of claim 22, further comprising data mining means for:

receiving input identifying a transmission path within a first site, and a transmission path within a second site;

retrieving stored data associated with said identified transmission paths; and

comparing measured values to a threshold value, for each of said identified transmission paths.

32. A computer-usable medium having computer-executable instructions for quality assurance in a network environment, said computer-usable medium comprising:

means for continuously collecting data from a plurality of transmission paths in a real-time communication application'"'"'s production environment, said data resulting from transmitting a test stream over a transmission path, and measuring a quality-of-service indicator for said real-time communication application;

means for comparing measured values to a threshold value;

means for outputting a representation of compliance or non-compliance with said threshold value; and

means for outputting a trend report based on said data.

33. The computer-usable medium of claim 32, wherein said means for continuously collecting data further comprises:

means for collecting data from a transmission path within a site; and

means for collecting data from a transmission path between sites.

34. The computer-usable medium of claim 32, further comprising:

means for adjusting said threshold value.

35. The computer-usable medium of claim 32, further comprising:

means for calculating statistics, based on said data; and

means for outputting said statistics.

36. The computer-usable medium of claim 32, further comprising:

means for providing an alert via a system-management computer, when results of said comparing indicate an error.

37. The computer-usable medium of claim 32, further comprising data mining means for:

receiving input specifying a transmission path of interest;

retrieving stored data associated with said transmission path of interest; and

comparing measured values to a unique threshold value, for said transmission path of interest.

38. The computer-usable medium of claim 32, further comprising data mining means for:

receiving input identifying a transmission path within a first site, and a transmission path within a second site;

retrieving stored data associated with said identified transmission paths; and

comparing measured values to a threshold value, for each of said identified transmission paths.