Real-time analyst program for processing log files from network elements

• US 20060040711A1
• Filed: 08/18/2004
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Whistler, Kenneth Park
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,322 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

In a cellular telephone network or other communication network, there is a need to monitor the status and health of various nodes of the network in real-time. The techniques disclosed herein use a real-time link to the network node to obtain a data stream of messages for processing. In one example, a modified Telnet Terminal Program connects to a system element, the user logs in to the system element, and the Program causes the messages from the element'"'"'s local log file to stream past the Telnet screen as they are produced. The streaming log messages also are parsed and entered into a database as they are produced, providing a real-time capture of the streaming data into a database form. Graphs, for example, can be set to update themselves and thereby display real-time information. The user can interact with a graph to select a graph point and see the system element message(s) that generated the graph point.

Claims

1. A method of real-time monitoring of operational status of an element of a communications network, comprising:

receiving alarm or other operational status messages produced by the network element for a local log function, in real-time as the element generates the messages, via a streaming communication session;

parsing each of the received messages to extract relevant operational data;

populating fields of records in a database with the data extracted by the parsing; and

providing a real-time display based on the received messages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing the real-time display comprises providing a real-time display of the received messages as they are received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing the real-time display comprises:

processing at least some records from the database; and

providing a real-time display of the processing results.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing real-time display of the processing results comprises displaying the processing results as a graph.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a user input selection of a point on the displayed graph; and

presenting one or more records from the database regarding the message or messages that produced the selected point on the displayed graph.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the processing comprises statistical processing of a plurality of the messages of an identified message type; and

the providing of the real-time display comprises outputting an alarm indication if the statistical processing results meet an alarm criteria.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the statistical processing comprises comparing statistics derived from the messages received via the real-time session to statistics for an earlier period of operations of the network element.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the statistical processing comprises comparing a resulting statistical value to a threshold value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm or other operational status messages are received from an element of a wireless mobile communication network.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the element of the wireless mobile communication network comprises an element for processing of customer traffic through the network, selected from the group consisting of:

a mobile switching center (MSC), a base station (BS), a base station controller (BSC) and a home location register (HLR).

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising concurrently performing additional steps including:

receiving alarm or other operational status messages produced by another network element for its local log file in real-time as the other element generates the messages, in a streaming communication session;

parsing each of the messages from the other network element to extract data;

populating fields of records in the database with the data extracted by the parsing of the messages from the other network element; and

providing an additional real-time display based on the messages from the other network element.

12. A program product comprising executable code which may be embodied in one or more machine readable media, wherein execution of the code causes one or more computers to implement the steps of the method of claim 1.

13. A program product comprising executable code which may be embodied in one or more machine readable media, wherein execution of the code causes one or more computers to implement the steps of the method of claim 3.

14. A program product comprising executable code which may be embodied in one or more machine readable media, wherein execution of the code causes one or more computers to implement the steps of the method of claim 11.

15. A system for real-time monitoring of operational status of an element of a communications network, comprising:

a communication module for establishing a streaming communication session with the network element, and for receiving alarm or other operational status messages produced by the network element for a local log function, in real-time as the element generates the messages, as streaming data, through the established communication session;

a message database;

a message parser, for processing the received messages to extract relevant operational data from each received message for use in populating fields of records in the database; and

a real-time display module, for real-time presentation to a user of information based on the received messages.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a buffer for receiving the streaming data containing the messages from the communication module and presenting complete messages to the message parser; and

a database insert module, for populating fields of records in the database using the data extracted from the messages by the parser.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the communication module is configured to establish the streaming communication session with and receive the messages from an element of a wireless mobile communication network.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a database query interface; and

a watch list manager.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a database query interface; and

a result formatter.