Service level assurance system and method for wired and wireless broadband networks

• US 20060041931A1
• Filed: 03/23/2005
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Smith Micro Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: PCTEL, Inc.
• Inventors: Nair, Biju, Samsalovic, Vojislav, Boxall, Robert
• Application Number:
  US11/089,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20060041931A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• 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 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/507 Filtering out customers affected by service problems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/162 at the data link layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup

Abstract

A system and method are provided for tracking and reporting the performance of a network. A client or a user device can access the network through a wired connection or wireless access points. The client maintains a log or track the events that occur during the log-on attempts as well as the communication sessions as well as other data related to the network performance. During the communication session data can be transferred between the client and a network device, such as the central server or a database, in the network, regardless of whether the network device is trusted and secure or not secure.

Claims

1. A method of detecting and managing network performance, the method comprising the steps of:

initiating a communication session between a user device and a management server;

recording data at the user device related to the performance of the network; and

querying the user device for data related to the performance of the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication session is a wireless communication session based on an interface protocol.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

transmitting data from the user device to an access point device, which in turn delivers the data to an authentication server; and

authenticating the user device based on the data provided.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of transmitting comprises the steps of:

transmitting an address associated with the authentication server; and

querying the user device for identity information, which information is automatically provided by the user device in response to the query.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of formatting the data from the user device for delivery to a central location for analysis in order to determine the performance of the network.

6. A system for monitoring the performance of a wireless network having a plurality of access points, the system comprising:

a plurality of clients, wherein each client is adapted to detect the presence of the network available at the access point and initiate a wireless communication session with one access point;

a central server in communication with each of the plurality of access points such that when each client is authenticated by the central server and logged onto the network and each client can be queried by the central server for information related to the performance of the network.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein each client and the central server include a service provider enablement component.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein each client includes a roaming client component that can be updated from the central server when the client is logged onto the network.

9. The system of claim 8 further comprising a configuration server for management of client features and policies as well as software updates that are pushed to any client during the communication session.

10. A method for evaluation of the performance of a wireless network comprising a plurality of access points each in communication with a network server, the method comprising the steps of:

initiating a wireless communication session between a user device and one access point of the plurality of access points;

determining if the user device is an authenticated user device;

redirecting the user device to an authentication server, such that the authentication server initiates an authentication process and requests information form the user device for authentication of the user device; and

querying the user device for data related to the performance of the network.