Method and system for monitoring communications of an individual in a packet network

• US 20070064678A1
• Filed: 09/16/2005
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Zesen, Chou, Peter, Zhao, Yongdong, Chen, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 7,983,176 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for monitoring communications of an individual in a packet network. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a network monitor (100) having a communications interface (110) coupled to a packet network (101), and a controller (102). The controller can be programmed to receive (202) a request from a third party to monitor communications associated with an individual, convey (204) to the third party information monitored on a group of one or more permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) of the packet network associated with the individual, detect (205, 206) an update in the group of one or more PVCs, determine (212) a new set of one or more PVCs associated with the individual, and convey (216) to the third party information monitored from the new set of one or more PVCs.

Claims

1. A network monitor, comprising:

a communications interface coupled to a packet network; and

a controller programmed to;

receive a request from a third party to monitor communications associated with an individual;

convey to the third party information monitored on a group of one or more permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) of the packet network associated with the individual;

detect an update in the group of one or more PVCs;

determine a new group of one or more PVCs associated with the individual; and

convey to the third party information monitored from the new group of one or more PVCs.

2. The network monitor of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to receive one or more packets from a corresponding one or more network elements of the packet network indicative of the update to the group of PVCs.

3. The network monitor of claim 2, wherein each packet conforms to an Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM) packet protocol, and wherein each network element comprises an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch.

4. The network monitor of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to establish a set of one or more monitoring PVCs logically linked to the group of one or more PVCs associated with the individual.

5. The network monitor of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to establish a new set of one or more monitoring PVCs logically linked to the new group of one or more PVCs.

6. The network monitor of claim 2, wherein each network element comprises any one among a plurality of switches, and routers, and wherein each switch comprises an ATM switch, and each router comprises at least one among a frame relay router, and a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) router.

7. The network monitor of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to receive a message from a network management system (NMS) coupled to the packet network describing the update to the group of PVCs.

8. The network monitor of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to receive the update by at least one among a group of sources comprising and one or more network elements, an NMS, and one or more network elements relaying the update from the NMS.

9. The network monitor of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to monitor communications associated with a terminal device of the individual.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions for:

receiving from a third party a request to monitor communications associated with an individual;

conveying to the third party communications of the individual as monitored in a packet network;

detecting a routing update in the packet network affecting a process for monitoring communications of the individual; and

conveying to the third party communications of the individual according to the routing update.

11. The storage of claim 10, comprising computer instructions for:

monitoring communications of the individual on a group of one or more PVCs of the packet network;

receiving the routing update in response to a change in the group of one or more PVCs;

determining a new set of one or more PVCs according to the routing update; and

monitoring communications of the individual on the new set of one or more PVCs.

12. The storage of claim 11, comprising computer instructions for receiving one or more packets from a corresponding one or more network elements of the packet network describing the update to the group of PVCs.

13. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein each packet conforms to an Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM) packet protocol, and wherein the storage medium comprises computer instructions for decoding the one or more OAM packets.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein a portion of the network elements comprises an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch.

15. The storage medium of claim 10, comprising computer instructions for receiving a message from a network management system (NMS) coupled to the packet network describing the routing update.

16. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein each network element comprises any one among a plurality of switches, and routers, and wherein each switch comprises an ATM switch, and each router comprises at least one among a frame relay router, and a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) router.

17. The storage medium of claim 10, comprising computer instructions for receiving the request from a law enforcement agency system to monitor communications associated with a terminal device of the individual, wherein the terminal device comprises at least one among an immobile communication device and a mobile communication device.

18. A method, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a law enforcement agency system (LEAS) to monitor communications associated with an individual;

conveying communications of the individual to the LEAS as monitored on a packet network;

receiving a routing update describing a change in communications associated with the individual; and

conveying communications of the individual to the LEAS according to the routing update.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising the steps of:

monitoring communications of the individual on a group of one or more PVCs of the packet network;

detecting the routing update in the group of one or more PVCs;

determining a new set of one or more PVCs according to the routing update; and

monitoring communications of the individual on the new set of one or more PVCs.

20. The method of claim 18, comprising the step of detecting the routing update according to one among the steps of receiving one or more Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM) packets from one or more network elements of the packet network for describing the routing update, and receiving the routing update from a network management system (NMS) coupled to the packet network.