Method and apparatus for dial plan debugging

• US 20070106807A1
• Filed: 11/10/2005
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hegde, Prashant, Shankar J., Shiva
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0075 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0084 Network monitoring; Error detection; Error recovery; Network testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13097 Numbering, addressing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13162 Fault indication and localisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13166 Fault prevention
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0075 Fault management techniques

Abstract

A method, system and apparatus for dial plan debugging are provided in the invention. The method includes hop-by-hop debugging of large inter-networks. Information related to a next hop is received at each hop. A set of results, based on this information, including the route pattern of a call, is displayed. The displayed information indicates nodes at which the call may fail. Back-routing of the call in case the call may fail is also described.

Claims

1. A method for dial plan debugging, the method comprising

entering a source and a destination number in a Network Management System (NMS) whose dial path needs to be tested;

receiving information related to a next hop from each hop in the dial path; and

displaying a set of results based on the received information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the information from each hop continuing till a destination node is detected.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the information from each hop continuing till a hop is detected from which the information related to the next hop cannot be received.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the next hop comprises IP address, transformed source and destination numbers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying the set of results comprises displaying details of a route pattern used for routing a call.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying the set of results comprises displaying each hop in the call route.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying the set of results comprises displaying a transformed number based on the destination number and a set of call routing rules.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the transformed number is the destination number translated into zero or more Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of call routing rules comprises a rule of adding a prefix and removing a prefix.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is used for automated hop-by-hop dial plan debugging of large internetworks.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising back routing the call, if a hop is detected from which the call is deemed to be not routable.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising simulating failures of a hop to check back routing of calls.

13. A method for dial plan debugging, the method comprising

entering a source and a destination number in a Network Management System (NMS) whose dial path need to be tested;

receiving information related to a next hop from each hop in the dial path;

displaying a set of results based on the received information; and

back routing the call if routing fails at a hop.

14. A system for dial plan debugging, the system comprising

an input module for entering a source and a destination number in a Network Management System (NMS) whose dial path need to be tested;

a receiving module for accessing information related to a next hop from each hop in the dial path; and

a displaying module for displaying a set of results based on the received information.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the receiving module receives the information from each hop till a destination node is detected.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the receiving module receives the information from each hop till a hop is detected from which the information related to the next hop cannot be received.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the displaying module displays the details of a route pattern used for routing the call.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the displaying module displays each in the call route.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the displaying module further displays a destination number related to a destination node, which is the destination for the call and a transformed number based on the destination number and a set of call routing rules, wherein the transformed number is the destination number translated into zero or more Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the display module is graphical user interface.

21. A system for automated dial plan debugging, the system comprising

means for receiving information related to a next hop from each hop in the dial path;

and

means for displaying a set of results based on the received information.

22. A machine-readable medium including instructions executable by the processor including instructions for automated dial plan debugging, the machine-readable medium comprising

one or more instructions for receiving information related to a next hop from each hop in the dial path;

and

one or more instructions for displaying a set of results based on the received information.

23. An apparatus for dial plan debugging, the apparatus comprising

a processing system including a processor coupled to a display and user input device;

a machine-readable medium including instructions for dial plan debugging executable by the processor, the machine-readable medium comprising

one or more instructions for receiving information related to a next hop from each hop in the dial path; and

one or more instructions for displaying a set of results based on the received information.