System and method for bulk network data collection

• US 20070130322A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Jiang, Baofeng, Wu, Xidong, Otsuka, Jim, Cambron, Keith
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• 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 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for bulk data collection for multiple network elements is provided. The method includes initiating a session between a data collection server and a network server, maintaining a correlation between a plurality of queries and a corresponding plurality of network elements, and concurrently sending the plurality of queries over the initiated session to collect data from the network server.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium accessible to a processor, comprising:

a computer program embedded within the computer readable medium, the computer program comprising;

an instruction to initiate a session between a first server and a second server;

an instruction to generate a plurality of queries, each query corresponding to a network element identifier;

an instruction to store a correlation between each query and a corresponding network element; and

an instruction to concurrently send to the second server the plurality of queries over the initiated session.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to receive data corresponding to each query and to correlate the received data to the corresponding network element.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to generate a plurality of target files, each target file in the plurality of target files containing a plurality of network element identifiers.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to select a network element from the each target file to generate the plurality of queries.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to store data for the each network element in a separate data file.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to organize each separate file by a port list.

7. A method for data collection in a communication network, comprising:

initiating at least one session between a first server and a second server;

generating a plurality of queries, each query in the plurality of queries corresponding to a selected network element;

maintaining a correlation between the each query and the corresponding network element; and

sending concurrently the plurality of queries to the second server over the at least one session.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving data corresponding to the each query and correlating the received data for the each query to the corresponding network element.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each network element is a switch that provides a DSL service to a plurality of customers and the each query includes a command signal corresponding to a separate switch.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first server and second server communicate in one of a synchronous mode, and an asynchronous mode.

11. A computer readable medium accessible to a processor, comprising:

a computer program embedded within the computer readable medium, the computer program, comprising;

an instruction to initiate a plurality of sessions between a first server and a second server;

an instruction to generate a separate plurality of queries corresponding to each of the plurality of sessions;

an instruction to maintain a correlation between each of the queries and a corresponding network element; and

an instruction to send concurrently each of the separate plurality of queries over its corresponding session.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to multiplex the queries among the plurality of sessions.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to assign substantially equal numbers of queries to each of the separate plurality of queries.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to divide the plurality of network elements into sets, at least one set for each of the plurality of sessions.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to assign the plurality of queries for each of the session from a group of network elements assigned to each such session.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to load balance each of the sessions by assigning approximately a same number of the queries to each of the sessions.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to correlate data received from the second server for each query to the corresponding network element.

18. A data collection server comprising:

a processor;

a database available to the processor, for storing a plurality of identifiers relating to a plurality of network elements;

a computer readable medium having a computer program that contains a set of instructions available to be executed by the processor, including;

an instruction to initiate a session between the data collection server and a network server to obtain data relating to the plurality of network elements; and

an instruction to send concurrently a plurality of queries over the initiated session, each query corresponding to a separate network element.

19. The data collection server of claim 18, wherein the computer program further comprises:

an instruction to correlate data received from the network server for each network element to a corresponding identifier.

20. The data collection server of claim 19, wherein the computer readable medium further includes:

an instruction to generate a performance report from the received data relating to each of the plurality of network elements.