System and method for collecting and managing network performance information

• US 20080049625A1
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bugenhagen, Michael K., Morrill, Robert J., Edwards, Stephen K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,040,811 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5064 Customer relationship management
• 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 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet

Abstract

A system and method for collecting network performance information from a packet network. The method may include requesting network performance information from network communications devices on a packet network, collecting the network performance information from the network communications devices, where the network performance information is indicative of communications of real-time content and non-real-time content, and storing the network performance information in a configuration distinguishing the network performance information indicative of communications of real-time content.

Claims

1. A system for collecting network performance information from a packet network said system comprising:

at least one input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate with network communications devices operating on a packet network;

at least one storage unit configured to store network performance information collected from the network communications devices; and

at least one processing unit configured to;

request network performance information from the network communications devices via said at least one I/O unit;

collect the network performance information from the network communications devices, the network performance information indicative of communications of real-time content and non-real-time content; and

store the network performance information in the at least one storage unit in a configuration distinguishing the network performance information indicative of communications of real-time content.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one I/O unit is configured to communicate with the network communications devices via out-of-band communication paths.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one processing unit is configured to store the network performance information in a configuration distinguishing total communications of content.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information associated with real-time content is associated with respective network communications devices.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein identifiers of node segments associated with each network communications device are stored in association with the communications of the real-time content.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one processing unit includes a performance data manager and a performance data collector, the performance data manager configured to issue commands to the performance data collector to issue the network performance information from the network communications devices.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one processing unit is configured to request network performance information periodically.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network performance information is selected from modified Y.1731 registers at the network communications devices.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the network performance information collected from the modified Y.1731 registers are collected at different frequencies based on the type of network performance information being collected.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein collecting the network performance information causes the modified Y.1731 registers to be reset prior to overflowing.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network communications devices include a call control manager.

12. A method for collecting network performance information from a packet network, said method comprising:

requesting network performance information from network communications devices on a packet network;

collecting the network performance information from the network communications devices, the network performance information indicative of communications of real-time content and non-real-time content; and

storing the network performance information in a configuration distinguishing the network performance information indicative of communications of real-time content.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein collecting the network performance information includes collecting the network performance information from the network communications devices via out-of-band communications paths.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein storing the network performance information further includes storing the network performance information in a configuration that distinguishing total communications of content.

15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising associating the network performance information associated with real-time content being communicated with indicia representative of respective network communications devices.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising storing node segment information associated with each network communications device.

17. The method according to claim 12, further comprising issuing commands to request collection of the network performance information from the network communications devices.

18. The method according to claim 12, further comprising requesting network performance information periodically.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein collecting the network performance information includes collecting the network performance information from modified Y.1731 registers at the network communications devices.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein collecting the network performance information from the modified Y.1731 registers includes collecting the network performance information at different frequencies based on the type of network performance information being collected.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein collecting the network performance information causes the modified Y.1731 registers to be reset prior to overflowing.

22. The method according to claim 12, wherein collecting the network performance information includes collecting the network performance information from a call control manager.