Call Quality Monitoring

• US 20080063149A1
• Filed: 05/21/2007
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fuze, Inc. (8X8, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Whaleback Systems Corp. (8X8, Inc.)
• Inventors: West, Julian Wray, Dietz, Darryl
• Granted Patent: US 8,457,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/1.03
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2236 Quality of speech transmission monitoring

Abstract

A method of monitoring quality of a telephone call transmitted over a network includes obtaining a metric associated with the telephone call where the metric is based on data packets that are transmitted daring the telephone call, and determining whether the metric exceeds a threshold. Plural metrics may be obtained and the method may determine whether the plural metrics exceed corresponding thresholds.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring quality of a telephone call transmitted over a network, the method comprising:

obtaining a metric associated with the telephone call, the metric being based on data packets that are transmitted during the telephone call; and

determining whether the metric exceeds a threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining comprises obtaining plural metrics associated with the telephone call;

wherein, determining comprises determining whether the plural metrics exceed corresponding plural thresholds.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the metric comprises at least one of data packet loss and jitter of the data packets.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a traceroute through the network to obtain the metric;

increasing a frequency of the traceroute if the metric exceeds the threshold;

obtaining a second metric after increasing the frequency of the traceroute;

determining whether the second metric exceeds the threshold; and

adjusting a frequency at which the traceroute is perforated based on whether the metric exceeds the threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing the following actions at least until fee metric is below the threshold:

obtaining the metric periodically; and

each time the metric is obtained, determining whether the metric exceeds the threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information from nodes of the network; and

routing subsequent telephone calls based on the information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the information comprises records associated with telephone calls routed through different paths of the network.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

using the information and other information relating to routing of other telephone calls through the network to locate a problem on the network;

wherein the subsequent telephone calls are routed to attempt to avoid the problem.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the metric is weighted, the weight corresponding to a system that initiates the telephone call.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a traceroute, the metric being obtained based on the traceroute; and

increasing a frequency of the traceroute if the metric exceeds the threshold.

9. The method 1, wherein the metric relates to a degradation in call quality, the degradation represented by the metric not being detectable by a human ear.

12. A method of locating faults on a network, comprising:

identifying an endpoint device on the network that is experiencing a problem with placing a telephone call over the network; and

identifying paths through the network that are experiencing a problem and that are used by the endpoint device but not by other endpoint devices.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using real-time transfer protocol (RTF) data and/or real-time transfer control protocol (RTCP) data to identify the fault in the network or to identify a fault in another network that is inbound or outbound to the network.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

using the RTF data, and/or the RTCP data to identify faults in the network by time based on a condition of the network.

15. One or more machine-readable media for storing instructions that are executable to monitor quality of a telephone call transmitted over a network, the instructions for causing one or more processing devices to:

obtain a metric associated with the telephone call, the metric being based on data packets that are transmitted during foe telephone call; and

determine whether the metric exceeds a threshold.

16. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein obtaining comprises obtaining plural metrics associated with the telephone call;

wherein determining comprises determining whether the plural metrics exceed corresponding plural thresholds.

17. The one or mom machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the metric comprises at least one of data packet loss and jitter of the data packets.

18. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processing devices to:

perform a traceroute through the network to obtain the metric;

increase a frequency of the traceroute if the metric exceeds the threshold;

obtain a second metric after increasing the frequency of the traceroute;

determine whether the second metric exceeds the threshold; and

adjust a frequency at which the traceroute is performed based on whether the metric exceeds foe threshold.

19. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the instructions cause foe one or more processing devices to perform the following actions at least until the metric is below the threshold:

obtain the metric periodically; and

each time the metric is obtained, determine whether foe metric exceeds the threshold.

20. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processing devices to:

receive information from nodes of the network; and

route subsequent telephone calls based on the information.

21. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 20, wherein the information comprises records associated with telephone calls routed through different paths of the network.

22. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 20, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processing devices to:

use the information and other information relating to routing of other telephone calls through the network to locate a problem, on the network;

wherein the subsequent telephone calls are routed to attempt to avoid the problem.

24. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the metric is weighted, the weight corresponding, to a system that initiates the telephone call.

25. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processing devices to:

perform a traceroute, the metric being obtained based oh tire traceroute; and

increase a frequency of the traceroute if the metric exceeds the threshold.

23. The one or more machine-readable media 15, wherein the metric relates to a degradation in call quality, the degradation represented by the metric not being detectable by a human, ear.

26. One or more machine-readable media for storing instructions for locating faults on a network, die instructions for causing one or more processing devices to:

identify an endpoint device on the network that is experiencing a problem with placing a telephone call over the network; and

identify paths through the network that are experiencing &

problem and that are used by the endpoint device but not by other endpoint devices.

27. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 26, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processing devices to:

use real-time transfer protocol (RTF) data and/or real-time transfer control protocol (RTCP) data to identify the fault in the network, or to identify a fault in another network that is inbound or outbound to the network.

28. The one or mom machine-readable media of claim 27, wherein the instructions cause the one or mom processing devices to:

use the RTF data and/or the RTCP data to identify faults is the network by time based on a condition of the network.