MEDIATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING EVENT RECORDS

• US 20090052341A1
• Filed: 07/22/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juhana Enqvist
• Original Assignee: Juhana Enqvist
• Inventors: ENQVIST, Juhana
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,165 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A mediation method and a mediation system divided into independent node components that process event records independently of the other components of the system. In addition, the system is provided with at least one node manager component that monitors the functioning of the node components. Each of the independent node components operates according to its own settings and is thus self-contained and capable of continuing operation even though some of the other components are temporarily inoperative. The system comprises audit counters providing counts relating to the processed event records, and the node manager is configured to check whether the counts of the audit counters match, in order to ensure that no event records are lost in the mediation system.

Claims

1. A mediation method for processing event records by means of a mediation system comprising at least two independent nodes and at least one node manager, the method comprising:

receiving event records from a communications network,

processing the event records in the independent nodes and keeping counts relating to the processed event records in audit counters in the independent nodes, wherein said processing is performed by operating the independent nodes according to their own settings and independently of the other independent nodes of the mediation system,

reporting the counts in the audit counters to the node manager, and

monitoring the functioning of the independent nodes by the node manager, wherein the monitoring includes checking whether the counts of the audit counters provided by the independent nodes match, in order to ensure that no event records are lost during processing.

2. The method of claim 1, including processing the event records in real-time.

3. The method of claim 1, including receiving the event records continuously as a stream.

4. The method of claims 1, including processing the event records in at least one processing stream wherein the processed event records pass through at least two independent nodes.

5. The method of claim 1, including processing the event records in at least two parallel processing streams wherein the processed event records pass through at least two independent nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, including keeping counts relating to the number of event records received in the mediation system, the number of event records delivered out from the mediation system, the number of event records generated in the mediation system and the number of event records deleted in the mediation system.

7. The method of claim 1, including keeping counts relating to the number of event records received in each independent node, the number of event records delivered out from each independent node, the number of event records generated in each independent node and the number of event records deleted in each independent node.

8. The method of claim 4, including keeping counts relating to the number of event records received in each processing stream, the number of event records delivered out from each processing stream, the number of event records generated in each processing stream and the number of event records deleted in processing stream.

9. The method of claim 3, including delivering the processed event records to a data destination continuously as a stream.

10. The method of claim 1, including reporting the counts periodically at specified intervals.

11. The method of claim 1, including delivering the processed event records to a data destination as data files and reporting the counts each time the data files are closed.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the node manager sends alarm to a configured network management system in case of problem in the processing.

13. The method of claim 1, including providing revenue assurance reports for detection of gaps in the data of the processed event records and verification of the integrity of the processing of the event records.

14. The method of claim 1, including distributing the processing of event records to at least two hosts and transferring the event records between the at least to hosts during the processing.

15. The method of claim 1, including processing the event records in at least one processing stream such that the event records are first processed by a preceding independent node in the processing stream and thereafter processed further by a next independent node in the processing stream.

16. The method of claim 15, including two or more next independent nodes performing workload sharing such that the event records processed by the preceding independent node are distributed to the two or more next independent nodes for further processing.

17. The method of claim 15, including two or more preceding independent nodes performing workload sharing such that the event records processed by the two or more preceding independent node are submitted to a common next independent node for further processing.

18. A mediation system for processing event records provided by a communications network, the mediation system comprising:

at least two independent nodes for processing event records according to their own settings and independently of other nodes of the mediation system, each of the independent nodes including audit counters providing counts relating to the processed event records, and

at least one node manager for monitoring the functioning of the independent nodes,

wherein the independent nodes are configured to report to the node manager the counts in their audit counters, and

the node manager is configured to check whether the counts of the audit counters provided by the independent nodes match, in order to ensure that no event records are lost in the mediation system.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the independent nodes comprise an input interface and an output interface and the audit counters are configured to provide information about each of the input interface, the output interface and internal functionality of the node relating to the processing of the event records.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the independent nodes are configured to report to the node manager the counts in their audit counters periodically at specified intervals.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the audit counters in each of the independent nodes includes at least one audit counter for each of the following variables:

number of event records input to the node,

number of event records output from the node,

number of new event records brought into processing by the node, and

number of event records deleted from processing by the node,

and the node manager is configured to check whether the sum of the event records output from the node and deleted from processing by the node matches with the sum of the event records input to the node and brought into processing by the node.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the system includes a processing chain of at least two independent nodes and the audit counters include at least one audit counter for each of the following variables:

number of event records input to the processing chain,

number of event records output from the processing chain,

number of new event records brought into processing by the processing chain, and

number of event records deleted from processing by the processing chain,

and the node manager is configured to check whether the sum of the event records output from the processing chain and deleted from processing by the processing chain matches with the sum of the event records input to the processing chain and brought into processing by the processing chain.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the audit counters include:

a counter for event records output from the node,

a counter for event records input to the node,

a counter for event records residing in the node,

a counter for event records split in the node,

a counter for event records duplicated in the node,

a counter for event records generated in the node,

a counter for event records in filtered the node,

a counter for event records discarded in the node, and

a counter for event records aggregated/correlated in the node.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the node manager is configured to periodically check whether the sum of:

event records output from the node during the period,

event records filtered in the node during the period,

event records discarded in the node during the period,

event records aggregated/correlated in the node during the period, and

event records residing in the node at the end of the period,

equals to the sum of;

event records input to the node during the period,

event records split in the node during the period,

event records duplicated in the node during the period,

event records generated in the node during the period, and

event records residing in the node at the start of the period.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the system includes a processing chain of at least two independent nodes and the node manager is configured to periodically check whether the sum of:

event records output from the processing chain during the period,

event records filtered in the processing chain during the period,

event records discarded in the processing chain during the period,

event records aggregated/correlated in the processing chain during the period, and

event records residing in the nodes of the processing chain at the end of the period,

equals to the sum of;

event records input to the processing chain during the period,

event records split in the processing chain during the period,

event records duplicated in the processing chain during the period,

event records generated in the processing chain during the period, and

event records residing in the nodes of the processing chain at the start of the period.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the independent nodes comprise at least two audit counters adapted to count at least two of:

incoming event records, rejected event records, reprocessed event records, event records residing in a specific independent node, event records omitted due to filtering, event records expired or deleted, new event records created due to splitting or duplication, new event records generated that are not related to input event records, input event records sent to aggregation/correlation process, event records that were merged due to aggregation or correlation, resulting event records that were completed and came out from the aggregation/con-elation process, resulting event records that were flushed out from the aggregation/correlation process, event records left to a specific independent node and event records written out.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein at least two of the independent nodes form at least one processing chain configured to process event records in series such that event records processed by a first independent node in the processing chain arc processed further by at least one second independent node in the processing chain.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one processing chain includes at least three independent nodes in series such that event records processed by the first and at least one second independent nodes in the processing chain are processed further by a last independent node in the processing chain.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the first independent node in the processing chain is adapted to receive event records from the communications network.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the first independent node of at least one processing chain is connected to the communications network by means of a real-time protocol to receive event records from network elements of the communications network.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of the nodes in at least one processing chain is connected to a data destination by means of a real-time protocol for sending data to the data destination.

32. The system of claims 29, wherein at least one of the nodes in at least one processing chain is connected to a data destination by means of a file-based protocol for sending data to the data destination as output files, and the system is adapted to report and check the counts relating to said processing chain each time the output files are closed.

33. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the independent nodes include a node base providing basic functionality of the independent node and an application containing processing rules, according to which the independent node processes the event records input to the node.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the node bases of the independent nodes are identical to each other.

35. The system of claim 18, wherein the independent nodes have been configured to continue their independent operation until instructed otherwise by the node manager.

36. The system of claim 18, comprising at least two separate hosts, each of the hosts running at least one of the independent nodes.

37. The system of claim 18, wherein the system is a real-time mediation system providing real-time processing capability.

38. The system of claim 18, wherein the system is adapted to process event records such that they flow through the system continuously as at least two parallel streams.

39. The system of claim 18, including

a system database for storing information on the processed event records, and

an interface to the system database for a revenue assurance tool.

40. The system of claim 18, including

a system database for storing information on the processed event records, and

a reporting tool connected to the system database for providing reports on the basis of the information stored in the system database.

41. The system of claim 18, wherein the node manager is adapted to alarm in case of problem in the processing.

42. A computer program product adapted to direct a computer system to form a mediation system for processing event records, the computer program product including computer program means for setting up at least one node manager and at least two independent nodes having their own settings and for operating the computer system such that:

at least one of the independent nodes is adapted to receive event records from a communications network,

the independent nodes are adapted to process the event records according to their own settings and independently of the other independent nodes of the mediation system,

the independent nodes are adapted to provide audit counters and to keep counts relating to the processed event records in the audit counters,

the independent nodes are adapted to report the counts in the audit counters to the node manager, and

the node manager is adapted to monitor the functioning of the independent nodes by checking whether the counts of the audit counters provided by the independent nodes match, in order to ensure that no event records are lost during processing.

43. The computer program product of claim 42, adapted to provide audit counters for counting the number of event records received in the mediation system, the number of event records delivered out from the mediation system, the number of event records generated in the mediation system and the number of event records deleted in the mediation system.

44. The computer program product of claim 42, adapted to provide audit counters for counting the number of event records received in each independent node, the number of event records delivered out from each independent node, the number of event records generated in each independent node and the number of event records deleted in each independent node.

45. The computer program product of claim 42, adapted to direct the computer system to set up processing streams wherein the event records pass through at least two independent nodes.

46. The computer program product of claim 45, adapted to provide audit counters for counting the number of event records received in each processing stream, the number of event records delivered out from each processing stream, the number of event records generated in each processing stream and the number of event records deleted in processing stream.

47. The computer program product of claim 42, including computer program means to adapted provide an alarm function for sending an alarm to a configured network management system in case of problem in the processing.

48. The computer program product of claim 42, including computer program means adapted to provide revenue assurance reports for detection of gaps in the data of the processed event records and verification of the integrity of the processing of the event records.

49. The computer program product of claim 45, including computer program means adapted to monitor the processing capacity of the mediation system, and in case of insufficient processing capacity, to scale up the system by starting up at least one new independent node to process the event records.

50. The computer program product of claim 45, adapted to be run in a multiple host system for sharing the processing load between two or more hosts.

51. The computer program product of claims 45, wherein each of the independent nodes include a node base program means providing basic functionality of the independent node and an application program means containing processing rules, according to which the independent node processes the event records.

52. The computer program product of claim 51, wherein the node bases of the independent nodes are identical to each other.