MULTI-INTERFACE PROTOCOL ANALYSIS SYSTEM

• US 20090087179A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Services Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: MCKELVEY, Henry A., UNDERWOOD, Rosa M., PATEL, Umang A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,899,323 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1694 Allocation of channels in TDM/TDMA networks, e.g. distributed multiplexers Passive Optical Networks H04Q11/0062
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/18 Protocol analysers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A device may include a first network module to capture network data at a first location in a network and a second network module to capture network data at a second location in the network different from the first location in the network. The device may include a control module to receive control commands relating to the first network module and the second network module. The control module may forwarded the control commands to the first network module and the second network module. The control module may receive the captured network data from the first network module and the second network module.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a first network module to capture network data at a first location in an optical network;

a second network module to capture network data at a second location in the network different from the first location in the network; and

a control module to;

receive control commands relating to the first network module and the second network module;

forward the control commands to the first network module and the second network module; and

receive the captured network data from the first network module and the second network module.

2. The device of claim 1, where the first location comprises an interface between an optical line termination (OLT) unit and a passive optical network.

3. The device of claim 1, where the first location comprises an interface between an optical line termination (OLT) unit and an edge router.

4. The device of claim 1, where the first location comprises an interface between an optical line termination (OLT) unit and a voice gateway.

5. The device of claim 1, where the first location comprises an interface between an edge router and a session initiation protocol (SIP) network.

6. The device of claim 1, where each of the first and second network modules comprise:

a first optical to electrical converter to convert optical signals received at the first and second locations, respectively, into electrical data units; and

a system board to capture the electrical data units from the first optical to electrical converter and transmit the captured electrical data units to a storage location.

7. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

a second optical to electrical converter to convert the electrical data units into an optical signal and output the optical signal to the optical network; and

a hub for receiving the electrical data units from the first optical to electrical converter and outputting the electrical data units to each of the system board and a second optical to electrical converter.

8. The device of claim 6, where the system board further comprises a protocol analyzer subsystem to capture the electrical data units from the first optical to electrical converter and record them into a text-based file.

9. The device of claim 8, where the text-based file includes at least header information for each captured electrical data unit.

10. The device of claim 9, where the text-based file further includes a timestamp associated with each captured electrical data unit.

11. The device of claim 6, where the system board further comprises a remote access server to receive the control commands from the control module.

12. The device of claim 6 where the electrical data units comprise one of Ethernet frames, Ethernet packets, or Asynchronous Transfer Mode cells.

13. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage device to store the text-based files for each of the first network module and the second network module.

14. The device of claim 1, further comprising a chassis for containing the first network module, the second network module, and the control module,

where the chassis further includes a power supply to provide power to each of the first network module, the second network module, and the control module.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving a first command to capture first network data at a first optical line termination (OLT) unit interface;

capturing the first network data at the first OLT unit interface in response to the first command;

outputting a first data capture file corresponding to the captured first network data;

storing the first data capture file;

receiving a second command to capture second network data at a second OLT unit interface;

capturing the second network data at the second OLT unit interface in response to the second command;

outputting a second data capture file corresponding to the captured second network data;

storing the second data capture file;

receiving a request to analyze the first data capture file and the second data capture file; and

outputting the first data capture file and the second data capture file in a correlated manner.

16. The method of claim 15, where the first data capture file and the second data capture file include at least header information corresponding to the captured first network data and the captured second network data, respectively.

17. The method of claim 16, where the where the first data capture file and the second data capture file include sequence number information corresponding to the captured first network data and the captured second network data, respectively.

18. A system, comprising:

logic to capture first network traffic at a first optical line termination (OLT) unit interface;

logic to capture second network traffic at a second OLT unit interface;

logic to synchronize the captured first network traffic with the captured second network traffic; and

logic to provide the synchronized and captured first network traffic and second network traffic to a user.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

logic to receive control commands from the user,

where the logic to capture the first network traffic and the logic to capture the second network traffic are responsive to the control commands.