METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REAL-TIME MULTI-DIMENSIONAL REPORTING AND ANALYZING OF DATA ON APPLICATION LEVEL ACTIVITY AND OTHER USER INFORMATION ON A MOBILE DATA NETWORK

• US 20090138446A1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Umber Systems Incorporated (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalavade, Asawaree
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,170 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method and apparatus for real-time, multi-dimensional reporting and analyzing of data on application level activity and other user information on a mobile data network. A report manager communicates with a data manager to develop and test real-time reports about aggregate and user-level network usage. The data manager provides a database of non-aggregate, user-specific event data and a set of tables specifying combinations of monitored variables satisfying a set of defined reports. The report manager comprises a report generation module, which receives operator instructions for aggregate usage information. The report module determines whether the requested information can be satisfied by combinations of monitored aggregate variables, or whether it must be retrieved from a non-aggregate, user-specific, event data database. Furthermore, the report module is responsive to operator instructions to add a test report to the set of defined real-time reports.

Claims

1. A report manager for developing and testing real-time reports about aggregate and user-level usage of a mobile data network, said report manager being in communication with a data manager device that provides a database of non-aggregate, user-specific event data and also provides a set of tables specifying combinations of one or more aggregate variables then-presently monitored by said data manager to satisfy a set of defined real-time reports, said report manager comprising:

a report generation module for receiving operator instructions specifying aggregate usage information to be included in a test report, said report generation module determining which of said specified aggregate usage information may be satisfied by said combinations of one or more aggregate variables then-presently monitored by said data manager and using the then-presently monitored amounts to generate corresponding results for said test report; and

causing said database to be queried to search the non-aggregate, user-specific event data to generate results for said test report for said specified aggregate usage information that could not be satisfied by said combinations of one or more aggregate variables then-presently monitored by said data manager;

wherein said report generation module is responsive to operator instructions requesting that the test report be added as a new real-time report to the set of defined real-time reports, by providing the specification of said test report and causing said data manager to subsequently monitor combinations of one or more aggregate variables to satisfy said new real-time report.

2. The report manager of claim 1 wherein said defined reports includes informational dimensions about aggregate usage of said network, including at least one of demographic information on the user, location of the user, content and classification of the URL visited by the user, application or media type accessed by the user, device type used by the user, or network type of the user.

3. The report manager of claim 2 wherein one of the defined reports include a first subset of informational dimensions and a test report adds to the first subset by including at least another informational dimension.

4. The report manager of claim 1 wherein the data manager provides session metric information that may be included in specification of reports, said session metric information including at least one of page views, number of sessions, number of visits to content, unique visitors to content, time spent during sessions, data consumed by a user during a session reports are organized by a plurality of metrics defined in the logic module.

5. The report manager of claim 1 wherein said data manager maintains tables specifying user-specific event information for a defined set of network users, and wherein said report generation module receives instructions specifying user-specific information to be included in a test report and determining which of said specified user-specific information may be satisfied by said data manager.

6. The report manager of claim 5 wherein report generation module displays a list of active-users in the system and the operator selects an active user to monitor.

7. The report manager of claim 6 wherein said data manager maintains informational dimensions about usage of said network, including at least one of demographic information on the user, location of the user, content and classification of the URL visited by the user, application or media type accessed by the user, device type used by the user, or network type of the user, and wherein said report generation module is responsive to an operator instruction specifying one of said informational dimensions to display usage information about said specified dimension for a selected user.