Troubleshooting Voice Over WLAN Deployments

• US 20090219822A1
• Filed: 02/29/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Rajneesh, Variyath, Girish S., Ganesan, Karthikeyan, Jayaraman, Vikram
• Granted Patent: US 7,948,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/06 Testing, supervising or monitoring using simulated traffic

Abstract

A voice over WLAN diagnostic system. In particular implementations, a method includes simulating, in response to a triggering event, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with a remote diagnostics engine; gathering metric data characterizing one or more aspects of the simulated VoIP communications; and periodically transmitting diagnostic packets including the metric data to the remote diagnostics engine; wherein the simulating VoIP communications comprises transmitting diagnostic protocol packets that simulate VoIP communications to the remote diagnostic engine; and intercepting diagnostic protocol packets received from the diagnostics engine.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

simulating, in response to a triggering event, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with a remote diagnostics engine;

gathering metric data characterizing one or more aspects of the simulated VoIP communications; and

periodically transmitting diagnostic packets including the metric data to the remote diagnostics engine;

wherein the simulating VoIP communications comprises

transmitting diagnostic protocol packets that simulate VoIP communications to the remote diagnostic engine; and

intercepting diagnostic protocol packets received from the diagnostics engine.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving programming information from the diagnostics engine, wherein the programming information defines the triggering event.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the triggering event is based on one or more of time and location.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the diagnostic protocol packets comprise Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) packets.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

registering with the diagnostics engine;

receiving configuration information from the diagnostics engine;

receiving one or more rule sets from the diagnostics engine, wherein the one or more rule sets define the trigger event; and

monitoring and applying the one or more rule sets to trigger the VoIP communications with the diagnostics engine.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with the remote diagnostics engine is conditioned on a call application not being in use.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the diagnostic protocol packets comprise Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) packets the simulate timing, size, and sequence of packets transmitted during a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising causing a MAC driver layer to use Differentiated Services Code Protocol (DSCP) to User Priority (UP) mapping information for a given diagnostic voice session to assess an effect on one or more attributes of the diagnostic voice session, relative to the DSCP to UP mappings that the MAC driver layer is currently using.

9. Logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

simulate, in response to a triggering event, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with a remote diagnostics engine;

gather metric data characterizing one or more aspects of the simulated VoIP communications; and

periodically transmit diagnostic packets including the metric data to the remote diagnostics engine;

wherein the simulating VoIP communications comprises

transmitting diagnostic protocol packets that simulate VoIP communications to the remote diagnostic engine; and

intercepting diagnostic protocol packets received from the diagnostics engine.

10. The logic of claim 9 wherein the logic is further operable to receive programming information from the diagnostics engine, wherein the programming information defines the triggering event.

11. The logic of claim 9 wherein the triggering event is based on one or more of time and location.

12. The logic of claim 9 wherein the diagnostic protocol packets comprise Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) packets.

13. The logic of claim 9 wherein the logic is further operable to:

register with the diagnostics engine;

receive configuration information from the diagnostics engine;

receive one or more rule sets from the diagnostics engine, wherein the one or more rule sets define the trigger event; and

monitor and applying the one or more rule sets to trigger the VoIP communications with the diagnostics engine.

14. The logic of claim 9 wherein the simulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with the remote diagnostics engine is conditioned on a call application not being in use.

15. The logic of claim 9 wherein the diagnostic protocol packets comprise Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) packets the simulate timing, size, and sequence of packets transmitted during a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call.

16. The logic of claim 9 wherein the logic is further operable to cause a MAC driver layer to use Differentiated Services Code Protocol (DSCP) to User Priority (UP) mapping information for a given diagnostic voice session to assess an effect on one or more attributes of the diagnostic voice session, relative to the DSCP to UP mappings that the MAC driver layer is currently using.

17. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory;

one or more wireless network interfaces; and

voice agent logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to cause the one or more processors to;

simulate, in response to a triggering event, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with a remote diagnostics engine;

gather metric data characterizing one or more aspects of the simulated VoIP communications; and

periodically transmit diagnostic packets including the metric data to the remote diagnostics engine;

wherein the simulating VoIP communications comprises

transmitting diagnostic protocol packets that simulate VoIP communications to the remote diagnostic engine; and

intercepting diagnostic protocol packets received from the diagnostics engine.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the voice agent logic is further operable to cause the one or more processors to receive programming information from the diagnostics engine, wherein the programming information defines the triggering event.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the triggering event is based on one or more of time and location.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the diagnostic protocol packets comprise Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) packets.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the voice agent logic is further operable to cause the one or more processors to:

register with the diagnostics engine;

receive configuration information from the diagnostics engine;

receive one or more rule sets from the diagnostics engine, wherein the one or more rule sets define the trigger event; and

monitor and applying the one or more rule sets to trigger the VoIP communications with the diagnostics engine.

22. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the simulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications with the remote diagnostics engine is conditioned on a call application not being in use.

23. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the diagnostic protocol packets comprise Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) packets the simulate timing, size, and sequence of packets transmitted during a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call.

24. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the voice agent logic is further operable to cause a MAC driver layer to use Differentiated Services Code Protocol (DSCP) to User Priority (UP) mapping information for a given diagnostic voice session to assess an effect on one or more attributes of the diagnostic voice session, relative to the DSCP to UP mappings that the MAC driver layer is currently using.