ENDPOINT REPORT AGGREGATION IN UNIFIED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

• US 20090225670A1
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Allio, Vincent, Liu, Xu, Leung, Yiu-Ming, Park, Jisun, Levin, Danny, Zheng, Haoran, Herbison, Jay
• Granted Patent: US 8,295,191 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

User quality of experience in a real time communication system is determined by analyzing endpoint performance metric reports correlated with performance factors of each endpoint in an endpoint profile for a more complete view of an audio/video quality of experience. Reports may include endpoint profile reports, which may be sent once at the beginning and then again only if an endpoint attribute changes; session reports, which include measured metric information and are sent at the conclusion of each session; and session interval reports, which also include metric information, but are sent during the session based on a period or a predefined threshold.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for aggregating endpoint reports in a unified communication network (UCN), the method comprising:

collecting data associated with endpoint profiles;

collecting metric data associated with measured call metrics;

correlating the metric data with the data associated with endpoint profiles;

aggregating the correlated data based on predefined aggregation rules;

generating a performance report based on the aggregated data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rendering the performance report through at least one from a set of;

displaying on a user interface, storing for subsequent retrieval, and providing to one of an analysis application, a scheduling application, and a presentation application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the metric data is collected at one of:

a conclusion of each session and an expiration of a predefined period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data associated with endpoint profiles includes endpoint attributes comprising at least one from a set of:

an endpoint application type, an endpoint processing capacity, an endpoint memory capacity, an endpoint driver type, an endpoint operating system, and an endpoint communication characteristic.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data associated with endpoint profiles is collected first time when an endpoint becomes active and again only when one of the endpoint attributes changes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting the data associated with a profile of a first endpoint from at least two endpoints, wherein one of the least two endpoints is the first endpoint and another of the at least two endpoints is a remote endpoint communicating with the first endpoint.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising aggregating the correlated data based on a more reliable one of the profiles from the at least two endpoints.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising selecting the data associated with the endpoint profile from the first endpoint over data from other endpoints for the first endpoint, if the data associated with the endpoint profile is available from the first endpoint.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data associated with endpoint profiles and the metric data are collected utilizing a standardized communication protocol and the performance report is generated utilizing standard format such that the report is transmittable and consumable to any application for one of:

analysis, scheduling, performing corrective actions, and presentation.

10. The method of claim 3, further comprising issuing an alert in response to exceeding of the predefined threshold value for at least one of the measured call metrics, wherein the alert is issued as at least one from a set of:

a voice call, an instant message, an audio indication, a visual indication, and an audio-visual indication.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the measured call metrics are one of uniform for all endpoints and specific to at least one group of endpoints.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the endpoints include one of:

an end device for facilitating communication through the UCN, an access server, a mediation server, an audio/video conferencing server, and a multipoint conferencing unit.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a call includes one of:

a voice call, a video call, an audio conference, a video conference, an instant message session, an electronic mail exchange, an application sharing session, and a data sharing session.

14. A system for aggregating endpoint performance reports in a unified communication network (UCN), the system comprising:

a plurality of endpoints comprising end devices capable of executing communication applications, intermediary devices, and servers associated with the UCN for facilitating real time communications through the network, each endpoint configured to;

provide a profile report based on endpoint characteristics and attributes once when the endpoint becomes active and again only when there is a change to the endpoint profile;

collect call metrics data for itself and at least one other endpoint during each communication session; and

provide the collected call metrics data;

a quality monitoring server (QMS) associated with the UCN, the QMS configured to;

receive the profile report and the collected call metrics data from each endpoint;

correlate the profile and the call metrics data for each endpoint;

aggregate the call metrics data with its associated profile into a quality experience report for at least one session, wherein the aggregation includes selection of appropriate call metrics data for an endpoint if call metrics data is available for that endpoint from a plurality of sources; and

render the quality experience report for consumption to any application for one of;

analysis, scheduling, performing corrective actions, and presentation.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of sources includes the endpoint itself and the at least one other endpoint communicating with the endpoint.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the QMS is further configured to associate call metrics data for communications between endpoints within a conference under a conference object using a conference identifier.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the call metrics data is collected and the quality experience report generated using object representations for aspects of communication between endpoints, and wherein the object representations include at least one from a set of:

a session object representing the communication, a media line object representing a communication channel between endpoints during a session, and a stream object representing exchange of information between endpoints in form of one of audio, video, instant message, and data.

18. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for aggregating endpoint performance reports in a unified communication network (UCN), the instructions comprising:

collecting data associated with endpoint profiles comprising information about at least one from a set of;

an endpoint application type, an endpoint processing capacity, an endpoint memory capacity, an endpoint driver type, an endpoint operating system, and an endpoint communication characteristic;

collecting metric data associated with measured call metrics, wherein a call includes at least one from a set of;

a voice call, a video call, an audio conference, a video conference, an instant message session, an electronic mail exchange, an application sharing session, and a data sharing session;

correlating the collected metric data with the data associated with endpoint profiles;

aggregating the correlated data based on predefined aggregation rules, wherein the aggregation rules include selection of appropriate call metrics data for an endpoint if call metrics data is available for that endpoint from a plurality of sources;

generating a performance report in a standard format based on the aggregated data; and

rendering the performance report available for at least one from a set of;

displaying on a user interface, storing for subsequent retrieval, and providing to one of an analysis application, a scheduling application, and a presentation application.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein call metric data is collected multiple times during each session in response to one of:

an expiration of a predefined period and exceeding of a predefined threshold value for at least one of the measured call metrics.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein selection of appropriate call metrics data includes selection of call metrics data from an endpoint that provides the call metrics data and associated endpoint profile over data from another endpoint collected remotely for the endpoint during a session.