SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO MONITOR AND ANALYZE CUSTOMER EQUIPMENT DOWNTIME IN A VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP) SERVICE NETWORK

• US 20090296566A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yasrebl, Mehrad, Jackson, James, Ku, Bernard
• Granted Patent: US 8,223,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]

Abstract

Systems and methods to monitor and analyze customer premises equipment downtime in a Voice over Internet Protocol service network are disclosed. An example method comprises receiving an indication of an internet protocol (IP) address change, determining whether a network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change, and when the network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change, storing the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the IP address change.

Claims

1. A method to analyze failed network transactions associated with customer premises equipment downtime in a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service platform, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of an internet protocol (IP) address change;

determining whether a network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change; and

when the network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change, storing the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the IP address change.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the failed network transaction comprises at least one of a lost transaction, a misdirected transaction, a rejected transaction, an un-routable transaction, or an unresolved transaction.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein storing the failed network transaction comprises at least one of storing a copy of the failed network transaction or storing an indication of the failed network transaction.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining whether the network transaction is a failed network transaction further comprises comparing the network transaction to a set of monitoring rules.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the monitoring rules include at least one of a session initiation protocol request message having a first predefined set of arguments or a session initiation protocol response message having a second predefined set of arguments.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of the IP address change further comprises receiving an IP address change message from at least one of a dynamic host configuration protocol server, a residential gateway, or a session border controller.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the IP address change is a second IP address to replace a first IP address assigned to a residential gateway.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

storing the database entry to a database entry cache;

analyzing a plurality of database entries from the database entry cache to determine if failed network transactions are a cause for a loss of service;

calculating statistics from the analyzed database entries to determine lost subscriber customer premises equipment time; and

reporting the statistics from the calculated database entries.

9. The method as defined in claim 8, further comprising reporting at least one of a quantity of the failed network transactions or the cause of the failed network transaction to the network service provider.

10. The method as defined in claim 8, further comprising determining at least one cause associated with the failed network transactions from the analyzed data.

11. The method as defined in claim 8, wherein the statistics comprises at least one of a total number of instances of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, an average lost subscriber customer premises equipment time for an IP address change for a plurality of subscribers, a total number of minutes of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, a number of failed network transactions for a failed network transaction type, a number of IP address changes per subscriber, a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to subscriber location, or a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to a time period.

12. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a registration of the IP address change; and

storing the indication of the registration of the IP address change to the database entry.

13. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the indication of a registration of the IP address change is received from at least one of a residential gateway, a session border controller, or an IP multimedia subsystem.

14. A lost subscriber time server to analyze failed network transactions associated with customer premises equipment downtime in a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service platform, the server comprising:

an IP address monitor to receive an indication of an internet protocol (IP) address change;

a failed network transaction monitor to detect a failed network transaction; and

a transaction processor to determine whether the failed network transaction is associated with the IP address change.

15. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, wherein the transaction processor stores the failed network transaction to a database entry if the failed network transaction is associated with the IP address change.

16. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 15, wherein the failed network transaction monitor compiles a plurality of database entries.

17. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 16, further comprising:

a database entry cache to store a plurality of database entries;

a data analyzer to analyze a plurality of database entries in the database entry cache to determine if the failed network transactions are a cause for a loss of service and to calculate statistics from the analyzed database entries to determine lost subscriber customer premises equipment time; and

a report generator to report the statistics from the calculated database entries.

18. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 17, wherein the data analyzer determines whether a network transaction is a failed network transaction by comparing the network transaction to a set of monitoring rules.

19. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 18, wherein the monitoring rules include at least one of a session initiation protocol request message having a first predefined set of arguments or a session initiation protocol response message having a second predefined set of arguments.

20. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 17, wherein the report generator reports at least one of a quantity of the failed network transactions or the cause of the failed network transaction to the network service provider.

21. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 17, wherein the data analyzer calculates statistics including at least one of a total number of instances of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, an average lost subscriber customer premises equipment time associated with an IP address change, a total number of minutes of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, a number of failed network transactions for a failed network transaction type, a number of IP address changes per subscriber, a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to subscriber location, or a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to a time period.

22. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, wherein the IP address monitor receives an indication of an IP address change from at least one of a residential gateway, a dynamic host configuration protocol server, a session border controller, or an IP multimedia subsystem border element.

23. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 22, wherein the residential gateway is associated with the network service provider.

24. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, wherein the failed network transaction monitor detects at least one of a lost transaction, a misdirected transaction, a rejected transaction, an un-routable transaction, or an unresolved transaction.

25. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, further comprising a registration monitor to receive an indication of a registration of the IP address change.

26. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 25, wherein the transaction processor stores the indication of the registration of the IP address change to a corresponding database entry.

27. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 25, wherein the indication of a registration of the IP address change is received from one of a residential gateway, a session border controller, or an IP multimedia subsystem.

28. A machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to:

receive an indication of an internet protocol (IP) address change;

determine whether a network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change; and

when the network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change, store the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the IP address change.

29-56. -56. (canceled)