METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ALARM CORRELATION FOR A GATEWAY ROUTER

• US 20100042744A1
• Filed: 08/18/2008
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2008
• 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: Rahman, Moshiur, Seden, Deniz, Bekampis, Carolyn
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/239
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for providing alarm correlation for a gateway router are disclosed. For example, the method receives one or more alarms, wherein each of the one or more alarms having a message signature in accordance with a router redundancy signaling protocol. The method then identifies one or more root causes by correlating the one or more alarms in accordance with the message signatures.

Claims

1. A method for providing alarm correlation for a gateway router, comprising:

receiving one or more alarms, wherein each of said one or more alarms having a message signature in accordance with a router redundancy signaling protocol; and

identifying one or more root causes by correlating said one or more alarms in accordance with said message signatures.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said router redundancy signaling protocol comprises a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating at least one ticket for said one or more root causes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

suppressing one or more alarms received from one or more network elements associated with said root cause.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least one heartbeat down message from at least one gateway router or from a gateway router monitoring system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said at least one heartbeat down message is used for said identifying one or more root causes.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a status of each network element that sent one of said one or more alarms with a message signature.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said identifying one or more root causes is performed by correlating only those alarms with message signatures received from network elements having an active status.

9. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of a method for providing alarm correlation for a gateway router, comprising:

receiving one or more alarms, wherein each of said one or more alarms having a message signature in accordance with a router redundancy signaling protocol; and

identifying one or more root causes by correlating said one or more alarms in accordance with said message signatures.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein said router redundancy signaling protocol comprises a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP).

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

generating at least one ticket for said one or more root causes.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

suppressing one or more alarms received from one or more network elements associated with said root cause.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving at least one heartbeat down message from at least one gateway router or from a gateway router monitoring system.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein said at least one heartbeat down message is used for said identifying one or more root causes.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a status of each network element that sent one of said one or more alarms with a message signature.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein said identifying one or more root causes is performed by correlating only those alarms with message signatures received from network elements having an active status.

17. An apparatus for providing alarm correlation for a gateway router, comprising:

means for receiving one or more alarms, wherein each of said one or more alarms having a message signature in accordance with a router redundancy signaling protocol; and

means for identifying one or more root causes by correlating said one or more alarms in accordance with said message signatures.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said router redundancy signaling protocol comprises a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP).

19. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

means for generating at least one ticket for said one or more root causes.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

means for suppressing one or more alarms received from one or more network elements associated with said root cause.