COMMUNICATION NETWORK QUALITY ANALYSIS SYSTEM, QUALITY ANALYSIS DEVICE, QUALITY ANALYSIS METHOD, AND PROGRAM

• US 20100284293A1
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Kosei, Watanabe, Yoshinori, Matsunaga, Yasuhiko
• Application Number:
  US12/810,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20100284293A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

Provided is a communication network quality analysis technique which can identify a network side communication device, a communication area, or a terminal which causes degradation of quality of the communication network detected by an abnormal communication quality index. The technique analyzes a recording content of a call process performed by the network side communication device and acquires a distribution of quality degradation amounts in respective hierarchies such as a terminal, a network communication device, or a communication area. Thus, the technique estimates a terminal, a network side communication device, or a communication area causing degradation of the communication quality according to a degree of quality degradation degree distribution bias considering the belonging relationship of the terminal, the network side communication device, and the communication area.

Claims

1. A quality analysis system for a communication network in which communication devices are hierarchically connected, comprising:

a recorder for recording processing contents of call processing by the communication devices in said communication network;

a detector for detecting degradation of communication quality of said communication network;

a quality degradation deviation calculator for, in case that degradation of communication quality is detected by said detector, obtaining a distribution of a quantity of quality degradation for each hierarchical level of said communication network and quantifying a degree of deviation of said distribution using said recorded processing contents of call processing; and

a cause-of-degradation estimating unit for estimating a terminal, a communication device or a communication area attributed to the cause of the degradation of communication quality using said calculated degree of deviation and information about a hierarchical relationship representing terminals, communication devices and communication areas constituting respective hierarchical levels.

2. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 1, wherein said quality degradation deviation calculator uses a Herfindahl index or entropy to evaluate a degree of deviation of the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation.

3. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 1, wherein said cause-of-degradation estimating unit estimates a cause of degradation of communication quality from a degree of deviation of the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation, said degree of deviation being obtained by said quality degradation deviation calculator in case that degradation of communication quality does not concentrically occur in any specific terminal, communication device or communication area in the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation, for a communication device or communication area belonging to an upper hierarchical level that contains said terminal, said communication device or said communication area.

4. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 1, comprising:

a second detector degradation of communication quality using a complaint from a user in case that said detector has detected no degradation of communication quality;

a quality-degraded-area estimating unit for locating a position of a terminal, communication device or communication area at which degradation of communication quality concentrically occurs from said processing contents; and

a radio wave quality evaluating unit for evaluating radio wave quality in a surrounding area around a position of said estimated quality-degraded area or around a location at which quality degradation occurs indicated by said complaint,

wherein said cause-of-degradation estimating unit estimates a cause of degradation of communication quality from a result of the evaluation of said radio wave quality.

5. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 4, wherein, in case that information on a position of a terminal at which the degradation of said communication quality concentrically occurs cannot be obtained, said degraded-area estimating unit acquires information about a place where a user possessing said terminal is staying from customer information possessed by a communication service provider to estimate a position of said terminal.

6. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 4, wherein, in case that the degradation of said communication quality occurs concentrically at a specific terminal, and the terminal is located at a place with poor radio wave quality, said cause-of-degradation estimating unit decides the cause of degradation to be occurs concentrically at a specific terminal, and said terminal is located at a place with good radio wave quality, it decides the cause of degradation to be a fault in a terminal machine.

7. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 4, wherein, in case that a frequency of communication failures in a communication device or communication area around a location at which quality degradation occurs indicated by said complaint is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, and a position at which the complaint arises is a place with poor radio wave quality, said cause-of-degradation estimating decides the cause of the complaint to be degradation of radio wave quality, or in case that a frequency of communication failures in a communication device or communication area around a location at which quality degradation occurs indicated by said complaint is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, and a position at which the complaint arises is a place with good radio wave quality, it decides the cause of the complaint to be a user'"'"'s subjective problem.

23. A quality analysis system for a communication network according to claim 1, wherein said cause-of-degradation estimating means unit evaluates whether degradation of communication quality concentrically occurs at a specific terminal, communication device or communication area from the degree of deviation of the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation, and estimates a cause of degradation of communication quality from a result of said evaluation.

8. A quality analysis apparatus for a communication network in which communication devices are hierarchically connected, comprising:

a detector for detecting degradation of communication quality of said communication network;

a quality degradation deviation calculator for, in case that degradation of communication quality is detected by said detector, obtaining a distribution of a quantity of quality degradation for each hierarchical level of said communication network and quantifying a degree of deviation of said distribution using processing contents of call processing by communication devices in said communication network; and

a cause-of-degradation estimating unit for estimating a terminal, a communication device or a communication area attributed to the cause of the degradation of communication quality using said calculated degree of deviation and information about a hierarchical relationship representing terminals, communication devices and communication areas constituting respective hierarchical levels.

9-14. -14. (canceled)

15. A quality analysis method for a communication network in which communication devices are hierarchically connected, comprising:

a detecting step of detecting degradation of communication quality of said communication network;

a quality degradation deviation calculating step of, in case that degradation of communication quality is detected at said detecting step, obtaining a distribution of a quantity of quality degradation for each hierarchical level of said communication network and quantifying a degree of deviation of said distribution using processing contents of call processing by communication devices in said communication network; and

a cause-of-degradation estimating step of estimating a terminal, a communication device or a communication area attributed to the cause of the degradation of communication quality using said calculated degree of deviation and information about a hierarchical relationship representing terminals, communication devices and communication areas constituting respective hierarchical levels.

16. A quality analysis method according to claim 15, wherein said quality degradation deviation calculating step uses a Herfindahl index or entropy to evaluate a degree of deviation of the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation.

17. A quality analysis method according to claim 15, wherein, in case that degradation of communication quality does not concentrically occur in any specific terminal, communication device or communication area in the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation, said quality degradation deviation calculating step obtains a degree of deviation of the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation for a communication device or communication area belonging to an upper hierarchical level that contains said terminal, said communication device or said communication area;

and

said cause-of-degradation estimating step estimates a cause of degradation of communication quality from the degree of deviation of the distribution of the quantity of quality degradation at said upper hierarchical level.

18. A quality analysis method according to in claim 15, comprising:

a step of detecting degradation of communication quality using a complaint from a user in case that said detecting step has detected no degradation of communication quality;

a quality-degraded-area estimating step of locating a position of a terminal, communication device or communication area at which degradation of communication quality concentrically occurs from said processing contents; and

a radio wave quality evaluating step of evaluating radio wave quality in a surrounding area around a position of said estimated quality-degraded area or around a location at which quality degradation occurs indicated by said complaint,

wherein said cause-of-degradation estimating step estimates a cause of degradation of communication quality from a result of the evaluation of said radio wave quality.

19. A quality analysis method according to claim 18, wherein, in case that information on a position of a terminal at which the degradation of said communication quality concentrically occurs cannot be obtained, said degraded-area estimating step acquires information about a place where a user possessing said terminal is staying from customer information possessed by a communication service provider to estimate a position of said terminal.

20. A quality analysis method according to claim 18, wherein, in case that the degradation of said communication quality occurs concentrically at a specific terminal, and the terminal is located at a place with poor radio wave quality, said cause-of-degradation estimating step decides the cause of degradation to be degradation of radio wave quality, or in case that the degradation of said communication quality occurs concentrically at a specific terminal, and said terminal is located at a place with good radio wave quality, it decides the cause of degradation to be a fault in a terminal machine.

21. A quality analysis method according to claim 18, wherein, in case that a frequency of communication failures in a communication device or communication area around a location at which quality degradation occurs indicated by said complaint is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, and a position at which the complaint arises is a place with poor radio wave quality, said cause-of-degradation estimating step decides the cause of the complaint to be degradation of radio wave quality, or in case that a frequency of communication failures in a communication device or communication area around a location at which quality degradation occurs indicated by said complaint is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, and the position at which the complaint arises is a place with good radio wave quality, it decides the cause of the complaint to be a user'"'"'s subjective problem.

25. A quality analysis method according to claim 15, wherein said cause-of-degradation estimating means unit evaluates whether degradation of communication quality concentrically occurs at a specific terminal, communication device or communication area from the degree of deviation of the distribution of said quantity of quality degradation, and estimates a cause of degradation of communication quality from a result of said evaluation.

22. (canceled)

24. (canceled)