MOBILE NETWORK MONITORING

• US 20110201364A1
• Filed: 02/09/2011
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Borghini, Marco, Capuozzo, Giuseppe, Persia, Giovanni
• Granted Patent: US 8,798,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

The present description refers in particular to a computer-implemented method, a computer program product and a device for measuring QoS in a mobile network, the method comprising: accessing at least one platform dependent API on a mobile device; obtaining, according to a set of QoS parameters, a first plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and sending the first plurality of QoS measurement values to a first server.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of measuring Quality of Service (QoS) in a mobile network, the method comprising:

accessing at least one platform dependent Application Programming Interface (API) on a mobile device;

obtaining, according to a set of QoS parameters, a first plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and

sending the first plurality of QoS measurement values to a first server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of QoS parameters include any one or more of the following in any combination:

a cell identifier;

a received signal strength indication;

an absolute radio frequency channel number;

power of a signal on a primary common pilot channel;

position data obtained using a global navigation satellite system;

received signal code power; and

volume of data transmitted and received.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a first trigger at the mobile device;

downloading configuration parameters to the mobile device in response to the first trigger; and

wherein obtaining the first plurality of QoS measurement values is performed under conditions defined by the configuration parameters.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first trigger is an SMS message, and wherein the SMS message includes a pointer to a first server.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising

receiving a second trigger at the mobile device, wherein the second trigger includes a second pointer to a second server;

obtaining, according to the set of QoS parameters, a second plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and

sending the second plurality of QoS measurement values to the second server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the first plurality of QoS measurement values is carried out by monitoring normal usage of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising

providing an indication of a status of the mobile device to the first server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the indication includes more than 160 bytes of data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein

when the mobile device includes a Symbian operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses Symbian C++;

when the mobile device includes an Android operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses an Android Java library;

when the mobile device includes a Windows Mobile operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses C++; and

when the mobile device includes a Blackberry operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses a Blackberry Java library.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the configuration parameters comprise a type parameter, and wherein the type parameter indicates that the first plurality of QoS measurement values are obtained by measuring QoS for at least one of the following:

audio calls, and video calls.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the configuration parameters comprise a sampling frequency, and wherein the sampling frequency specifies an amount of time between obtaining a first part of the first plurality of QoS measurement values and a second part of the first plurality of QoS measurement values.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a response to a query of a user of the mobile device, wherein the response includes a quality of service perceived by the user, and/or a characteristic of a location where the mobile device was used;

obtaining a third plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile network; and

comparing the first plurality of QoS measurement values, the response to the query, and the third plurality of QoS measurement values.

13. A computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions, which, when loaded and executed on a computer system, cause the computer system to:

access at least one platform dependent Application Programming Interface (API) on the device;

obtain, according to a set of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters a first plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and

send the first plurality of QoS measurement values to a first server.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable instructions cause the computer system to:

access at least one platform dependent API on a mobile device;

obtain, according to a set of QoS parameters, a first plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and

send the first plurality of QoS measurement values to a first server.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the set of QoS parameters include any one or more of the following in any combination:

a cell identifier;

a received signal strength indication;

an absolute radio frequency channel number;

power of a signal on a primary common pilot channel;

position data obtained using a global navigation satellite system;

received signal code power; and

volume of data transmitted and received.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable instructions cause the computer system to:

receive a first trigger at the mobile device;

download configuration parameters to the mobile device in response to the first trigger; and

obtain the first plurality of QoS measurement values under conditions defined by the configuration parameters.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable instructions cause the computer system to:

obtain the first plurality of QoS measurement values by monitoring normal usage of the mobile device.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable instructions cause the computer system to:

provide an indication of a status of the mobile device to the first server.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein

when the mobile device includes a Symbian operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses Symbian C++;

when the mobile device includes an Android operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses an Android Java library;

when the mobile device includes a Windows Mobile operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses C++; and

when the mobile device includes a Blackberry operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses a Blackberry Java library.

20. A device comprising:

means for accessing at least one at least one platform dependent Application Programming Interface (API) on the device;

means for obtaining, according to a set of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters a first plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and

means for sending the first plurality of QoS measurement values to a first server.

21. The device of claim 20, configured to:

access at least one platform dependent API on a mobile device;

obtain, according to a set of QoS parameters, a first plurality of QoS measurement values from the mobile device by means of the API; and

send the first plurality of QoS measurement values to a first server.

22. The device of claim 20, wherein the set of QoS parameters include any one or more of the following in any combination:

a cell identifier;

a received signal strength indication;

an absolute radio frequency channel number;

power of a signal on a primary common pilot channel;

position data obtained using a global navigation satellite system;

received signal code power; and

volume of data transmitted and received.

23. The device of claim 20, further configured to:

receive a first trigger at the mobile device;

download configuration parameters to the mobile device in response to the first trigger; and

obtain the first plurality of QoS measurement values under conditions defined by the configuration parameters.

24. The device of claim 20, further configured to:

obtain the first plurality of QoS measurement values by monitoring normal usage of the mobile device.

25. The device of claim 20, further configured to:

provide an indication of a status of the mobile device to the first server.

26. The device of claim 20, wherein

when the mobile device includes a Symbian operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses Symbian C++;

when the mobile device includes an Android operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses an Android Java library;

when the mobile device includes a Windows Mobile operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses C++; and

when the mobile device includes a Blackberry operating system, the at least one platform dependent API uses a Blackberry Java library.