Estimating Physical Locations of Network Faults

• US 20130286852A1
• Filed: 04/27/2012
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bowler, David B., Greene, Clarke V., Basile, Brian M., He, Xiang
• Granted Patent: US 8,867,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/242
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/08 Locating faults in cables, transmission lines, or networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/00 Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received correcting synchronisation H04L7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/507 Filtering out customers affected by service problems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level

Abstract

A method of estimating a physical location of a network fault is provided. Information is received concerning the physical topology of the network by data pulls of information concerning network components and terminal network elements and geographic locations thereof. A network fault is detected by monitoring at least one performance parameter transmitted via upstream communications from the terminal network elements, and a physical location of a network fault is estimated based on the performance parameter, the physical topology of the network, and the terminal network element or elements from which the performance parameter was received that indicated the network fault. A list of network components that require inspection and that may provide a source of the network fault is generated. A signal processing electronic device for mapping the network fault and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions are also provided.

Claims

1. A method of estimating a physical location of a network fault producing linear distortion or excessive loss impairments, comprising the steps of:

receiving information electronically of a physical topology of a network, said receiving step including data pulls of information concerning network components and geographic locations of the network components and terminal network elements and geographic locations of the terminal network elements;

detecting a network fault by automatically and electronically monitoring at least one performance parameter transmitted via upstream communications from terminal network elements on the network;

automatically estimating a physical location of the network fault on the network based on the at least one performance parameter obtained during said detecting step, the information of the physical topology of the network obtained during said receiving step, and the terminal network element or elements from which the at least one performance parameter was received that indicated the network fault; and

automatically generating a list of network components that require inspection and may provide a source of the network fault.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the network components are selected from a group consisting of drop cables, taps, trunk cables, amplifiers, and node components.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the network is a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network interconnecting the terminal network elements which include cable modems to a headend of the network having a cable modem termination system (CMTS) via a tree and branch network structure, and wherein the upstream communications are in a direction from the terminal network elements to the headend.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one performance parameter monitored during said detecting step includes at least one of absolute and delta downstream power level, absolute and delta upstream power level, microreflections, upstream filter coefficient ratio, carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR)/signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and modulation error ratio (MER).

5. The according to claim 1, wherein the at least one performance parameter includes an upstream filter coefficient ratio which equals 10*log(TCE/TE), where TCE is a sum of energy used by an equalizer of the terminal network element for correction of upstream signals in all taps of the equalizer except a main tap and TE is a sum of energy used by the equalizer of the terminal network element for correction of upstream signals in all taps of the equalizer including the main tap.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by only a single terminal network element in a common serving group of terminal network elements identifies an unacceptable drop in downstream power level and upstream power level, then said estimating step automatically identifies a drop cable of the single terminal network element, a tap associated with the drop cable, and a trunk cable feeding the tap as the physical location of the network fault.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by multiple terminal network elements within a common serving group of terminal network elements identify an unacceptable drop in downstream power level and upstream power level, then said estimating step automatically identifies a drop cable of one of the multiple terminal network elements that is furthest upstream on a path of the network, a tap associated with the drop cable that is furthest upstream, and a trunk cable feeding the tap that is furthest upstream as the physical location of the network fault.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by only a single terminal network element in a common serving group of terminal network elements identifies an unacceptable level of at least one of microreflections and upstream filter coefficient ratio and a marginally acceptable absolute power level, then said estimating step automatically identifies a drop cable of the single terminal network element, a tap associated with the drop cable, and a trunk cable feeding the tap as the physical location of the network fault.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by multiple terminal network elements within a common serving group identify an unacceptable level of at least one of microreflections and upstream filter coefficient ratio and a marginally acceptable absolute power level, then said estimating step automatically identifies drop cables of the multiple terminal network elements, taps associated with the drop cables, and a trunk cable feeding the taps as the physical locations of the network fault.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by multiple terminal network elements within a common serving group identify an unacceptable level of microreflections and upstream and downstream power level, then said estimating step automatically identifies a drop cable of the multiple terminal network elements that is furthest upstream on a path of the network, a tap associated with the drop cable that is furthest upstream, and a trunk cable feeding the tap that is furthest upstream as the physical location of the network fault.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by at least one of the terminal network elements indicates an unacceptable level of only one of upstream power level and downstream power level, then said estimating step automatically identifies at least one of an amplifier and a node component which is in a network path to the at least one of the terminal network elements on the network as the physical location of the network fault.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the at least one performance parameter provided by at least one of the terminal network elements indicates an unacceptable level of at least one of CNR/SNR and MER and acceptable levels of downstream and upstream power, then said estimating step automatically identifies at least one of an amplifier and a node component which is in a network path to the at least one of the terminal network elements on the network as the physical location of the network fault.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if during said detecting step, the performance parameter provided by at least one of the terminal network elements indicates an unacceptable level of at least one of CNR/SNR and MER and unacceptable levels of downstream and upstream power, then said estimating step automatically identifies a drop cable of the at least one of the terminal network elements, a tap associated with the drop cable, and a trunk cable feeding the tap as the physical location of the network fault.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of automatically and electronically populating a geographically-accurate map with a geographic location of a network component to which the network fault is attributed, a geographic location of each the terminal network elements impacted by the network fault, and a diagnostic alarm identifying the network fault, the map being displayable via geospatial software.

15. A signal processing electronic device for populating a display of an interactive graphical user interface with a diagnostic alarm corresponding to a fault detected on the network, comprising at least one processing unit configured to receive information electronically of a physical topology of the network via data pulls of information concerning network components and geographic locations of the network components and terminal network elements and geographic locations of the terminal network elements and to detect a network fault by automatically and electronically monitoring at least one performance parameter transmitted via upstream communications from the terminal network elements on the network, the at least one processing unit being configured to automatically estimate a physical location of the network fault on the network based on the at least one performance parameter, the information of the physical topology of the network, and the terminal network element or elements from which the at least one performance parameter was received that indicated the network fault, and the at least one processing unit being configured to automatically generate a list of network components that require inspection and may provide a source of the network fault.

16. A signal processing electronic device according to claim 15, wherein the signal processing electronic device is a server connected to the network, wherein the network is a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network interconnecting the terminal network elements which include cable modems to a headend of the network having a cable modem termination system (CMTS) via a tree and branch network structure, and wherein the upstream communications are in a direction from the terminal network elements to the headend.

17. A signal processing electronic device according to claim 15, wherein the at least one performance parameter includes at least one of absolute and delta downstream power level, absolute and delta upstream power level, microreflections, upstream filter coefficient ratio, carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR)/signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and modulation error ratio (MER).

18. A signal processing electronic device according to claim 15, wherein said at least one processing unit automatically populating a geographically-accurate map with a geographic location of a network component to which the network fault is attributed, a geographic location of each of the terminal network elements impacted by the network fault, and a diagnostic alarm identifying the network fault, the map being displayable via geospatial software.

19. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the following operations:

receive information electronically of a physical topology of a network via data pulls of information concerning network components and geographic locations of the network components and terminal network elements and geographic locations of the terminal network elements;

detect a network fault by automatically and electronically monitoring at least one performance parameter transmitted via upstream communications from the terminal network elements on the network;

automatically estimate a physical location of the network fault on the network based on the at least one performance parameter, the information of the physical topology of the network, and the terminal network element or elements from which the at least one performance parameter was received that indicated the network fault; and

automatically generate a list of network components that require inspection and may provide a source of the network fault.