Network Monitoring with Estimation of Network Path to Network Element Location

• US 20130291034A1
• 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: Basile, Brian M., Bowler, David B., Dankulich, David, Riaz, Mohammad Jalaluddin
• Granted Patent: US 9,003,460 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/107
• 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: H04N 17/00 Diagnosis, testing or measuring for television systems or their details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6168 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem

Abstract

A method of mapping a network path in which a geographic path of cables of a network between a geographic location of a network component and a geographic location of a terminal network element is estimated electronically using Keyhole Markup Language (KML) data. A geographically accurate street map is populated with the geographic location of the network component, the geographic location of the terminal network element, and the estimated geographic path. The map is capable of being displayed with the use of geospatial software implementing KML encoding. A signal processing electronic device for populating a display of an interactive graphical user interface with network path mapping information and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the above referenced operations are also provided.

Claims

1. A method of mapping a network path, the method comprising:

estimating a geographic path of at least one cable of a network, wherein the geographic path corresponds to a shortest walking direction from a geographic location of a network component to a geographic location of a terminal network element along at least one street; and

populating a geographic map with the geographic location of the network component, the geographic location of the terminal network element, and the geographic path, the geographic map being displayable via geospatial software.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein, during the estimating, Keyhole Markup Language (KML) data is used to electronically determine the geographic path.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying a visual form of the geographic map with geospatial software implementing KML encoding in which the network component, the terminal network element, and the geographic path are graphically shown on the visual form of the geographic map.

4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising adding a geographic location of a suspected network fault on the geographic map for being graphically shown on the visual form of the geographic map.

5. A method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving information electronically concerning the network component and the geographic location of the network component.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the network component is a fiber optic node, and the receiving step includes importing the information from a database via a cable modem termination system (CMTS).

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving information electronically concerning the terminal network element and the geographic location of the terminal network element.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein receiving the information includes importing a service address of the terminal network element from a database and marking the geographic location of the terminal network element on the geographic map as a geographic location of the service address.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein estimating the geographic path includes estimating a location of a tap of the terminal network element as a location on a street in front of the service address.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein estimating the geographic path includes estimating a location of a drop cable as a connection between the geographic location of the service address and the estimated location of the tap.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein estimating the geographic path includes defining the geographic path as being between the network component and the tap.

12. A method according to claim 1, further comprising repeating the estimating for each terminal network element connected to the network component, and further comprising overlaying the geographic paths generated by the estimating to generate an overall estimated network path for a predetermined service area of the network.

13. A method according to claim 12, further comprising determining which terminal network elements are connected to the network component.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein determining which terminal network elements are connected includes electronically receiving information concerning DOCSIS serving groups and connecting terminal network elements that are determined to be within a same DOCSIS serving group to the network component which is determined responsible for the DOCSIS serving group.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein the network component is a node of the network, and wherein determining which terminal network elements are connected includes associating terminal network elements to a physically-closest node of the network.

16. A method according to claim 12, further comprising marking locations on the geographic map where geographic paths intersect as a splitter unless already identified as a tap.

17. A method according to claim 12, further comprising points on the geographic map as amplifiers if network power level discontinuities are monitored on the geographic path.

18. A signal processing electronic device for populating a display of an interactive graphical user interface with network path mapping information, comprising at least one processing unit configured to automatically generate an estimated geographic path of a network between a geographic location of a network component and a geographic location of a terminal network element along at least one street with Keyhole Markup Language (KML) data, and the at least one processing unit being configured to populate a display of a geographic map with the geographic location of the network component, the geographic location of the terminal network element, and the estimated geographic path.

19. A signal processing electronic device according to claim 18, wherein the signal processing electronic device is a server, wherein the geographic map is displayable via geospatial software implementing KML encoding, and wherein the KML data is used by the at least one processing unit to determine a path corresponding to a shortest walking distance between the geographic location of the network component and the geographic location of the terminal network element such that the path corresponding to the shortest walking distance is used as the estimated geographic path of the network.

20. 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:

estimating a geographic path of a network between a geographic location of a network component and a geographic location of a terminal network element along at least one street electronically with Keyhole Markup Language (KML) data; and

populating a geographic map with the geographic location of the network component, the geographic location of the network element, and the geographic path;

during the estimating, the KML data being used to electronically determine a path corresponding to a shortest walking distance between the geographic location of the network component and the geographic location of the terminal network element, and the path corresponding to the shortest walking distance being used as the geographic path of the network.