METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMMUNICATION NETWORK FOR ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

• US 20140321311A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Groenendijk, Jan, Granath, Johan Christer Wilhelm, Huang, Yangcheng
• Granted Patent: US 9,712,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level

Abstract

There is provided a method (100) for root cause analysis of service quality degradation in a communications network. The method comprises receiving (102) measurements from a plurality of nodes in the communication network, determining (104) identifiers for the received measurements, using (106) the identifiers for the received measurements to determine a network topology; and performing (108) root cause analysis based on the determined topology and the measurements linked with said topology.

Claims

1. A method for root cause analysis of service quality degradation in a communications network, the method comprising:

receiving measurements from a plurality of nodes in the communication network;

determining identifiers for the received measurements;

using the identifiers for the received measurements to determine a network topology; and

performing root cause analysis based on the determined topology and the measurements linked with said topology.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the identifier is a resource service identifier.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the resource service identifier comprises a first resource service identifier indicating a current connection object, a second resource service identifier indicating a connection object on which the current connection object depends and a third resource service identifier indicating a connection object that is dependent on the current connection object.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the third resource service identifier indicates an internal connection object and an external connection object in the layer below the current connection object.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the identifier is a user plane reference identifier.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein a measurement is received as a measurement report comprising the identifier and associated measurement.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the determining comprises extracting the identifiers from the measurement report.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the determining comprises requesting the identifier for the measurement from the node that provided the measurement and receiving the identifier from said node.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the determining comprises reading information about part of the network topology from a file.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the network topology is determined by mapping the identifier in each received measurement to a packet switched connection or a circuit switched connection.

11. An apparatus for providing root cause analysis of service quality degradation in a communications network, comprising:

an adapter arranged to receive measurements from a plurality of nodes in the communications network, and arranged to determine identifiers for the received measurements;

a measurement processor arranged to use the identifiers for the received measurements to determine a network topology; and

a root cause analyser arranged to perform root cause analysis based on the determined topology and the measurements linked with said topology.

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the adapter is arranged to extract the identifier from a measurement report in which the measurement is received.

13. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the adapter is arranged to request the identifier for the measurement from the node that provided the measurement and receive the identifier from said node.

14. An apparatus according to claim 11, adapted to read the network topology from a file.

15. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the adapter is arranged to determine the network topology by mapping the identifier in each received measurement to a packet switched connection or a circuit switched connection.

16. A communications network, comprising:

a plurality of nodes; and

an apparatus for providing root cause analysis, the apparatus comprising;

an adapter arranged to receive measurements from a plurality of nodes in the communications network, and arranged to determine identifiers for the received measurements;

a measurement processor arranged to use the identifiers for the received measurements to determine a network topology; and

a root cause analyser arranged to perform root cause analysis based on the determined topology and the measurements linked with said topology.

17. A communication network according to claim 16, wherein the adapter is arranged to extract the identifier from a measurement report in which the measurement is received.

18. A communication network according to claim 16, wherein the adapter is arranged to request the identifier for the measurement from the node that provided the measurement and receive the identifier from said node.

19. A communication network according to claim 16, wherein the network topology is read from a file.

20. A communication network according to claim 16, wherein the adapter is arranged to determine the network topology by mapping the identifier in each received measurement to a packet switched connection or a circuit switched connection.

21. A communication network according to claim 16, further comprising at least one measurement system.