Event recording in a service database system

• US 6,304,875 B1
• Filed: 02/16/1999
• Issued: 10/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nokia Telecommunications Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Telecommunications Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Lehtinen, Pekka
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BLACK, LINH
• Application Number:
  US09/250,113
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-10, 379/88.11, 379/88.17, 379/88.19, 379/219-232
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/12 Counting circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/36 Statistical metering, e.g. recording occasions when traffic exceeds capacity of trunks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of handling the event recordings in a service database system. The database contains stored measurement tables (MT) which include consecutive rows (Ri). So that the activation values of individual objects can be changed or individual objects can be added/deleted at any time causing as little interference as possible to the measurement, the value of the activation parameter of the measurement object is stored on the row and the zeroing of the counter groups of the measurement object is performed during the recording and zeroing phase of the counters so that for each counter group of the measurement object the first processing after the activation of the measurement object in question is forced to be such that the recording of the counter group is blocked, but the zeroing of the counter group is allowed.

Claims

1. A method for performing event recordings in a service database system, the database comprising measurement tables (MT) which comprise consecutive rows (Ri), whereby a single row comprises data related to a single measurement object and the measurement objects of one measurement table are of the same type so that they form a measurement group, the method comprising the steps of

receiving service requests (SR) into the system during whose processing it is necessary to count the number of events occurring per each measurement object,

activating the provision of the service as a response to the service request,

performing the recording of events by incrementing the measurement object-specific counters for each different event during the processing of the service request for a time determined by a certain, predefined recording interval, and

performing the recording of counter values by storing the measurement object-specific counter values after each recording interval,

excluding an individual measurement object from the measurement of the measurement group by deactivating the object in question and including an individual measurement object in the measurement by activating the object in question, whereby the value which indicates deactivation or activation is assigned to the measurement object-specific activation parameter whose value is updated as a response to the measurement object-specffic activation/deactivation information provided by the user,

characterized in that the method further comprises the steps of

maintaining a single measurement counter copied to N copies on rows of the measurement table corresponding to each measurement object so that each of the N counters belongs to a different counter group, whereby N counter groups are located on the row,

dividing the time domain into consecutive recording intervals (TP) so that only the values of a selected counter group located on the row are incremented during each recording interval, and the counter group to be incremented is changed from one recording interval to another,

handling the recording and zeroing of counter values during a recording interval one measurement object at a time by processing the rows of the measurement table one at a time so that the recording and zeroing of the counter values of a single counter group which is located on the row is performed during the recording intervals which are left between the recording intervals during which the counters of the counter group in question are incremented,

storing the value of the activation parameter of the measurement object on the row which corresponds to the measurement object and checking said value during row processing before the recording and zeroing phase, whereby the recording and zeroing phase is performed, if the value of the checked parameter indicates that the measurement object is active,

performing the zeroing of the counter groups of the measurement object so that for each counter group of the measurement object the first processing after the activation of the measurement object in question is forced to be such that the recording of the counter group is blocked, but the zeroing of the counter group is allowed.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that each counter on the row of the measurement table corresponding to the measurement object is maintained as duplicated, whereby the first counter belongs to the first counter group (CG1), and the second counter to the second counter group (CG2), and the time domain is divided into consecutive recording intervals (TP) so that the counter values of the first counter groups are incremented and the counter values of the second counter groups are recorded and zeroed during every other recording interval, and the counters of the second counter groups are incremented and the counter values of the first counter groups are recorded and zeroed during every other recording interval, whereby the rows of the measurement table are processed during the recording interval one row at a time and during a single processing the recording and zeroing of the counter group are performed consecutively.

3. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that the system stores measurement group-specific information about the previous changing moments of the recording interval and measurement object-specific information about the previous row processing moments, and during the row processing it is tested whether the counter value is valid to be recorded by comparing the row processing moments to the changing moments of recording interval.

4. A method according to claim 3, chracterized in that during the first processing after the activation of the measurement object the recording phase of the selected counter group is skipped on the basis of the value of the activation parameter of the measurement object and during later processings after the activation of the measurement object the recording phase of each counter group is skipped on the basis that the time stamp values used in the comparison are such that the performed test prohibits the recording.

5. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that each row is processed at most once during each recording interval.

6. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that the activation parameter of the measurement object is assigned a certain value as a result of the activation of the measurement object, which value indicates that the activation has just occurred, and during the next row processing said value is changed to another value which also indicates that the object is in activation state.