Method and apparatus for generating user-specified reports from radius information

• US 6,377,955 B1
• Filed: 03/30/1999
• Issued: 04/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hartmann, Charles L., Clark, Glenwood Ray
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Application Number:
  US09/281,754
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/9, 707/4, 707/104, 709/225, 709/229, 709/217, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for generating a report that summarizes performance of a network based on actual network performance data formatted according to the RADIUS protocol. A network access server generates and stores RADIUS accounting information. An archiver, operating under the control of archive configuration control information, and stores it in archive data. A report generator reads the archive data, under control of report configuration control information, and generates a report. The report configuration control information specifies a report type (accumulate values, count values, or determine a maximum value); one or more categories of RADIUS attributes that are to be accumulated, counted, or otherwise reported; and a title and related information. Thus, a user of a network management system may define custom reports by modifying the report configuration control information, thereby reducing the need for custom report programming, reducing engineering time and project management time, and reducing concomitant costs.

Claims

1. A method of generating a report that describes performance characteristics of a computer network based on RADIUS accounting information that is produced by the network in operation, the method comprising the steps of:

creating and storing archive data comprising a selected portion of the RADIUS accounting information;

creating and storing configuration information that defines the report and comprises a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type; and

one or more attribute values that specify bounds of ranges of the data values;

retrieving and parsing the configuration information to create and store one or more buckets associated with the ranges of the data values for receiving data values falling within such ranges;

reading the archive data and selectively storing its data values in the buckets based on the configuration information; and

generating a report by displaying the values that are in the buckets.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein creating and storing configuration information comprises:

creating and storing configuration information that defines the report and comprises a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type;

one or more attribute values that specify bounds of ranges of the data values; and

an abbreviation of a name associated with the report;

storing a label, which includes the abbreviation, in a section of the configuration information that identifies the bounds of ranges.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of generating a report comprises the step of generating a report by displaying the values that are in the buckets only when an attribute in the archive data indicates that an end of the report has been reached.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of reading the archive data and selectively storing its data values further includes the step of rolling the data values in the buckets when a new time period is identified in the archive data.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of generating a report further comprises the step of creating and storing report data in the form of a matrix having rows corresponding to time periods and columns corresponding to customers, and wherein the step of reading the archive data and selectively storing its data values further includes the step of, when a new customer is identified in the archive data, creating a new column in the matrix and creating rows containing zero data from the starting time period up to the time period currently being processed.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of reading the archive data and selectively storing its data values in associated buckets only when the data values are needed by the current report and its associated buckets.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein creating and storing configuration information comprises:

creating and storing configuration information that defines a plurality of reports, the configuration information comprising, for each of the plurality of reports;

a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type;

a time interval value that indicates a period of time to be covered by information in the report; and

one or more category values that specify bounds of ranges of the data values.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein creating and storing configuration information comprises:

creating and storing configuration information that defines a plurality of reports, the configuration information comprising, for each of the plurality of reports;

a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type;

a time interval value that indicates a period of time to be covered by information in the report; and

one or more category values that specify bounds of ranges of the data values; and

an abbreviation of a name associated with the report;

storing a label, which includes the abbreviation, in a section of the configuration information that identifies the bounds of ranges.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein creating and storing configuration information comprises:

creating and storing configuration information that defines a plurality of reports, the configuration information comprising, for each of the plurality of reports;

a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type selected from among;

a numeric value counting report type;

a string value counting report type; and

an accumulating report type.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving and storing non-RADIUS network accounting data;

selectively archiving a portion of the non-RADIUS network accounting data in a non-RADIUS archive;

storing a sub-portion of information from the non-RADIUS archive in the archive data, based on non-RADIUS archive configuration control information.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a maximum-sessions-exceeded report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a number of sessions of the clients and the network that exceeded a maximum allowed number of sessions.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the step of receiving connection information comprises the step of receiving Non-RADIUS accounting information from the network access servers, and wherein the step of generating a report comprises generating the report based, in part, on the Non-RADIUS accounting information.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a number-of-sessions-by-entity report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a number of sessions carried out between clients that are associated with a particular entity and the network, and a number of maximum simultaneous sessions allowed for the entity.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a call duration report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a plurality of numbers of calls that are carried out in each of a plurality of time ranges for a particular entity.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a connect hours report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a cumulative total time that a particular entity is connected to the network.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a disconnect reason report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, reasons that calls between a particular entity and the network are disconnected, and a count of a number of calls that are disconnected for each of the reasons.

17. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a connection speed report that presents, for a predetermined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a plurality of number of connection speed values that are used in each of a plurality of speed categories.

18. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a count number report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a plurality of number values that are counted in each of a plurality of categories.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating a count string report that presents, for a predetermined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a plurality of string values that are counted in each of a plurality of string values.

20. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a report comprises:

generating an accumulate report that presents, for a pre-determined time period that is identified in the configuration information, a sum of a plurality of numeric values.

21. The method recited in claim 1, wherein:

the step of creating and storing archive data is performed using a first computer; and

the step of creating and storing configuration information and the step of retrieving and parsing the configuration information are performed using a second computer;

wherein the first computer and the second computer are different computers.

22. A method for dynamically generating a network performance report based on RADIUS network accounting information, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving first connection information that defines one or more connections of clients to the network over a particular period of time and that is stored in RADIUS attribute format;

receiving archive configuration control information that identifies attributes that are associated with data that should be maintained for generating report data;

storing second connection information that represents data values associated with the identified attributes that are found in the first connection information;

receiving report configuration control information that specifies a network performance report type and one or more data classifications for representing the first or second connection information within the network performance report; and

dynamically generating the report data based on the specified report type and the data classifications.

23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the step of receiving connection information comprises the step of receiving RADIUS accounting information from one or more network access servers that interface the clients to the network.

24. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions for generating a report that describes performance characteristics of a computer network based on RADIUS accounting information that is produced by the network in operation, the one or more sequences of one or more instructions including instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

creating and storing archive data comprising a selected portion of the RADIUS accounting information;

creating and storing configuration information that defines the report and comprises a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type; and

one or more attribute values that specify bounds of ranges of the data values;

retrieving and parsing the configuration information to create and store one or more buckets associated with the ranges of the data values for receiving data values falling within such ranges;

reading the archive data and selectively storing its data values in the buckets based on the configuration information; and

generating a report by displaying the values that are in the buckets.

25. A system for generating a report that describes performance characteristics of a computer network based on RADIUS accounting information that is produced by the network in operation, the system comprising:

one or more storage mediums;

one or more processors coupled to the one or more storage mediums; and

one or more sets of computer instructions associated with said one or more storage mediums, the one or more sets of computer instructions including computer instructions which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of;

creating and storing archive data comprising a selected portion of the RADIUS accounting information;

creating and storing configuration information that defines the report and comprises a report type identifier that is associated with one or more RADIUS attributes that identify data values in the archive data and that is associated with a generic report type; and

one or more attribute values that specify bounds of ranges of the data values;

retrieving and parsing the configuration information to create and store one or more buckets associated with the ranges of the data values for receiving data values falling within such ranges;

reading the archive data and selectively storing its data values in the buckets based on the configuration information; and

generating a report by displaying the values that are in the buckets.