Method and apparatus for statistics collection in a data communication network

• US 6,661,778 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2000
• Issued: 12/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel Canada Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Trofin, Mircea, Buonicore, Angelo, Furry, Jeffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): CANGIALOSI, SALVATORE A
• Application Number:
  US09/524,201
• Time in Patent Office: 1,366 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/241, 370/469, 379/136, 706/16
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

A method and apparatus for statistics collection in a data communications network is presented that utilizes a lower level protocol to locally verify the status of the nodes included in each of the various segments within the network. Indications as to the functional status of each of the nodes included in each of the segments are maintained based on periodic status checks. This set of indications can then be referenced to determine whether or not statistics requests should be issued to particular nodes such that those nodes that are not properly functioning are not be polled. By ensuring that any statistics requests that are issued are being issued to functional nodes, statistics polling bandwidth which may have been wasted on non-functioning nodes is conserved, thus improving the likelihood that the statistics for the various portions of the network can be retrieved in a timely and loss-less manner.

Claims

1. A method for statistics collection in a data communications network, comprising:

for each segment within the data communications network;

locally determining status of a plurality of nodes included in the segment using a status monitoring block local to the segment;

maintaining indications as to the status of each of the plurality of nodes included in the segment;

receiving statistics collection configuration information corresponding to a selected node of the plurality of nodes included in the segment; and

when the indication as to the status of the selected node indicates that the status of the selected node is favorable, issuing a statistics request to the selected node based on the statistics collection configuration information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein locally determining status of the plurality of nodes further comprises:

for each node of the plurality of nodes;

issuing a status monitoring packet to the node; and

determining if a response is received, wherein, if received, the response indicates favorable status of the node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining if a response is received further comprises determining if the response is received within a predetermined response time.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein issuing a status monitoring packet further comprises issuing the status monitoring packet using a low level protocol within the data communications network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein issuing the status monitoring packet further comprises issuing universal data protocol (UDP) status monitoring packet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein issuing status monitoring packets to nodes in the plurality of nodes is based on a node list that includes identity each node of the plurality of nodes included in the segment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the list includes prioritization information for each node in the plurality of nodes included in the segment.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprises aggregating statistics collected in response to statistics requests by each segment to produce compiled statistics information.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein aggregating statistics further comprises aggregating statistics corresponding to at least one of billing statistics, performance statistics, and error statistics.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprises for each node:

when the indication as to the status of the selected node indicates that the status of the selected node is unfavorable, delaying issuance of statistics requests to the selected node until a favorable response is received in response to a subsequent status monitoring packet.

11. A statistics collection block adapted to couple to a plurality of nodes in a data communications network for statistics collection, comprising:

a processing module; and

memory operably coupled to the processing module, wherein the memory stores operating instructions that, when executed by the processing module, cause the processing module to perform functions that include;

determining status of each of the plurality of nodes;

maintaining indications as to the status of each of the plurality of nodes;

when statistics collection configuration information corresponding to a selected node of the plurality of nodes is received and the indication as to the status of the selected node indicates that the status of the selected node is favorable, issuing a statistics request to the selected node based on the statistics collection configuration information; and

when the indication as to the status of the selected node indicates that the status of the selected node is unfavorable, delaying issuance of statistics requests to the node until a favorable response is received in response to a subsequently issued status monitoring packet.

12. The statistics collection block of claim 11 further comprises a list of nodes in which the statistics collection block maintains the indications as to the status of each of the nodes of the plurality of nodes.

13. The statistics collection block of claim 12, wherein the plurality of nodes are included in a segment of the data communications network and wherein the statistic configuration information is received from a statistic management block.

14. The statistics collection block of claim 11, wherein the memory further stores operating instructions such that the processing module determines the status of each of the plurality of nodes by issuing a status monitoring packet to the node and determining if a response is received within a predetermined response time, wherein status of the node is favorable if the response is received within the predetermined response time.

15. The statistics collection block of claim 14, wherein the status monitoring packets are issued to the nodes as universal data protocol (UDP) status monitoring packets.

16. A statistics collection circuit for use with a data communications network that includes a plurality of node segments, comprising:

a plurality of statistics collection blocks, wherein each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks is operably coupled to a corresponding node segment within the data communications network, wherein each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks maintains indications as to status of each node included in a corresponding node segment, wherein each of the static collection blocks selectively issues statistics requests to a node in the corresponding node segment in response to statistics collection configuration information received, wherein statistics requests are selectively issued based on the indication as to status of the node, wherein responses to statistics requests from the nodes in corresponding segments are collected by each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks to generate segment statistics;

a statistics management block operably coupled to each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks, wherein the statistics management block receives a network statistics request and generates the static collection configuration information provided to each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks based on the network statistics request; and

a statistics aggregation block operably coupled to the plurality of statistics collection blocks, wherein the statistics aggregation block receives the segment statistics generated by each of the statistics collection block in response to the collection configuration information, wherein the statistics aggregation block aggregates the segment statistics to produce compiled statistics that are provided as a response to the network statistics request received by the statistic management block.

17. The statistics collection circuit of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks maintains indications as to the status of each of the nodes in a corresponding node segment by periodically issuing status monitoring packets to each of the nodes.

18. The statistics collection circuit of claim 17, wherein the status monitoring packets are issued as universal data protocol (UDP) status monitoring packets.

19. The statistics collection circuit of claim 18, wherein if the status of a node is determined to be unfavorable by a lack of response to a status monitoring packet within a predetermined response time, statistics requests to the node are delayed until favorable status of the node is determined by a timely response to a subsequently issued status monitoring packet.

20. The statistics collection circuit of claim 19, wherein status monitoring packets are issued to different nodes in each segment with different periodicity based on a prioritization scheme.

21. The statistics collection circuit of claim 20, wherein the prioritization scheme is configured such that more active nodes receive status monitoring packets more often than less active nodes.

22. The statistics collection circuit of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of statistics collection blocks maintains a list that stores the status of nodes in the node segment to which the collection block corresponds.

23. The statistics collection circuit of claim 22, wherein the list in each statistics collection block stores hierarchical status of each node in the node segment to which the static collection block corresponds, wherein the hierarchical status includes status of components of each of the nodes.

24.The statistics collection circuit of claim 23, wherein the components of each of the nodes further comprises at least one of cards, devices, and connections supported by the node.

24. The statistics collection circuit of claim 16, wherein compiled statistics generated by the statistics aggregation block relate to at least one of billings for network usage, network performance management, and network fault management.

25. The statistics collection circuit of claim 16, wherein nodes included in the node segments asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) nodes.

26. The statistics collection circuit of claim 16, wherein at least a portion of the statistics requests are issued using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).