Method and apparatus for radio network management

• US 6,832,085 B1
• Filed: 03/12/1999
• Issued: 12/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Guinan, Bernadette, Hearty, Nora, McFadden, Shane, Fitzsimmons, Bernadette, Tehan, Tony, Newcombe, Adrian, Dagg, Steven, McDonagh, Brendan
• Primary Examiner(s): WASHINGTON, ERIKA ALISE
• Application Number:
  US09/266,843
• Time in Patent Office: 2,104 Days
• Field of Search: 455/423, 455/424, 455/445, 455/425, 455/422.1, 455/403, 455/557, 455/556, 455/531, 455/532, 455/67.11, 455/560, 455/67.13, 455/501, 455/67.14, 455/453
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

The collection, processing, analysis and employment of real-time, call traffic event data in a wireless or radio telecommunications network is more effectively achieved by providing a continuous flow of real-time call traffic event data from a network element level or network level switch to an open, external processing platform over a standardized, open event interface. By continuously transferring call traffic event data to an open processing platform for processing, wherein the open processing platform is external to the network element level of network level switch, the central processing unit in the network element level or network level switch is more readily available to handle real-time critical operations. Once processed on the open, external processing platform, the call traffic event data can be used to support various network management functions to improve overall performance of the network.

Claims

1. A radio telecommunications network capable of monitoring and adjusting network performance based on call traffic event based data, said network comprising;

a network element level switch;

a network element level network management node connected to said network element level switch, the network element level network management node comprising;

means for continuously receiving call traffic event data, relating to particular call traffic event, from said network element level switch;

a measurement system for deriving statistical information relating to the call traffic event, based on the continuously received call traffic event data;

means for forwarding continuously processed traffic event data to a network level network management node, and

an expert system connected to said measurement system, said expert system comprising;

means for analyzing the statistical information derived by said measurement system,

means for analyzing network performance based on the analysis of the statistical information derived by said measurement system,

means for determining whether corrective action is needed based on the network performance; and

means for implementing corrective action through a feedback loop between the network element level network management node and a network element.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein corrective action includes automatic reconfiguration of said radio telecommunications network.

3. The network of claim 1, wherein corrective action includes automatic reconfiguration of said network element level switch.

4. The network of claim 1, wherein said network element level network management node further comprises:

a graphical user interface connected to said means for continuously processing the continuously received call traffic event data.

5. The network of claim 4, wherein said graphical user interface comprises:

means for displaying the statistical information relating to the call traffic event for a network element level network operator; and

means for implementing corrective action, as determined by the network element level network operator, through a feedback loop between said network element level network management node and said network element level switch.

6. The network of claim 4, wherein said graphical user interface comprises:

means for further processing the statistical information relating to the call traffic event.

7. The network of claim 1, wherein said network element level switch comprises:

means for processing real-time critical operations.

8. The network of claim 7, wherein the call traffic event data processed by said network element level network management node relates to non-critical network operations.

9. The network of claim 1, wherein said network element level switch is a network node selected from a group of network nodes consisting of a base station, a base station transceiver station, a base station controller, and a mobile switching center.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

means for processing network level statistical information over a standardized, open interface; and

means for further processing the network level statistical information using a third party vendor application.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the standardized, open interface is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) interface.

12. In a radio telecommunications network, a call traffic event based network performance monitoring system comprising:

a first plurality of network elements, each comprising a network element level switch;

a plurality of network element level network management nodes, wherein each of said plurality of network element level network management nodes is connected to a corresponding one of said first plurality of network elements through a standardized, open interface, and wherein each of said plurality of network element level network management nodes comprises;

means for continuously receiving call traffic event data from the corresponding one of said first plurality of network elements, and

means for processing the continuously received call traffic event data; and

a network level network management node connected to each of said plurality of network element level network management nodes through the standardized, open interface, wherein said network level network management node comprises;

means for receiving processed call traffic event data from each of said plurality of network element level network management nodes;

a measurement system for deriving network level statistical information based on the processed call traffic event data received from each of said plurality of network element level network management nodes;

an expert system for analyzing the derived network level statistical information;

means for transferring the derived network level statistical information from said measurement system to said expert system over a standardized, open interface; and

means for determining whether corrective actions are to be taken to improve network performance, based on the analysis of the derived network level statistical information.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the network element level switch in each of said plurality of network elements comprises a central processing unit for processing data relating to real-time critical operations.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein said means for processing the continuously received call traffic event data in each of said plurality of network element level network management nodes comprises:

a measurement system for deriving network element level statistical information relating to the call traffic event data which is being continuously received from the corresponding one of said plurality of network elements.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said network level network management node further comprises:

means for implementing the corrective actions through a feedback loop over the standardized, open interface between said network level network management node and each of said network element level network management nodes.

16. In a radio telecommunications network, a call traffic event based network performance monitoring method comprising the steps of:

detecting a call traffic event;

continuously forwarding real-time call traffic event data, relating to the detected call traffic event, from a plurality of network element level management nodes to a corresponding network level network management node;

continuously processing, in the network level network management node, the real-time call traffic event data for purposes of monitoring network performance;

analyzing the processed call traffic event data;

determining whether corrective steps are to be taken to improve network performance, based on the analysis of the processed call traffic event data; and

implementing corrective actions to improve network performance through feedback loop between the plurality of network element level management nodes and a corresponding network level network management node, if it is determined that corrective steps are to be taken to improve network performance, based on the analysis of the processed call traffic event data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said step of determining whether corrective steps are to be taken to improve network performance, based on the analysis of the processed call traffic event data, comprises the steps of:

determining whether to reconfigure the radio telecommunications network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said step of determining whether to reconfigure the radio telecommunications network comprises:

determining whether to reconfigure one of the plurality of network element management nodes.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of determining whether to reconfigure one of the plurality of network element management nodes comprises the step of:

determining whether to reconfigure a network element switch.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of:

in one of the plurality of network element level management nodes, determining whether the real-time call traffic event data being continuously received from the network element is to be stored prior to processing; and

if it is determined that the real-time call traffic event data is to be stored prior to processing, then storing the call traffic event data in one or more corresponding records in a database.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein said step of processing the real-time call traffic event data comprises the step of:

deriving statistical information based on the continuously received, real-time call traffic event data.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

displaying the processed real-time call traffic event data for a network element level network operator.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising the step of:

implementing a corrective action to improve network performance, as determined by the network element level network operator, through a feedback loop between a network element and one of the plurality of network element level network.

24. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of:

forwarding the continuously processed, real-time call traffic event data to a third party vendor application over a standardized, open interface.