System and method for managing performance of communication lines of a communication network

• US 7,460,483 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2006
• Issued: 12/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jiang, Baofeng, Lim, Michael, Katibeh, Mo, Michetich, Robert, Flores, Juan G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Qureshi; Afsar M.
• Application Number:
  US11/388,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20070223568A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/253, 370/241, 370/242, 370/352, 370/356, 370/241.1, 375/225, 379/9.03, 379/130, 379/100.05, 379/100.06, 714/4, 714/25, 714/27, 714/43, 455/428, 705/1, 705/8, 705/9
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/24 Testing correct operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• 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 41/507 Filtering out customers affected by service problems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5074 Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/306 for frequencies above the voice frequency, e.g. xDSL line qualification test methods, test equipment and test arrangements for subscriber lines using xDSL modems H04M3/304; systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality H04L1/0001; monitoring and/or testing of line transmission systems H04B3/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

A method and system for managing performance data of communication lines, such as digital subscriber lines, is disclosed. The method includes receiving from a remote user device an identifier for a particular communications line at a web server; initiating a real-time performance analysis of the line at a network end of the line; receiving real-time performance data and converting the real time performance data to analyzed data; receiving field performance data from the user device; and converting at least one of the field performance data and the real-time performance data from a web-based format to a mainframe format; and sending the converted data to a mainframe for storage corresponding to a file associated with the identifier.

Claims

1. A method for accessing digital subscriber line performance data, the method comprising:

receiving an identifier corresponding to a digital subscriber line from a user device over wireless network;

mapping the identifier to a port address for a switch in communication with the digital subscriber line;

sending an interrogation request to the port address of the switch to interrogate the digital subscriber line;

collecting real-time performance data of the digital subscriber line at a network end of the digital subscriber line in response to the interrogation request;

converting the real-time performance data to analyzed performance data; and

sending the analyzed data to the user device over the wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a web portal to the user device, and receiving the identifier as an input to the web portal.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising receiving field performance data of the digital subscriber line via the web portal over the wireless network.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising sending the analyzed data and the field performance data of the digital subscriber line to a backend system for storage corresponding to a trouble ticket associated with the identifier.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using a web-based system for collecting the real-time performance data;

converting the web-based data to mainframe format; and

sending the converted data to a backend system using an emulator associated with the backend system.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising determining a node associated with the backend system that corresponds to the identifier and storing the field performance data in a database associated with the node.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing the real-time performance data to identify at least one faulty operation indicator with respect to the digital subscriber line that is one of a:

bridged tap fault;

single frequency interference fault; and

disturber circuit fault.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier is received via a web browser interface provided by a gateway server and wherein the identifier is mapped to the port address by a broadband server responsive to the gateway server.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising communicating the port number to a regional server.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising sending a data request from the regional server to a network equipment management system coupled to the switch.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the broadband server has an extensible markup language interface to an application client server.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a log file to record historical trouble events and comments, the log file accessible to a plurality of operational personnel working groups.

13. A system, comprising:

a first server that maintains trouble ticket data corresponding a plurality of communication lines corresponding to a separate identifier for each communication line in the plurality of lines, each line in the plurality of lines providing network content to customer premises equipment; and

a second server that receives an identifier for a particular communication line in the plurality of lines from a user device and wherein the second server;

initiates interrogation of the particular communications lines in response to receiving the identifier;

receives performance data relating to the interrogation of the particular line;

receives filed test data from the remote user device relating to the particular communications line; and

converts at least one of the field performance data and the performance data relating to the interrogation from a web based format to a mainframe format and transmits the converted data to the first server corresponding to a trouble ticket associated with the particular communication line.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user sends the identifier and the field data over a wireless connection.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the performance data relating to the interrogation relates to a real-time test performed at a network end of the particular communication line.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the real-time test is performed using a digital subscriber line access multiplexer coupled to the particular communications line.