Instantaneous user initiation voice quality feedback

• US 8,176,154 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2002
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Minhazuddin, Muneyb, Laveau, Stephane C., Krumm-Heller, Alex M., Hepworth, Neil, Scholte, Alexander Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): BILGRAMI, ASGHAR H
• Application Number:
  US10/261,914
• Publication Number:
  US 20040073641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,508 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/024 by adaptive sampling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1095 Inter-network session transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42136 Administration or customisation of services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1275 Methods and means to improve the telephone service quality, e.g. reservation, prioritisation or admission control

Abstract

A system for providing a high communications quality is provided. The system comprises: (a) an input operable to receive a message from at least one of first and second network nodes 200 and 204, the first and second network nodes communicating with one another in a session and the message indicating a service problem with the session and (b) a statistic collection agent 248 operable to cause, in response to the message, at least one of the following operations: (i) reconfiguration of one or more attributes or resources in the network; (ii) variation of a sampling frequency of one or more session-related performance attributes associated with the network; (iii) alteration of the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network; and (iv) collection of session-related information from nodes other than the at least first and second network nodes.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a network, comprising:

(a) providing at least first and second network nodes, the first and second network nodes communicating with one another in a session;

(b) while the session is in progress, receiving a message from at least one of the first and second network nodes, the message indicating a Quality of Service or QoS problem with the session and the message being generated in response to a user determining that QoS is not satisfactory during the session and then providing an input to at least one of the first and second network nodes; and

(c) in response to receiving the user initiated message related to the QoS problem and while the session is in progress, performing at least one of the following substeps;

(i) reconfiguring one or more resources in the network, said reconfiguring step being at least one of (A) causing at least one of the packets associated with the session and transmitted by the at least one of the first and second network nodes to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point, (B) converting the session from an unguaranteed service into a guaranteed service when the QoS problem is caused by packet traffic, and (D) switching the contents of at least one of the packets associated with the session onto a circuit-switched network;

(ii) varying a sampling frequency of one or more session-related performance attributes associated with the network;

(iii) altering the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network; and

(iv) collecting session-related information from nonparticipant nodes other than the at least first and second network nodes, the nonparticipant nodes not being involved in the session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is generated in response to tactile input from the user and further comprising:

authenticating the message before step (c); and

providing the user with a plurality of the following;

information regarding the other of the at least first and second nodes, whether or not the first and/or second node triggered the message, which of the first and/or second node triggered the message, a codec used when the message was generated, the Reservation Protocol status, the start and/or end time of the live voice session, the communications controller with which a selected one of the first and second node is registered, and a list of live voice sessions with corresponding values for jitter, jitter buffer delay, latency, available bandwidth, and/or packet loss above a selected level.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, within a selected period of time, a number of service problem messages associated with a plurality of sessions are received and further comprising before step (c):

determining whether one or more of the following conditions is true;

(i) available memory space for storing session-related information at least one of equals and exceeds a predetermined memory level;

(ii) the number of the service problem messages at least one of equals and is less than a predetermined number of messages;

(iii) one or more performance attributes associated with two or more concurrent sessions at least one of equals and is less than predetermined levels; and

(iv) one or more performance attributes associated with the live voice session indicate an acceptable QoS for the live voice session;

when the one or more of the following conditions is true, performing step (c);

when none of the one or more of the following conditions is true, not performing step (c); and

terminating step (c) when network congestion has met or exceeded predefined levels, in response to user input a further message is generated requesting termination of step (c), when one or more performance attributes associated with the live voice session indicate an acceptable QoS for the live voice session, and/or when available memory has decreased to predetermined levels.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein substep (i) is performed.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein substep (i) comprises a plurality of the following substeps:

assigning a different service class to at least one of a plurality of packets associated with the session;

assigning a different priority level to at least one of the plurality of packets associated with the session;

causing at least one of the plurality of packets to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point;

making the session into a guaranteed service;

changing the codec of at least one of the first and second nodes; and

switching at least one of the plurality of packets onto a circuit switched network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein substep (ii) is performed.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a first sampling frequency used before the message is received in step (b) is less than a second sampling frequency used after the message is received in step (b).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein substep (iii) is performed.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a first type of session-related performance attributes collected before step (c) comprises a plurality of a packetization loss associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, jitter associated with the session, available bandwidth during the session, and an actual and/or average round-trip time associated with session-related packets and wherein a second type of session-related performance attributes collected after step (c) comprises at least four of the following:

a total number of received packets associated with the session, a total number of received octets associated with the session, an actual and/or average round-trip time of at least one packet associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, a packetization loss associated with the session, a packet loss burst size associated with the session, a number of out of order packets associated with the session, an out of order distance associated with the session, jitter associated with the session, available bandwidth during the session, largest sequence jump associated with the session, largest sequence fall associated with the session;

maximum jitter associated with the session, number of jitter buffer under-runs associated with the session, number of jitter buffer over-runs associated with the session, a number of sequence jump instances associated with the session, a number of sequence fall instances associated with the session, trace route hop count associated with the session, time to live associated with the session, trace route per hop associated with the session, and echo tail length associated with the session.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein substep (iv) is performed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein substep (iv) comprises:

contacting at least one of a router and switch to obtain queue-related information, the queue related information comprising a plurality of a queue length, whether the at least one of a router and switch is dropping packets, a number of packets being dropped, and why packets are being dropped.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to step (b), forwarding a problem notification message to an address associated with network administration.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a performance level falls below a specified threshold, setting a flag associated with the session, wherein the flag causes retention of predetermined types of collected performance attributes associated with the session and further comprising;

parsing through each packet received in the live voice session and determining, on a packet-by-packet basis, whether the flag is set.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the at least one of the first and second network nodes a message indicating that service problem has lessened or ceased.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein in the session the communications between the first and second network nodes are derived from voice communications.

16. A computer readable medium containing processor-executable instructions that, when executed, perform the steps of claim 1.

17. A logic circuit configured to perform the steps of claim 1.

18. A system for monitoring a network, comprising:

(a) an input operable to receive a message from at least one of first and second network nodes, the first and second network nodes communicating with one another in a session and the message indicating a service problem with the session, the message being generated in response to a user determining that QoS is not satisfactory during the session and then providing an input to at least one of the first and second network nodes; and

(b) a statistic collection agent operable to cause, in response to receiving the user initiated message and during the session, at least one of the following operations;

(i) reconfiguration of at least one of the first and second network nodes, said reconfiguration comprising at least one of (A) causing at least one of the packets associated with the session to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point, (B) converting the session from an unguaranteed service into a guaranteed service when there is a packet traffic problem, and (D) switching the contents of at least one of the packets associated with the session onto a circuit-switched network;

(ii) variation of a sampling frequency of one or more session-related performance attributes associated with the network;

(iii) alteration of the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network; and

(iv) collection of session-related information from nonparticipant nodes other than the at least first and second network nodes, the nonparticipant nodes not being participants in the session.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the message is generated in response to tactile input from the user and wherein the statistic collection agent is operable to cause authentication of the message before causing performance of one or more of operations (i)-(iv) and to provide the user with a plurality of the following:

information regarding the other of the at least first and second nodes, whether or not the first and/or second node triggered the message, which of the first and/or second node triggered the message, a codec used when the message was generated, the Reservation Protocol status, the start and/or end time of the live voice session, the communications controller with which a selected one of the first and second node is registered, and a list of live voice sessions with corresponding values for jitter, jitter buffer delay, latency, available bandwidth, and/or packet loss above a selected level.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein, within a selected period of time, a number of service problem messages associated with a plurality of sessions are received and wherein the statistic collection agent is operable, before causing performance of one or more of operations (i)-(iv), to (a) determine whether one or more of the following conditions is true:

(i) available memory space for storing session-related information at least one of equals and exceeds a predetermined memory level;

(ii) the number of the service problem messages at least one of equals and is less than a predetermined number of messages;

(iii) one or more performance attributes associated with two or more concurrent sessions at least one of equals and is less than predetermined levels and (iv) one or more performance attributes associated with the live voice session indicate an acceptable QoS for the live voice session;

(b) when the one or more of the following conditions is true, cause performance of at least one of operations (i)-(iv);

(c) when the one or more of the following conditions is not true, not cause performance of the at least one of operations (i)-(iv); and

(d) terminate one or more of operations (i)-(iv) when network congestion has met or exceeded predefined levels, in response to user input a further message is generated requesting termination of the one or more operations, when one or more performance attributes associated with the live voice session indicate an acceptable QoS for the live voice session, and/or when available memory has decreased to predetermined levels.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein operation (i) is performed.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein operation (i) comprises a plurality of the following suboperations:

assigning a different service class to at least one of a plurality of packets associated with the session;

assigning a different priority level to at least one of the plurality of packets associated with the session;

causing at least one of the plurality of packets to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point;

making the session into a guaranteed service;

changing the codec at least one of the first and second nodes; and

switching at least one of the plurality of packets onto a circuit switched network.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein operation (ii) is performed.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein a first sampling frequency used before the message is received is less than a second sampling frequency used after the message is received.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein operation (iii) is performed.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein a first type of session-related performance attributes collected before the message is received comprises a plurality of a packetization loss associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, jitter associated with the session, available bandwidth during the session, and an actual and/or average round-trip time associated with session-related packets and wherein a second type of session-related performance attributes collected after the message is received comprises at least four of the following:

a total number of received packets associated with the session, a total number of received octets associated with the session, an actual and/or average round-trip time of at least one packet associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, a packetization loss associated with the session, a packet loss burst size associated with the session, a number of out of order packets associated with the session, an out of order distance associated with the session, jitter associated with the session, available bandwidth during the session, largest sequence jump associated with the session, largest sequence fall associated with the session;

maximum jitter associated with the session, number of jitter buffer under-runs associated with the session, number of jitter buffer over-runs associated with the session, a number of sequence jump instances associated with the session, a number of sequence fall instances associated with the session, trace route hop count associated with the session, time to live associated with the session, trace route per hop associated with the session, and echo tail length associated with the session.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein operation (iv) is performed.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein operation (iv) comprises the suboperation of:

contacting at least one of a router and switch to obtain queue-related information, the queue related information comprising a plurality of a queue length, whether the at least one of a router and switch is dropping packets, a number of packets being dropped, and why packets are being dropped.

29. The system of claim 18, wherein the statistic collection agent is further operable, in response to receipt of the message, to forward a problem notification message to an address associated with network administration and wherein a session participant can toggle the at least one of the following operations (i) to (iv) on and off depending on his perception of the quality of service of the session.

30. The system of claim 18, wherein the statistic collection agent is further operable, when a performance level falls below a specified threshold, to set a flag associated with the session, wherein the flag causes retention of predetermined types of collected performance attributes associated with the session and to parse through each packet received in the live voice session and determining, on a packet-by-packet basis, whether a the flag is set.

31. The system of claim 18, wherein the input is further operable to receiving from the at least one of the first and second network nodes a message indicating that service problem has lessened or ceased.

32. A method for conducting a live voice communication session in a network between at least first and second network nodes, comprising:

(a) during the live voice communication session a session monitor associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes parsing through one or more packets associated with the session to identify one or more session-related performance attributes, wherein the first and second network nodes are nodes that originate messages transmitted during the live voice communication session;

(b) during the session the session monitor comparing the one or more session-related performance attributes with corresponding predetermined value for the one or more performance attributes;

(c) when the one or more session-related performance attributes at least one of equals and exceeds the corresponding predetermined value for the one or more performance attributes, the session monitor causing one or more computational components, during the session, to operate in a detailed monitoring mode, wherein in the detailed monitoring mode at least one of the following operations is performed;

(i) reconfiguring one or more resources in the network, said reconfiguring step comprising at least one of the following suboperations;

(A) causing at least one of the plurality of packets when transmitted by the at least one of the first and second network nodes to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point; and

(B) switching at least one of the plurality of packets onto a circuit switched network;

(ii) altering the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network; and

(iii) collecting session-related information from nonparticipant nodes, the nonparticipant nodes comprising at least one of a switch and router.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein operation (i) is performed.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein operation (i) comprises a plurality of the following suboperations:

assigning a different service class to at least one of a plurality of packets associated with the session;

assigning a different priority level to at least one of the plurality of packets associated with the session;

causing at least one of the plurality of packets to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point;

making the session into a guaranteed service;

changing a codec in at least one of the first and second nodes; and

switching at least one of the plurality of packets onto a circuit switched network.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein operation (ii) is performed.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein a first type of session-related performance attributes collected before step (c) comprises a plurality of a packetization loss associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, jitter associated with the session, available bandwidth during the session, and an actual and/or average round-trip time associated with session-related packets and wherein a second type of session-related performance attributes collected after step (c) comprises at least four of the following:

a total number of received packets associated with the session, a total number of received octets associated with the session, an actual and/or average round-trip time of at least one packet associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, a packetization loss associated with the session, a packet loss burst size associated with the session, a number of out of order packets associated with the session, an out of order distance associated with the session, jitter associated with the session, available bandwidth during the session, largest sequence jump associated with the session, largest sequence fall associated with the session;

maximum jitter associated with the session, number of jitter buffer under-runs associated with the session, number of jitter buffer over-runs associated with the session, a number of sequence jump instances associated with the session, a number of sequence fall instances associated with the session, trace route hop count associated with the session, time to live associated with the session, trace route per hop associated with the session, and echo tail length associated with the session.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein operation (iii) is performed.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein operation (iii) comprises:

contacting at least one of a router and switch to obtain queue-related information, the queue related information comprising a plurality of a queue length, whether the at least one of a router and switch is dropping packets, a number of packets being dropped, and why packets are being dropped.

39. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

in response to step (b), forwarding a problem notification message to an address associated with network administration.

40. A device operable to conduct and/or monitor a live voice communication session in a network between at least first and second network nodes, comprising:

a performance monitoring agent operable to;

(a) during the live voice communication session, parse through one or more packets associated with the session to identify one or more session-related performance attributes,

(b) during the live voice communication session, compare the one or more session-related performance attributes with corresponding predetermined value for the one or more performance attributes, and

(c), when the one or more session-related performance attributes at least one of equals and exceeds the corresponding predetermined value for the one or more performance attributes, cause one or more computational components to operate, during the live voice communication session, in a detailed monitoring mode, wherein in the detailed monitoring mode at least one of the following operations is performed;

(i) reconfiguring one or more resources in the network, said reconfiguring operation comprising at least one of the following suboperations;

(A) causing at least one of the plurality of packets when transmitted by the at least one of the first and second network nodes to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point, wherein the first and second network nodes are nodes that originate messages transmitted during the live voice communication session; and

(B) switching at least one of the plurality of packets onto a circuit switched network;

(ii) altering the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network; and

(iii) collecting session-related information from nonparticipant nodes other than the at least first and second network nodes, the nonparticipant nodes comprising at least one of a switch and router.

41. The device of claim 40, wherein operation (i) is performed.

42. The device of claim 41, wherein operation (i) comprises a plurality of the following suboperations:

assigning a different service class to at least one of a plurality of packets associated with the session;

assigning a different priority level to at least one of the plurality of packets associated with the session;

causing at least one of the plurality of packets to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point;

making the session into a guaranteed service;

changing a codec in at least one of the first and second nodes; and

switching at least one of the plurality of packets onto a circuit switched network.

43. The device of claim 40, wherein operation (ii) is performed.

44. The device of claim 43, wherein a first type of session-related performance attributes collected before step (c) comprises a plurality of a packetization loss associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, jitter associated with the session, bandwidth during the session, and an actual and/or average round-trip time associated with session-related packets and wherein a second type of session-related performance attributes collected after step (c) comprises at least four of the following:

a total number of received packets associated with the session, a total number of received octets associated with the session, an actual and/or average round-trip time of at least one packet associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, a packetization loss associated with the session, a packet loss burst size associated with the session, a number of out of order packets associated with the session, an out of order distance associated with the session, jitter associated with the session, bandwidth during the session, largest sequence jump associated with the session, largest sequence fall associated with the session;

maximum jitter associated with the session, number of jitter buffer under-runs associated with the session, number of jitter buffer over-runs associated with the session, a number of sequence jump instances associated with the session, a number of sequence fall instances associated with the session, trace route hop count associated with the session, time to live associated with the session, trace route per hop associated with the session, and echo tail length associated with the session.

45. The device of claim 40, wherein operation (iii) is performed.

46. The device of claim 45, wherein operation (iii) comprises:

contacting at least one of a router and switch to obtain queue-related information, the queue related information comprising a plurality of a queue length, whether the at least one of a router and switch is dropping packets, a number of packets being dropped, and why packets are being dropped.

47. The device of claim 40, wherein the performance monitoring agent is further operable, in response to step (b), to forward a problem notification message to an address associated with network administration.

48. The device of claim 40, wherein the device is one of a telephone, a soft phone, an IP hard phone, a personal computer, a PDA, a pager, and a wireless phone.

49. A method for conducting a live voice communication session in a network between at least first and second network nodes, comprising:

(a) parsing during the live voice communication session, by a session monitor associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, through one or more packets associated with the session to identify one or more session-related performance attributes from a first set of session-related performance attributes;

(b) during the session, comparing, by the session monitor, the one or more session-related performance attributes with corresponding predetermined value for the one or more performance attributes;

(c) when the one or more session-related performance attributes at least one of equals and exceeds the corresponding predetermined value for the one or more performance attributes, causing, by the session monitor, one or more computational components, during the session, to operate in a detailed monitoring mode; and

(d) altering the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network during the detailed monitoring mode, wherein altering the types of session-related performance attributes being collected comprises changing from monitoring the first set of session-related performance attributes to monitoring a second set of session-related performance attributes, wherein the second set of session-related performance attributes comprise at least one session-related performance attribute that is not in the first set of session-related performance attributes.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the first set of session-related performance attributes comprise a plurality of a packetization loss associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, jitter associated with the session, bandwidth during the session, and an actual and/or average round-trip time associated with session-related packets and wherein the second set of session-related performance attributes comprise at least one of the following:

a total number of received packets associated with the session, a total number of received octets associated with the session, an actual and/or average round-trip time of at least one packet associated with the session, an actual and/or average jitter buffer delay associated with at least one of the first and second network nodes, a packetization loss associated with the session, a packet loss burst size associated with the session, a number of out of order packets associated with the session, an out of order distance associated with the session, jitter associated with the session, bandwidth during the session, largest sequence jump associated with the session, largest sequence fall associated with the session;

maximum jitter associated with the session, number of jitter buffer under-runs associated with the session, number of jitter buffer over-runs associated with the session, a number of sequence jump instances associated with the session, a number of sequence fall instances associated with the session, trace route hop count associated with the session, time to live associated with the session, trace route per hop associated with the session, and echo tail length associated with the session.