Method and system for monitoring the health of wireless telecommunication networks

• US 8,179,922 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2009
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Lewis, Allan D., Lazaridis, Mihal, Lankford, Gerald Winton, Little, Herbert A., Hind, Hugh, Patterson, Ian M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAMUEL, DEWANDA A
• Application Number:
  US12/574,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20100020697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: 370/401, 370/328, 370/485, 370/252, 370/352
• US Class Current: 370/485
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring the health of a wireless telecommunication network. Network health is monitored without placing an administrative burden on the carrier network itself, instead, this burden is placed on components that lie outside the carrier network and pass communications through it. The data service provider infrastructure sends a request to a mobile device, asking that it return data regarding its location. The carrier networks handling the request insert location information into the packet that is sent to the mobile device, but this information is not sent to the data service provider infrastructure itself. The mobile device harvests this location information from the packets it receives and inserts it in a response packet that finds its way back to the data service provider infrastructure. The data service provider infrastructure is able to collate this location data and to analyze it, determining the carrier network'"'"'s health.

Claims

1. An apparatus for facilitating monitoring of the health of a telecommunication network, said apparatus comprising:

a request generator configured to generate a data packet request for mobile-device location information;

an identifier configured to identify location data contained in a mobile-device response to a modified data packet request, the location data comprising information extracted from a header of said modified data packet request and inserted into a data field of an acknowledgement packet of the mobile-device response; and

an analyzer configured to analyze the location data identified by said identifier, analysis of the location data providing indication of the health of the telecommunication network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a data service provider infrastructure device connected to, and separate from, the telecommunications network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the data packet request generated by said request generator comprises a flag of a packet message.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said request generator is configured to use a single bit as the flag.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said identifier is further configured to determine whether the mobile-device response includes the location data.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said modified data packet request further comprises a modification of a header of said data packet request to include network-added location data in said header of said modified data packet request.

6. The method for facilitating monitoring of the health of a telecommunication network, said method comprising:

generating a data packet request for mobile-device location information;

identifying location data contained in a mobile-device response to a modified data packet request, the location data comprising information extracted from a header of said modified data packet request and inserted into a data field of an acknowledgement packet of the mobile-device response; and

analyzing the location data identified during said identifying, analysis of the location data providing indication of the health of the telecommunication network.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said generating, said identifying, and said analyzing are performed at a data service provider infrastructure device connected to, and separate from, the telecommunications network.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein said generating the data packet request comprises generating a flag in a message of said data packet.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the flag comprises a single bit.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the flag comprises a single bit of the packet message.

11. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said identifying further identifies whether the mobile-device response includes the location data.

19. The method of claim 6 wherein said identifying location data further comprises identifying a modification of a header of said data packet request that includes network-added location data in said header of said modified data packet request.

12. An apparatus embodied at a mobile device for facilitating monitoring of the health of a telecommunication network, said apparatus comprising:

an examiner configured to examine a received data packet at the mobile device to determine whether the received data packet includes a request for location information of the mobile device;

an extractor configured to extract location data from a header part of the received data packet if said examiner determines that the received data packet includes the request for the location information; and

an inserter configured to insert the location data into a data field of an acknowledgement packet of a mobile device response to the received data packet.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said examiner is configured to examiner a flag of the received data packet to determine whether the received data packet includes the request for the location information.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the location data extracted by said extractor comprises network-added location data.

15. A method at a mobile device for facilitating monitoring of the health of a telecommunication network, said method comprising:

examining a received data packet at the mobile device to determine whether the received data packet includes a request for location information of the mobile device;

extracting location data from a header part of the received data packet if determination is made during said examining that the received data packet includes the request for the location information; and

inserting the extracted location data into a data field of an acknowledgement packet of a mobile device response to the received data packet.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said examining comprises examining a single-bit flag of the received data packet to determine whether the received data packet includes the request for location information.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said extracting location data comprises extracting network-added location data from the header of the received data packet.