Systems and methods to monitor and analyze customer equipment downtime in a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service network

• US 8,223,631 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jackson, James, KU, BERNARD, Yasrebi, Mehrad
• Primary Examiner(s): Chriss, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOUIS, VINNCELAS
• Application Number:
  US12/130,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20090296566A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 370/401, 370/221, 370/393, 370252-254, 370352-356, 725/56, 725/91, 379/45, 455/404.2, 709/226, 709/228, 709224-225, 726/3, 705/52
• US Class Current: 370/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]

Abstract

Systems and methods to monitor and analyze customer premises equipment downtime in a Voice over Internet Protocol service network are disclosed. An example method comprises receiving an indication of an internet protocol (IP) address change, determining whether a network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change, and when the network transaction is a failed network transaction associated with the IP address change, storing the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the IP address change.

Claims

1. A method to analyze a failed network transaction associated with customer premises equipment downtime in a voice over internet protocol service platform, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of an internet protocol address change at a residential gateway at a first time;

determining a second time when whether a network transaction is the failed network transaction occurs, the failed network transaction resulting from associated with the internet protocol address change; and

storing the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the internet protocol address change, the database entry including a lost subscriber time that is a difference between the second time and the first time.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the failed network transaction comprises at least one of a lost transaction, a misdirected transaction, a rejected transaction, an un-routable transaction, or an unresolved transaction.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein storing the failed network transaction comprises at least one of storing a copy of the failed network transaction or storing an indication of the failed network transaction.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining whether the network transaction is the failed network transaction further comprises comparing the network transaction to a set of monitoring rules.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the monitoring rules include at least one of a session initiation protocol request message having a first predefined set of arguments or a session initiation protocol response message having a second predefined set of arguments.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of the internet protocol address change further comprises receiving an internet protocol address change message from at least one of a dynamic host configuration protocol server, a residential gateway, or a session border controller.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the internet protocol address change is a second internet protocol address to replace a first internet protocol address assigned to a residential gateway.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

storing the database entry to a database entry cache;

analyzing a plurality of database entries from the database entry cache to determine if the failed network transaction is a cause for a loss of service;

calculating statistics from the analyzed database entries to determine lost subscriber customer premises equipment time; and

reporting the statistics from the calculated database entries.

9. The method as defined in claim 8, further comprising reporting at least one of a number of instances of the failed network transaction or the cause of the failed network transaction to the network service provider.

10. The method as defined in claim 8, further comprising determining at least one cause associated with the failed network transaction from the analyzed data.

11. The method as defined in claim 8, wherein the statistics comprise at least one of a total number of instances of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, an average lost subscriber customer premises equipment time for the internet protocol address change for a plurality of subscribers, a total number of minutes of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, a number of failed network transactions for a failed network transaction type, a number of internet protocol address changes per subscriber, a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to subscriber location, or a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to a time period.

12. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a registration of the internet protocol address change; and

storing the indication of the registration of the internet protocol address change to the database entry.

13. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the indication of a registration of the internet protocol address change is received from at least one of a residential gateway, a session border controller, or an internet protocol multimedia subsystem.

14. A lost subscriber time server to analyze a failed network transaction associated with customer premises equipment downtime in a voice over internet protocol service platform, the server comprising:

an internet protocol address monitor to receive an indication of an internet protocol address change at a residential gateway at a first time;

a failed network transaction monitor to detect the failed network transaction; and

a transaction processor to determine a second time when the failed network transaction occurs, determine the failed network transaction resulting from the internet protocol address change, and store the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the internet protocol address change, the database entry including a lost subscriber time that is a difference between the second time and the first time.

15. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, wherein the failed network transaction monitor compiles a plurality of database entries.

16. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 15, further comprising:

a database entry cache to store a plurality of database entries;

a data analyzer to analyze a plurality of database entries in the database entry cache to determine if the failed network transaction is a cause for a loss of service and to calculate statistics from the analyzed database entries to determine lost subscriber customer premises equipment time; and

a report generator to report the statistics from the calculated database entries.

17. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 16, wherein the data analyzer determines whether a network transaction is the failed network transaction by comparing the network transaction to a set of monitoring rules.

18. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 17, wherein the monitoring rules include at least one of a session initiation protocol request message having a first predefined set of arguments or a session initiation protocol response message having a second predefined set of arguments.

19. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 16, wherein the report generator reports at least one of a number of instances of the failed network transaction or the cause of the failed network transaction to the network service provider.

20. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 16, wherein the data analyzer calculates statistics including at least one of a total number of instances of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, an average lost subscriber customer premises equipment time associated with the internet protocol address change, a total number of minutes of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time, a number of failed network transactions for a failed network transaction type, a number of internet protocol address changes per subscriber, a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to subscriber location, or a correlation of lost subscriber customer premises equipment time to a time period.

21. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, wherein the internet protocol address monitor receives an indication of the internet protocol address change from at least one of a residential gateway, a dynamic host configuration protocol server, a session border controller, or an internet protocol multimedia subsystem border element.

22. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 21, wherein the residential gateway is associated with the network service provider.

23. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, wherein the failed network transaction monitor detects at least one of a lost transaction, a misdirected transaction, a rejected transaction, an un-routable transaction, or an unresolved transaction.

24. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 14, further comprising a registration monitor to receive an indication of a registration of the internet protocol address change.

25. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 24, wherein the transaction processor stores the indication of the registration of the internet protocol address change to a corresponding database entry.

26. The lost subscriber time server as defined in claim 24, wherein the indication of a registration of the internet protocol address change is received from one of a residential gateway, a session border controller, or an internet protocol multimedia subsystem.

27. A tangible machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

receive an indication of an internet protocol address change at a residential gateway at a first time;

determine a second time when a failed network transaction occurs, the failed network transaction resulting from the internet protocol address change; and

store the failed network transaction to a database entry associated with the internet protocol address change, the database entry including a lost subscriber time that is a difference between the second time and the first time, the tangible machine accessible medium not including a propagating signal.

28. A machine accessible medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:

store the database entry to a database entry cache;

analyze a plurality of database entries from the database entry cache to determine if failed network transactions are a cause for a loss of service;

calculate statistics from the analyzed database entries to determine lost subscriber customer premises equipment time; and

report the statistics from the calculated database entries.