System and method for displaying a graph representative of network performance over a time period

• US 8,274,905 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Embarq Holdings Company LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Edwards, Stephen K., Bugenhagen, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yuen, Kan
• Application Number:
  US11/809,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20080049641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: 370241-252, 370/253, 709/224, 715/700
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring performance of a packet network may include storing network performance information collected from a packet network, where the network performance information may distinguish network performance information associated with communications of data packets including real-time content and data packets including non-real-time content. A graphic user interface including a graphical representation of the network performance information distinguishing the network performance information associated with communications of data packets including real-time content and network performance information including non-real-time content with a node segment over a time duration may be generated.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring performance of a packet network, said system comprising:

a database configured to store network performance information collected from a plurality of network nodes of a packet network, the network performance information being indicative of or otherwise suitable for use in determining a health of a plurality of network segments of the network packet network, the network performance information distinguishing between network performance information associated with communications of data packets including real-time content and network performance information associated with data packets including non-real-time content, wherein collecting the network performance information includes collecting device performance information associated with the performance of network devices themselves located at a particular node of the network, wherein the device performance information identifies latency introduced by a lack of processing capabilities at the particular node of the network; and

a processing unit in communication with said database and configured to access the stored network performance information, said processing unit further configured to generate a graphical user interface including a graphical representation of the network performance information distinguishing between the network performance information associated with communications of data packets including real-time content and network performance information including non-real-time content with a node segment over a time duration.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical representation includes a graph, the graph including a first indicia representative of a first network performance information parameter associated with data packets including real-time content communicated with the node segment over the time duration, a second indicia representative of a second network performance information parameter associated with data packets including non-real-time content communicated with the node segment over the time duration, and a third indicia representative of a sum of the first and second network performance information parameters.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein collecting the network performance information includes performing a second measurement to characterize a burst nature of data flows associated with communications of data packets.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the database also stores network performance information collected from non-packet networks.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the device performance information identifies buffer utilization levels at the particular node of the network.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to predict usage of a particular node of the network for an upcoming time period using the network performance information stored in the database.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the network performance information is collected by the particular node of the network and communicated to the database for storage.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to notify a call control manager module to change a network component in response to a determination that data included in the network performance information associated with a node segment crosses above a threshold value.

9. A method for monitoring performance of a packet network, said method comprising:

collecting network performance information from a plurality of network nodes of a packet network including determining a number of real-time sessions being communicated over each of the plurality of network nodes;

storing the network performance information collected from the plurality of network nodes of a packet network, the network performance information being indicative of or otherwise suitable for use in determining a health of the network packet network, the network performance information distinguishing between network performance information associated with communications of data packets including real-time content and network performance information associated with communications of data packets including non-real-time content; and

generating a graphic user interface including a graphical representation of the network performance information distinguishing between the network performance information associated with communications of data packets including real-time content and network performance information including non-real-time content with a node segment over a time duration, wherein generating a graphical user interface including a graphical representation includes generating a graph including a first indicia representative of a first network performance information parameter associated with data packets including real-time content communicated with the node segment over the time durations, a second indicia representative of a second network performance information parameter associated with data packets including non-real-time content communicated with the node segment over the time duration, and a third indicia representative of a sum of the first and second network performance information parameters, and wherein collecting the network performance information includes performing a measurement to characterize a burst nature of data flows associated with communications of data packets.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising collecting and storing network performance information collected from a non-packet network.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein collecting the network performance information includes collecting device performance information associated with the performance of network devices themselves located at a particular node of the network.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the device performance information identifies latency introduced by a lack of processing capabilities at the particular node of the network.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the device performance information identifies buffer utilization levels at the particular node of the network.

14. The method according to claim 9, further comprising predicting usage of a particular node of the network for an upcoming time period using the stored network performance information.

15. The method according to claim 9, wherein generating the graphical representation includes generating a table.

16. The method according to claim 9, further comprising notifying a call control manager module to change a network component in response to a determination that data included in the network performance information associated with a node segment crosses above a threshold value.