Locally diagnosing and troubleshooting service issues

• US 8,705,371 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2010
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Shiv, Bajpay, Paritosh, Liu, Jackson, Ravi, Narendra, Savoor, Raghvendra G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mui, Gary
• Application Number:
  US12/727,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20110228665A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 370/216, 370/241, 370/338, 702183-186, 714 1- 3, 714/4.1, 714/4.11, 714/4.12, 714/4.2, 714/4.21, 714/4.3, 714/4.4, 714/4.5, 714/5.1, 714/5.11, 709/218, 709223-226
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis

Abstract

A method includes detecting, at a customer premises equipment (CPE) device, a problem associated with a network device. The network device is communicatively coupled to the CPE device via a local area network. For example, the CPE device may include a residential gateway (RG). The method includes determining, at the CPE device, whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable. When the CPE device determines that the problem is locally correctable, the method includes initiating a corrective action to resolve the problem. When the CPE device determines that the problem is not locally correctable, the method includes sending data associated with the problem from the CPE device to a network system via a wide area network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, at a customer premises equipment device, a problem associated with a network device that is communicatively coupled to the customer premises equipment device via a local area network;

selecting, based on the problem, a subset of rules from a set of rules, the subset of rules having a priority that is related to a severity of the problem, wherein the set of rules is received at the customer premises equipment device from a network source;

determining, at the customer premises equipment device, whether the problem is locally correctable based on the subset of rules, wherein the subset of rules includes multiple corrective actions that are selectable for initiation based on the problem;

subsequent to a determination by the customer premises equipment device that the problem is locally correctable, selecting and initiating, at the customer premises equipment device, a first corrective action of the multiple corrective actions to resolve the problem; and

subsequent to a determination by the customer premises equipment device that the problem is not locally correctable, initiating transmission of data associated with the problem from the customer premises equipment device to a network operation support system via a wide area network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer premises equipment device includes a residential gateway, and wherein the local area network is associated with a customer premises, and wherein the wide area network includes an access network of an internet protocol television system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the customer premises equipment device, device configuration data from the network source via the wide area network; and

storing the set of rules and the device configuration data at a memory of the customer premises equipment device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a determination whether the problem is locally correctable is further based on the device configuration data received from the network source.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving an updated set of rules and updated device configuration data from the network source for the network device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating a second corrective action at the customer premises equipment device in response to an input received from the network operation support system that indicates the second corrective action.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device comprises a set-top box device, and wherein the first corrective action includes a reboot of the set-top box device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the local area network includes a wireless local area network, and wherein the first corrective action includes communicating with the network device via a wireless encryption protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, via the customer premises equipment device, an advertisement for additional services based on the data associated with the problem.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an additional problem that is associated with the network device;

prior to selecting the subset of rules, determining whether the problem and the additional problem are related; and

selecting the subset of rules based on the problem and based on the additional problem when the problem and the additional problem are related.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of rules comprises a subset of a set of network rules, and wherein the set of network rules is updated based on the data associated with the problem transmitted to the network operation support system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of the subset of rules is further related to a scope of the problem.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating transmission of the data associated with the problem from the customer premises equipment device to the network operation support system via an alternate network when the problem is associated with the wide area network.

14. A customer premises equipment device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving a set of rules from a network source via a wide area network;

detecting a problem associated with a network device communicatively coupled to the customer premises equipment device via a local area network;

selecting, based on the problem, a subset of rules from the set of rules, the subset of rules having a priority that is related to a severity of the problem;

determining whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable based on the subset of rules, wherein the subset of rules includes multiple corrective actions that are selectable for initiation at the customer premises equipment device based on the problem;

selecting and initiating a first corrective action of the multiple corrective actions to resolve the problem subsequent to a determination that the problem is locally correctable; and

initiating transmission of data associated with the problem to a network system via the wide area network subsequent to a determination that the problem is not locally correctable.

15. The customer premises equipment device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

collecting performance data associated with the network device;

determining whether a negative performance trend is attributed to the network device based on the collected performance data; and

initiating a second corrective action of the multiple corrective actions subsequent to a determination that a negative performance trend value satisfies a threshold value.

16. The customer premises equipment device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise sending the collected performance data to the network system when the negative performance trend value satisfies the threshold value.

17. The customer premises equipment device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an updated set of rules from the network source via the wide area network; and

determining whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable based on a second subset of rules of the updated set of rules.

18. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions, the instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

detecting a problem associated with a network device communicatively coupled to a customer premises equipment device via a local area network;

selecting, based on the problem, a subset of rules from a first set of rules, the subset of rules having a priority that is related to a severity of the problem, wherein the first set of rules is received at the customer premises equipment device from a network source;

determining, at the customer premises equipment device, whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable based on the subset of rules, wherein the subset of rules includes multiple corrective actions that are selectable for initiation based on the problem;

initiating a particular corrective action of the multiple corrective actions to resolve the problem subsequent to a determination that the problem is locally correctable; and

initiating transmission of data associated with the problem to a network operation support system subsequent to a determination that the problem is not locally correctable.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting a new device communicatively coupled to the customer premises equipment device via the local area network;

requesting data associated with the new device from the network source via a wide area network; and

receiving a second set of rules and device configuration data associated with the new device from the network source.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise generating a graphical user interface adapted to receive a modification to the second set of rules or to the device configuration data associated with the new device.