Multiple media fail-over to alternate media

• US 8,737,232 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2013
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Yihsiu, Foladare, Mark Jeffrey, Glazer, Samuel, Goldman, Shelly B., Kowalski, Thaddeus Julius
• Primary Examiner(s): Qureshi, Afsar M
• Application Number:
  US13/745,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20130128745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• Field of Search: 370230-395, 370/395.21, 709223-227
• US Class Current: 370/237
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5692 Selection among different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method for failing over from a current network access medium to an alternative network access medium. A customer premises equipment (CPE) box has ports for connections to a network through several network access media, such as high speed cable connections, DSL connections and dial-up connections. QoS parameters for each of the connections are monitored from a bandwidth manager remote from the CPE box. When it is determined that a fail-over would be beneficial, a message is sent from the bandwidth manager to the CPE box containing a command to fail-over and an identity of the alternate network access media.

Claims

1. A method for providing automatic fail-over service for premises equipment that is accessing a network via a first network access medium, the fail-over service providing fail-over from the first network access medium to a second network access medium, the method comprising:

at a bandwidth manager, transmitting a first network ping through the network and through the first network access medium to the premises equipment;

at the bandwidth manager, receiving from the premises equipment a response to the first network ping;

determining a status of the first network access medium based on the response to the first network ping;

at a bandwidth manager, transmitting a second network ping through the network and through the second network access medium to the premises equipment;

at a bandwidth manager, receiving from the premises equipment a response to the second network ping;

determining a status of the second network access medium based on the response to the second network ping; and

based on the status of the first and second network access media, transmitting a message to the premises equipment to change from accessing the network via the first network access medium to accessing the network via the second network access medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth manager is an application server connected through the network to the premises equipment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the status of the first and second network access media comprise current quality of service metrics of the first and second network access media.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the message is transmitted to the premises equipment only if the quality of service metric of the second network access medium indicates a superior quality of service than the corresponding quality of service metric of the first network access medium.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transmitting the message to the premises equipment is further contingent on obtaining historical quality of service metrics and comparing the current quality of service metrics to the historical quality of service metrics.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein determining a status of the first network access medium based on the response to the first network ping, and determining a status of the second network access medium based on the response to the second network ping, each further comprise:

at a simulation server, modeling future quality of service metrics based on the current quality of service metrics.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein modeling future quality of service metrics is further based on historic quality of service metrics.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second network access media are selected from a group consisting of a T1 service, a T3 service, a digital subscriber line, a hybrid fiber coaxial cable network and a standard telephone access line.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second network access media is a plurality of baseband access media carrying a signal multiplexed among them.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating for use in a report a record of the message transmitted to the premises equipment.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for providing automatic fail-over service for premises equipment that is accessing a network via a first network access medium, the fail-over service providing fail-over from the first network access medium to a second network access medium, wherein execution of the computer readable instructions by a processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

transmitting a first network ping through the network and through the first network access medium to the premises equipment;

receiving from the premises equipment a response to the first network ping;

determining a status of the first network access medium based on the response to the first network ping;

transmitting a second network ping through the network and through the second network access medium to the premises equipment;

receiving from the premises equipment a response to the second network ping;

determining a status of the second network access medium based on the response to the second network ping; and

based on the status of the first and second network access media, transmitting a message to the premises equipment to change from accessing the network via the first network access medium to accessing the network via the second network access medium.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the bandwidth manager is an application server connected through the network to the premises equipment.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the status of the first and second network access media comprise current quality of service metrics of the first and second network access media.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the message is transmitted to the premises equipment only if the quality of service metric of the second network access medium indicates a superior quality of service than the corresponding quality of service metric of the first network access medium.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein transmitting the message to the premises equipment is further contingent on obtaining historical quality of service metrics and comparing the current quality of service metrics to the historical quality of service metrics.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein determining a status of the first network access medium based on the response to the first network ping, and determining a status of the second network access medium based on the response to the second network ping, each further comprise:

at a simulation server, modeling future quality of service metrics based on the current quality of service metrics.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein modeling future quality of service metrics is further based on historic quality of service metrics.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first and second network access media are selected from a group consisting of a T1 service, a T3 service, a digital subscriber line, a hybrid fiber coaxial cable network and a standard telephone access line.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first and second network access media is a plurality of baseband access media carrying a signal multiplexed among them.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

creating for use in a report a record of the message transmitted to the premises equipment.