User equipment tracing in a wireless communications network

• US 8,879,406 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2007
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Nylander, Tomas, Vikberg, Jari
• Primary Examiner(s): Hailu, Kibrom T
• Application Number:
  US12/600,849
• Publication Number:
  US 20100165862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,717 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• 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 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and a network control node for tracing activity and monitoring performance of user equipments in a partly IP-based wireless communications network. The wireless communications network comprises operator controllable and/or operator uncontrollable wireless access points in communication with a network control node via one or more operator controllable and/or operator uncontrollable Internet Protocol, IP, networks. The described method is characterized by a first step of receiving a trace triggering request and user equipment identification, at a network control node, from a first network node. Alternatively, the trace triggering request is received on a signaling connection that explicitly identifies the user equipment. The network control node then starts a trace recording and information retrieval procedure relating to the identified user equipment and identifies all used IP networks and user equipment serving access point. The method further comprises the steps of analyzing the IP networks used between the network node and the user equipment and/or analyzing the user equipment serving access point. Thereafter, a trace printout is created including analyzing results and retrieved information, the printout is to be sent to a second network node, or stored locally for later retrieval.

Claims

1. A method for controlling user equipment activity in a wireless communications network, the wireless communications network having operator controllable access points and operator uncontrollable access points that are in communication with a network control node via one or more operator controllable and/or operator uncontrollable Internet Protocol (IP) networks, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a trace triggering request and user equipment identification at the network control node from a first network node;

starting, at the network control node, a trace recording and information retrieval procedure relating to the identified user equipment;

identifying, at the network control node, all used IP networks and the access point serving the user equipment;

analyzing the IP networks used between the network control node and the user equipment and analyzing the access point serving the user equipment; and

including analyzing results in a trace printout together with retrieved information to be sent to a second network node, wherein the analyzing further comprises at least one of the steps of;

activating and monitoring a trace route function,

measuring delays in an IP Network,

sending and monitoring one or more Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo requests, or pings,

sending User Datagram Protocol (UDP) based error reporting messages,

performing access point status check,

retrieving statistics and other information relating to at least one of;

IP Addresses, loss probability, loss rate, delays and delay variations,

requesting event log information relating to identified access point, and

requesting a security gateway, or a functional entity to analyze one or more IP networks between the security gateway and the access point.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the controllable access points are at least one of a macro radio base station (RBS), micro RBS, and pico RBS;

and the uncontrollable access point is a femto RBS.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the trace request is triggered by an end user or a network node for at least one of:

trouble shooting, optimizing a fault localization procedure, and user equipment localization.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the trace recording and information retrieval procedure further comprises the step of identifying an IP address of a user equipment serving access point and mapping the IP address to a pre-stored location.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the trace recording and information retrieval procedure performed by the network control node involves retrieving stored information from a Home 3G Access Point (H3GAP) database relating to a used IP network and/or femto RBS.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network node and the second network node are either a same node or any combination of the following nodes:

an operation and maintenance center, a mobile switching center, a home location register (HLR), a visiting location register (VLR), a radio base station (RBS), a security gateway (SEGW) and a serving GPRS support node (SGSN).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user equipment identification is included in the trace request or sent separately as a request on a signaling connection.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing further comprises at least one of:

requesting statistics and event log information from an identified access point and/or the security gateway, wherein the statistics and event log information includes IP addresses, measured packet loss rate, measure packet round trip time, and measured packet delay variations;

analyzing statistics related to a user equipment serving access point;

retrieving information related to a user equipment from a Home 3G Access Point database (H3GAP DB);

requesting a security gateway, or a functional entity, to analyze one or more IP networks between the security gateway and the access point; and

associating a location of the access point with the location of the user equipment and thereby enabling tracking user equipment among other functions.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP address is resolvable to a location, stored in a Home 3G Access Database (H3GAP) with other information, and retrievable upon request after an activation of a trace procedure.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the network control node is a radio network controller (RNC).

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the network control node is located outside of the core network and the first network node is located within the core network.

8. A network control node for controlling user equipment activity in a wireless communications network, the network control node being in communication with operator controllable access points and operator uncontrollable access points via one or more operator controllable and operator uncontrollable Internet Protocol (IP) networks, the network control node comprising a transceiver used for receiving trace triggering requests and user equipment identifications, the network control node comprising:

trace recording and information retrieval equipment in use for identifying at least an IP network and an access point serving the identified user equipment; and

analyzing equipment in use for analyzing at least one IP network used by the user equipment and for analyzing the access point serving the user equipment and for including the analyzing results in a trace printout together with other retrieved information to be sent in response to the triggered request, wherein the analyzing equipment is further configured for requesting a security gateway, or a functional entity, to analyze one or more IP networks between the security gateway and the access point, wherein the analyzing equipment is responsible for performing at least one of the following activities;

activating and monitoring a trace route functions;

measuring delays in an IP Network;

sending and monitoring one or more Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), echo requests, or pings;

sending User Datagram Protocol (UDP), based error reporting messages;

performing access point status check;

retrieving statistics and other information relating to one or more of the following;

addresses, loss probability, loss rate, delays and delay variations;

requesting event log information relating to identified access point and requesting a security gateway, or a functional entity, to analyze one or more IP networks between the security gateway and the access point.

9. The network control node of claim 8, wherein such network control node is in communication with at least one of the following controllable access points:

macro radio base station (RBS), micro RBS, and pico RBS;

and a femto RBS.

10. The network control node of any of claims 8, wherein the user equipment identification is included in the trace request or sent separately as a request on a signaling connection.

11. The network control node of claim 8, wherein the trace recording and information retrieval procedure involves the step of identifying an IP address of a user equipment serving access point and mapping the IP address to a pre-stored location.

12. The network control node of claim 9, wherein the trace recording and information retrieval procedure involves retrieving stored information from a Home 3G Access Point (H3GAP) database, relating to user IP networks and/or femto RBS.