Connectivity service-level guarantee monitoring and claim validation systems and methods

• US 8,898,279 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.), Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation), Verizon Corporate Services Group Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation), Verizon Corporate Services Group Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Schick, Irvin C., Hersh, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Serrao, Ranodhi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hussain, Farrukh
• Application Number:
  US12/256,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20090049170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,224 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/238, 715/736
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A system monitors performance in a network that includes several network resources. The system obtains a list of targets in the network. The targets include selected ones of the resources. The system sends a request to the targets, receives responses from the targets, and determines a status of the targets based on the received responses or a lack of responses from the targets. The system then analyzes the status of the targets to determine compliance with the service-level guarantee.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method that validates at least one customer claim relating to performance in a network, comprising:

receiving a customer claim, the claim identifying a path in the network between a source and a destination and a time interval for which an outage was experienced;

identifying, via a computer processor, resources located on the path and servers associated with the identified resources located on the path, wherein identifying resources comprises;

parsing a first path from the source to the destination,

parsing a second path from the destination to the source, and

identifying resources located on the first and second paths; and

validating, via the computer processor, the customer claim by analyzing network status records relating to the servers associated with the identified resources to determine whether any of the identified resources experienced an outage lasting at least a predetermined period of time, wherein the analyzing the network status records comprises;

identifying portions of the path between the identified resources, and

analyzing network status records associated with each of the portions of the path.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically collecting the network status records.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the network status records includes:

examining the network status records obtained during the time interval.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to credit the customer based on a result of the analysis.

5. A system that validates at least one customer claim relating to performance in a network, a customer claim identifying a path in the network between a source and a destination and a time interval for which an outage was experienced, the system comprising:

a memory that stores instructions; and

a processor that executes the instructions stored in the memory to identify resources located on the path and servers associated with the identified resources located on the path, wherein when identifying resources, the processor is configured to parse a first path from the source to the destination, parse a second path from the destination to the source, and identify resources located on the first and second paths, and validate the customer claim by analyzing network status records relating to the servers associated with the identified resources to determine whether any of the identified resources experienced an outage lasting at least a predetermined period of time, wherein when analyzing the network status records, the processor is configured to;

identify portions of the path between the identified resources; and

analyze network status records associated with each of the portions of the path.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to:

periodically collect the network status records.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to determine whether to credit the customer based on a result of the analysis of the network status records.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions executable by a computer to perform a method for validating at least one customer claim relating to performance in a network, a customer claim identifying a path in the network between a source and a destination and a time interval for which an outage was experienced, the method comprising:

receiving the customer claim;

identifying resources located on the path and servers associated with the identified resources located on the path, identified by the customer claim, wherein when identifying resources, the computer-readable medium is configured to;

parse a first path from the source to the destination,

parse a second path from the destination to the source, and

identify resources located on the first and second paths; and

validating the customer claim by analyzing network status records relating to the servers associated with the identified resources to determine whether any of the identified resources experienced an outage lasting at least a predetermined period of time, wherein when analyzing the network status records, the computer-readable medium is configured to;

identify portions of the path between the identified resources; and

analyze network status records associated with each of the portions of the path.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, further configured to:

periodically collect the network status records.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, further configured to:

determine whether to credit the customer based on a result of the analysis.

11. A method of validating at least one customer claim relating to a service-level guarantee, comprising:

receiving the customer claim from a customer, the customer claim identifying a first path in a network from a source to a destination, a second path from the destination to the source, and a time interval for which an outage was experienced in the network; and

validating, via a computer processor, the customer claim by analyzing network status data relating to servers associated with resources along the first and second paths to determine availability of the resources along the first and second paths and determining compliance with the service-level guarantee based on the network status data, wherein validating the customer claim includes;

identifying portions of the first and second paths between ones of the resources;

and analyzing network status data associated with each of the portions of the first and second paths.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

collecting network status data.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining whether to credit the customer based on a whether there was compliance with the service-level guarantee.