System and method to troubleshoot a set top box device

• US 8,938,749 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Issued: 01/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• 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: Yang, Chen-Yui, Bajpay, Paritosh, Li, Zhi, Lu, David, Puli, Balaji, Savoor, Raghvendra, Srdar, Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Corbo, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huerta, Alexander Q
• Application Number:
  US12/872,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20120054785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• Field of Search: 725/16, 725/14
• US Class Current: 725/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/32 Arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations, e.g. malfunction or breakdown of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4425 Monitoring of client processing errors or hardware failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes receiving, at a monitoring center of a media distribution network, from a set top box device associated with a customer account, first error data indicating occurrence of a first error at the set top box device at a first time. The set top box device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the first error. The computer-implemented method includes receiving, at the monitoring center, second error data indicating occurrence of a second error at the set top box device at a second time. The set top box device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the second error. The computer-implemented method includes determining an elapsed time between the first time and the second time. The computer-implemented method includes automatically generating a trouble ticket indicating failure of the set top box device when the elapsed time satisfies a first threshold.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a monitoring center of a media distribution network from a media device associated with a customer account, first error data indicating occurrence of a first error at the media device at a first time, wherein the media device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the first error;

receiving, at the monitoring center, second error data indicating occurrence of a second error at the media device at a second time, wherein the media device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the second error;

determining, with a processor of the monitoring center, an elapsed time between the first time and the second time;

comparing the elapsed time between the first time and the second time to a first time threshold;

when the elapsed time is less than the first time threshold, sending an automatically generated trouble ticket indicating a failure associated with the media device from the processor to a network operations center;

when the elapsed time is greater than the first time threshold, determining an average elapsed time between errors at the media device for a particular time period, wherein the particular time period is greater than the first time threshold; and

when the average elapsed time between errors at the media device is less than a second time threshold, sending the automatically generated trouble ticket to the network operations center.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to determining that the elapsed time is less than the first time threshold, automatically sending a notification message to a communication address associated with the customer account, the notification message indicating that the media device is to be repaired.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second threshold is greater than the first threshold.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising automatically troubleshooting the media device at the monitoring center to identify a cause of the first error, the second error, or both.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein automatically troubleshooting the media device comprises:

when the first error, the second error, or both, indicate a problem at a home network, analyzing the home network to identify a root cause of the problem; and

when the root cause of the problem is associated with the media device, executing an automatic recovery procedure.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein executing the automatic recovery procedure comprises:

retrieving a parameter from the media device, wherein the parameter indicates a user adjustable setting of the media device;

selecting a recovery reason from a set of recovery reasons based on the parameter; and

sending a signal from the monitoring center to the media device, wherein the signal instructs the media device to set a recovery result indicator of the media device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the user adjustable setting is a volume setting.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the user adjustable setting is a channel number setting.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

retrieving an additional parameter from the media device, wherein the additional parameter is a count related to latency; and

selecting the recovery reason from the set of recovery reasons based further on the count having a value greater than a third threshold.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein executing the automatic recovery procedure comprises:

when the root cause of the problem is a missing decryption key, validating an identifier associated with the media device; and

sending a decryption key to the media device when the identifier associated with the media device is valid.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein automatically troubleshooting the media device comprises:

retrieving first data associated with the customer account from a customer account database;

retrieving second data associated with the media devices associated with a second customer from a service delivery platform; and

sending a signal from the monitoring center to the media device, wherein the signal instructs the media device to set a recovery result indicator of the media device based on a comparison of the first data and the second data.

12. A system, comprising:

a processor circuit; and

a memory comprising operational instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to perform operations including;

receiving, from a media device associated with a customer account, first error data indicating occurrence of a first error at the media device at a first time, wherein the media device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the first error;

receiving second error data indicating occurrence of a second error at the media device at a second time, wherein the media device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the second error;

determining an elapsed time between the first time and the second time;

comparing the elapsed time between the first time and the second time to a first time threshold;

when the elapsed time is less than the first time threshold, automatically generating a trouble ticket to indicate a failure associated with the media device;

when the elapsed time is greater than the first time threshold, determining an average elapsed time between errors at the media device for a particular time period, wherein the particular time period is greater than the first time threshold; and

when the average elapsed time between errors at the media device is less than a second time threshold, generating the trouble ticket.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first error data and the second error data identify a packet latency associated with media content packets that are received at the media device, and wherein the operations further include automatically generating the trouble ticket when the packet latency satisfies a third threshold.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first error data, the second error data, or both, identify a remaining memory capacity of a digital video recorder associated with the media device, and wherein the operations further include, when the remaining memory capacity satisfies a third threshold, automatically sending a notification to a communication address of a subscriber that is associated with the media device.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further include automatically sending a notification from a monitoring center to a communication address of a subscriber that is associated with the media device in response to generating the trouble ticket, wherein the notification includes one of an email message, an automated interactive voice response call, a pop-up message for display at a display device associated with the media device, or a text message.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the notification includes a prompt to enable a corrective action to be taken.

17. A computer-readable storage device comprising operational instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a media device associated with a customer account, first error data indicating occurrence of a first error at the media device at a first time, wherein the media device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the first error;

receiving second error data indicating occurrence of a second error at the media device at a second time, wherein the media device is at least partially functional after occurrence of the second error;

comparing an elapsed time between the first time and the second time to a first time threshold;

when the elapsed time is less than the first time threshold, automatically generating a trouble ticket to indicate a failure associated with the media device;

when the elapsed time is greater than the first time threshold, determining an average elapsed time between errors at the media device for a particular time period, wherein the particular time period is greater than the first time threshold; and

when the average elapsed time between errors at the media device is less than a second time threshold, generating the trouble ticket.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the media device is a set top box.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein automatically troubleshooting the first error, the second error, or both, comprises automatically power cycling the media device, a digital video recorder associated with the media device, a residential gateway associated with the media device, or a combination thereof.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise automatically troubleshooting an issue associated with the first error data, the second error data, or both, by:

after receiving the second error data, determining how many devices are associated with the customer account based on customer account data;

sending a polling message to a device associated with the customer account;

determining whether a response to the polling message is received; and

determining a root cause of the issue based on receipt of the response to the polling message or lack of receipt of the response to the polling message.