Wireless network fault diagnosis method and device

• US 9,049,108 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ji, Ping
• Primary Examiner(s): ANWAR, MOHAMMAD S
• Application Number:
  US14/496,571
• Publication Number:
  US 20150023148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 250 Days
• Field of Search: 370/216, 370/248, 370/252
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/065 involving logical or physical relationship, e.g. grouping and hierarchies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A wireless network fault diagnosis method and device are provided. The method includes receiving, by a network management server, sampling data of user equipment in at least one area in a wireless network, where the sampling data includes attribute information of the user equipment and probe-collected information of the user equipment; generating, by the network management server according to the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area, statistical information that corresponds to each area of the at least one area; and performing, by the network management server, area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information that corresponds to each area of the at least one area. Therefore, area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is performed, a fault trend of the user equipment can be fully perceived, so that corresponding measures are taken against wireless network faults to effectively improve satisfaction on user experience.

Claims

1. A wireless network fault diagnosis method comprising:

receiving, by a network management server, sampling data of user equipment in at least one area in a wireless network, wherein the sampling data is sent by a collection server;

or

collecting, by the network management server, sampling data sent by the user equipment in the at least one area in the wireless network, wherein the sampling data comprises attribute information of the user equipment and corresponding probe-collected information of the user equipment, and wherein an address of the network management server or an address of the collection server is carried in an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) packet which is sent from an authentication server to the user equipment, and the address of the network management server or the address of the collection server is used for the user equipment to send the sampling data to the network management server or the collection server;

generating, by the network management server, according to the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area; and

performing, by the network management server, area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the probe-collected information comprises at least one of a fault type of the user equipment and wireless signal quality information of the user equipment, and wherein the attribute information of the user equipment comprises at least one of an identifier of an area in which the user equipment are located and identifiers of the user equipment.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the fault type of the user equipment comprises a wireless network access fault type of the user equipment, and wherein generating, by the network management server according to the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area, comprises:

collecting, by the network management server, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belong to a same area and comprise the wireless network access fault type of the user equipment from the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area to obtain the number of wireless network access failures of the user equipment or an access failure ratio of the user equipment in a statistics period, wherein the number of wireless network access failures of the user equipment or the access failure ratio of the user equipment is corresponding to each area of the at least one area; and

outputting statistical information about the number of wireless network access failures or the access failure ratio that falls within a first threshold rank in the statistics period, wherein the number of wireless network access failures or the access failure ratio is corresponding to each area of the at least one area.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein generating, by the network management server according to the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area, comprises:

collecting, by the network management server, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment from the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area to obtain a signal value of wireless signal quality of the user equipment in a statistics period, wherein the signal value is corresponding to each area of the at least one area; and

outputting statistical information about the signal value that falls within a second threshold rank in the statistics period, wherein the signal value is corresponding to each area of the at least one area.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein generating, by the network management server, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area according to the collected sampling data, comprises:

collecting, by the network management server, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the fault type of the user equipment from the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area to obtain first statistical information that comprises the number of users or a percentage of users who encounter the fault type in each area of the at least one area in a statistics period;

or

collecting, by the network management server according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment from the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area to obtain second statistical information that comprises the number of users or a percentage of users whose signal value of wireless signal quality is smaller than a first signal threshold in each area of the at least one area in the statistics period.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein performing, by the network management server, area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information that corresponds to each area of the at least one area, comprises:

determining that a manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting connectivity of a network connection of the first area when the network management server determines, according to the first statistical information, that a percentage of user equipment encountering the fault type in a first area of the at least one area is higher than a first percentage threshold;

outputting, by the network management server, a wireless network fault diagnosis result that indicates a fault of the network connection when the network connection of the first area fails; and

further determining, by the network management server, that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic when the network connection of the first area is normal.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining, by the network management server, that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic, comprises determining, by the network management server, that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is at least one of detecting the maximum number of users who access the service, detecting a user association failure ratio of the service, detecting traffic of the user equipment whose traffic falls within a third threshold rank among user equipment that use the service, and detecting a radio frequency bandwidth utilization ratio of the service.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein performing, by the network management server, area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area comprises determining that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic when the network management server determines, according to the second statistical information, that a percentage of user equipment whose signal value of wireless signal quality is smaller than the first signal threshold in a first area of the at least one area is higher than a second percentage threshold.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining, by the network management server, that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic comprises determining, by the network management server, that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is at least one of detecting the maximum number of users who access the service, detecting a user association failure ratio of the service, detecting traffic of the user equipment whose traffic falls within a third threshold rank among user equipment that use the service, and detecting a radio frequency bandwidth utilization ratio of the service.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the fault type of the user equipment comprises an environment configuration fault type of the user equipment or the wireless network access fault type of the user equipment, or wherein the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment comprises delay information, packet loss information, or wireless signal stability information.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein that at least one area comprises multiple areas, wherein the statistical information comprises a statistical report, and wherein the statistical report comprises for each one of the multiple areas an indication of the area, a total number of users in the area, an indication of a number of users with low signal quality, an indication of a number of users with medium signal quality, and an indication of a number of users with high signal quality.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the statistical report comprises a table comprising a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows, wherein a first one of the plurality of columns corresponds to the indication of the area, wherein a second one of the plurality of columns corresponds to the total number of users in the area, wherein a third one of the plurality of columns corresponds to the indication of the number of users with the low signal quality, wherein a fourth one of the plurality of columns corresponds to the number of users with the medium signal quality, wherein a fifth one of the plurality of columns corresponds to the number of users with the high signal quality, wherein a sixth one of the plurality of columns corresponds to a percentage of users with the low signal quality, wherein a seventh one of the plurality of columns corresponds to a percentage of users with the medium signal quality, wherein an eighth one of the plurality of columns corresponds to a percentage of users with the high signal quality, and wherein each one of the plurality of rows corresponds to one of the multiple areas.

13. A wireless network fault diagnosis method comprising:

recording, by a user equipment, probe-collected information of the user equipment; and

sending, by the user equipment, sampling data to a network management server or a collection server, wherein the sampling data comprises attribute information of the user equipment and the probe-collected information of the user equipment such that the network management server generates, according to received sampling data of user equipment in at least one area in a wireless network, statistical information corresponding to each area in at least one area, and performs area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area,

wherein, before the user equipment sends the sampling data to the network management server or the collection server, the method further comprises receiving, by the user equipment, an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) packet sent by the authentication server, wherein an address of the network management server or an address of the collection server is carried in the EAP packet, and

wherein sending, by the user equipment, the sampling data to the network management server or the collection server comprises;

sending, by the user equipment, the sampling data to the network management server according to the address of the network management server;

or

sending, by the user equipment, the sampling data to the collection server according to the address of the collection server.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the probe-collected information comprises at least one of a fault type of the user equipment, and wireless signal quality information of the user equipment, and wherein the attribute information of the user equipment comprises at least one of an identifier of an area in which the user equipment is located, and an identifier of the user equipment.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the fault type of the user equipment comprises an environment configuration fault type of the user equipment or the wireless network access fault type of the user equipment;

or the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment comprises delay information, packet loss information, or wireless signal stability information.

16. A network management server, comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive sampling data of user equipment in at least one area in a wireless network, wherein the sampling data comprises attribute information of the user equipment and corresponding probe-collected information of the user equipment, wherein an address of the network management server or an address of a collection server is carried in an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) packet which is sent from an authentication server to the user equipment, and the address of the network management server or the address of the collection server is used for the user equipment to send the sampling data to the network management server or the collection server;

a generating unit configured to generate, according to the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area, where the sampling data is received by the receiving unit; and

a diagnosing unit configured to perform area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area, wherein the statistical information is generated by the generating unit.

17. The network management server according to claim 16, wherein the probe-collected information received by the receiving unit comprises at least one of a fault type of the user equipment, and wireless signal quality information of the user equipment, and wherein the attribute information of the user equipment that is received by the receiving unit comprises at least one of an identifier of an area in which the user equipment are located, and identifiers of the user equipment.

18. The network management server according to claim 17, wherein the fault type of the user equipment that is received by the receiving unit comprises a wireless network access fault type of the user equipment, and wherein the generating unit is configured to:

collect, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the wireless network access fault type of the user equipment from the sampling data that is of the user equipment in the at least one area and is received by the receiving unit, to obtain the number of wireless network access failures or an access failure ratio of the user equipment in a statistics period, wherein the number of wireless network access failures or the access failure ratio corresponds to each area of the at least one area; and

output statistical information about the number of access failures or the access failure ratio that falls within a first threshold rank in the statistics period, wherein the number of access failures or the access failure ratio corresponds to each area of the at least one area.

19. The network management server according to claim 17, wherein the generating unit is configured to:

collect, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment from the sampling data that is of the user equipment in the at least one area and is received by the receiving unit, to obtain a signal value of wireless signal quality of the user equipment in a statistics period, wherein the signal value corresponds to each area of the at least one area; and

output statistical information about the signal value that falls within a second threshold rank in the statistics period, wherein the signal value corresponds to each area of the at least one area.

20. The network management server according to claim 17, wherein the generating unit is configured to collect, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the fault type of the user equipment from the sampling data received by the receiving unit, to obtain first statistical information that comprises the number of users or a percentage of users who encounter the fault type in each area of the at least one area in a statistics period, or wherein the generating unit is configured to collect, according to the identifier of the area in which the user equipment are located, statistics on sampling data that belongs to a same area and comprises the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment from the sampling data received by the receiving unit, to obtain second statistical information that comprises the number of users or a percentage of users whose signal value of wireless signal quality is smaller than a first signal threshold in each area of the at least one area in the statistics period.

21. The network management server according to claim 20, wherein the diagnosing unit is configured to determine that a manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting connectivity of a network connection of the first area when it is determined according to the first statistical information that a percentage of user equipment encountering the fault type in a first area of the at least one area is higher than a first percentage threshold, wherein the network management server further comprises an outputting unit, wherein the outputting unit is configured to output a wireless network fault diagnosis result that indicates a fault of the network connection when the diagnosing unit diagnoses that the network connection of the first area fails, and wherein the diagnosing unit is further configured to determine that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic when the diagnosing unit diagnoses that the network connection of the first area is normal.

22. The network management server according to claim 21, wherein, in determining that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic, the diagnosing unit is configured to determine that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is at least one of detecting the maximum number of users who access the service, detecting a user association failure ratio of the service, and detecting traffic of the user equipment whose traffic falls within a third threshold rank among user equipment that use the service or a radio frequency bandwidth utilization ratio of the service.

23. The network management server according to claim 20, wherein the diagnosing unit is configured to determine that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic when it is determined according to the second statistical information that a percentage of user equipment whose signal value of wireless signal quality is smaller than the first signal threshold in a first area of the at least one area is greater than a second percentage threshold.

24. The network management server according to claim 23, wherein, in determining that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is detecting whether a service is problematic, the diagnosing unit is configured to determine that the manner of the area-based wireless network fault diagnosis is at least one of detecting the maximum number of users who access the service, detecting a user association failure ratio of the service, and detecting traffic of the user equipment whose traffic falls within a third threshold rank among user equipment that use the service or a radio frequency bandwidth utilization ratio of the service.

25. The network management server according to claim 17, wherein the fault type of the user equipment that is received by the receiving unit comprises an environment configuration fault type of the user equipment or the wireless network access fault type of the user equipment, or wherein the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment that is received by the receiving unit comprises delay information, packet loss information, or wireless signal stability information.

26. The network management server according to claim 16, wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area in the wireless network, wherein the sampling data is sent by the collection server, or wherein the receiving unit is configured to collect sampling data sent by the user equipment in the at least one area in the wireless network.

27. A user equipment comprising:

a recording unit configured to record probe-collected information of the user equipment;

a sending unit configured to send sampling data to a network management server or a collection server, wherein the sampling data comprises attribute information of the user equipment and the probe-collected information, which is recorded by the recording unit, of the user equipment such that the network management server generates, according to received sampling data of user equipment in at least one area in a wireless network, statistical information corresponding to each area in at least one area, and performs area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area; and

a receiving unit configured to receive, from an authentication server, an address of the network management server that is sent by the authentication server or an address of the collection server, wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) packet sent by the authentication server, and wherein the EAP packet carries the address of the network management server or the address of the collection server.

28. The user equipment according to claim 27, wherein the sending unit is configured to:

send the sampling data to the network management server according to the address of the network management server that is received by the receiving unit such that the network management server generates, according to the received sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area in the wireless network, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area, and performs area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area;

or

send the sampling data to the collection server according to the address of the collection server that is received by the receiving unit; and

further send, using the collection server, the sampling data to the network management server such that the network management server generates, according to the sampling data of the user equipment in the at least one area, statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area, and performs area-based wireless network fault diagnosis according to the statistical information corresponding to each area of the at least one area.

29. The user equipment according to claim 27, wherein the probe-collected information sent by the sending unit comprises at least one of a fault type of the user equipment, and wireless signal information of the user equipment, and wherein the attribute information, which is sent by the sending unit, of the user equipment comprises at least one of an identifier of an area in which the user equipment is located, and an identifier of the user equipment.

30. The user equipment according to claim 29, wherein the fault type of the user equipment that is recorded by the recording unit comprises an environment configuration fault type of the user equipment or the wireless network access fault type of the user equipment or wherein the wireless signal quality information of the user equipment that is recorded by the recording unit comprises delay information, packet loss information, or wireless signal stability information.