System and method of monitoring video data packet delivery

• US 9,106,800 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• 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: Kwan, Dick, Li, Zhi, Savoor, Raghvendra, Shrikhande, Kapil
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US11/848,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20090064248A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,902 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 714/25, 714/748, 714/18, 714/749, 714/47.1, 714/47.2, 725/112, 725/113, 725/107, 725/118, 725/119, 370/242, 348/192
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1868 Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/555 Error detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/258 Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods of monitoring packet delivery are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes querying multiple network devices for performance metrics corresponding to video data packets sent from a video server. The network devices may include multicast branching points between the video server and the destination. A delivery failure may be identified based on the performance metrics, and a response to the delivery failure may be initiated.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving first data from an internet protocol television system at a performance server, wherein the first data is associated with requests received by a video server for retransmission of particular multicast video data packets, wherein the first data denotes a trend based on performance data associated with the particular multicast video data packets, and wherein the first data indicates a potential network failure;

in response to the first data, querying, with a processor of the performance server, a plurality of network devices to receive performance metrics corresponding to multicast video data packets, wherein the network devices are multicast branching points between the video server and a multicast destination;

comparing, with the processor, the performance metrics to a performance metric signature to identify an action to inhibit the potential network failure; and

initiating the action from the performance server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a threshold event corresponding to receiving video data packets at the multicast destination, wherein the threshold event corresponds to a number of the multicast video data packets that are not received at the multicast destination or corresponds to a number of failed packet recovery requests.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data includes warnings, wherein a warning of the warnings indicates the trend associated with the multicast video data packets, wherein a first warning of the warnings indicates a first prediction that a rate of loss of the multicast video data packets is predicted to exceed a first threshold, and wherein a second warning of the warnings indicates a second prediction that a number of failed packet recovery requests is predicted to exceed a second threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data includes data from a first network device that does not include a switch or router.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance metrics include a traffic metric associated with the multicast video data packets, a dropped packet metric, and a packet error metric.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the multicast branching points include a switch, a hub, a gateway, a server, another network device capable of functioning as a branching point for multicast packet traffic, or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the action includes sending a notice to a system administrator, redirecting network traffic, or both.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending instructions to each network device of the plurality of network devices to substantially simultaneously record particular data associated with the performance metrics during a specified time interval.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second performance data from a network device of the plurality of network devices, the second performance data corresponding to a time period prior to a delivery failure; and

generating a signature associated with the delivery failure based at least partially on the second performance data.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending signature data corresponding to the signature to a network device of the plurality of network devices.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the performance metric signature from a storage device coupled to the processor of the performance server.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the performance metrics to the performance metric signatures comprises:

receiving particular performance data corresponding to the performance metric;

identifying the performance metric signature, wherein the performance metric signature includes a threshold value;

comparing the particular performance data to the performance metric signature; and

when the particular performance data satisfies the threshold value, identifying the action as a particular action indicated by the performance metric signature.

13. A method comprising:

receiving first data from an internet protocol television system at a performance server, wherein the first data indicates a potential network failure and is associated with a number of multicast video data packets not received at a multicast destination, wherein the first data denotes a trend based on performance data associated with the multicast video data packets, and wherein the multicast video data packets are from a video server;

in response to the first data, querying, with a processor of the performance server, a plurality of network devices to receive performance metrics corresponding to the multicast video data packets, wherein the network devices are multicast branching points between the video server and the multicast destination;

identifying a delivery failure based on the performance metrics; and

initiating a response to the delivery failure.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving particular performance data corresponding to a time period prior to the delivery failure from network devices of the plurality of network devices in response to querying the plurality of network devices, the particular performance data indicating a first number of packets discarded due to errors.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising performing pattern matching to compare the particular performance data to a signature representing a trouble pattern associated with the delivery failure.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving particular performance data corresponding to a time period prior to the delivery failure from network devices of the plurality of network devices in response to querying the plurality of network devices, the particular performance data indicating a first number of packets discarded due to network congestion.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising performing pattern matching to compare the particular performance data to a signature representing a trouble pattern associated with the delivery failure.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the performance metrics include a traffic metric associated with the multicast video data packets, a dropped packet metric, and a packet error metric.

19. A system comprising:

a processor;

a network interface accessible to the processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory having instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including;

receiving first data from an internet protocol television system, wherein the first data indicates a potential network failure and is associated with a number of multicast video data packets not received at a multicast destination, wherein the first data denotes a trend based on performance data associated with the multicast video data packets, and wherein the multicast video data packets are from a video server;

in response to the first data, querying a plurality of network devices to receive performance metrics corresponding to the multicast video data packets, wherein the network devices are multicast branching points between the video server and the multicast destination;

identifying a delivery failure based on the performance metrics; and

initiating a response to the delivery failure.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the operations further include receiving particular performance data corresponding to a time period prior to the delivery failure from network devices of the plurality of network devices in response to querying the plurality of network devices, the particular performance data indicating a first number of packets discarded due to errors and a second number of packets discarded due to network congestion.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the operations further include causing the processor to perform pattern matching to compare the particular performance data to a signature representing a trouble pattern associated with the delivery failure, and wherein the signature is maintained at a storage device of an internet protocol television system that maintains signature data.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the operations further include causing the processor to update the signature based on the particular performance data.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the signature data maintained at the storage device is configured to represent a video trouble pattern, to identify a video delivery problem, or to identify a potential video delivery problem.

24. A server comprising:

a processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory having instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including;

receiving first data from an internet protocol television system, wherein the first data is associated with requests received by a video server for retransmission of particular multicast video data packets, wherein the first data denotes a trend based on performance data associated with the particular multicast video data packets, and wherein the first data indicates a potential network failure;

in response to the first data, querying a plurality of network devices to receive performance metrics corresponding to multicast video data packets wherein the network devices are multicasting branching points between the video server and a multicast destination;

comparing the performance metrics to a performance metric signature to identify an action to inhibit the potential network failure; and

initiating the action.

25. The server of claim 24, wherein the first data includes warnings, wherein a warning of the warnings indicates the trend associated with the multicast video data packets.

26. The server of claim 25, wherein the warnings include a first warning that indicates a first prediction that a rate of packet loss is predicted to exceed a first threshold and a second warning that indicates a second prediction that a number of failed packet recovery requests is predicted to exceed a second threshold.

27. A computer readable storage device having computer readable instructions stored thereon, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:

receiving first data from an internet protocol television system, wherein the first data is associated with requests received by a video server for retransmission of particular multicast video data packets, wherein the first data denotes a trend based on performance data associated with the particular multicast video data packets, and wherein the first data indicates a potential network failure;

in response to the first data, querying a plurality of network devices to receive performance metrics corresponding to multicast video data packets wherein the network devices are multicasting branching points between the video server and a multicast destination;

comparing the performance metrics to performance metric signatures to identify an action to inhibit the potential network failure; and

initiating the action.

28. The computer readable storage device of claim 27, wherein initiating the action includes sending a notice to a system administrator, redirecting network traffic, or both.