Employing handover failures for network fault prediction or remedy

• US 9,148,809 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2009
• 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: Rahman, Moshiur
• Primary Examiner(s): ZUNIGA ABAD, JACKIE
• Application Number:
  US12/577,899
• Publication Number:
  US 20110086634A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,177 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 36/00 Hand-off or reselection arrangements

Abstract

The disclosed subject matter relates to an architecture that can detect a potential fault condition in a wireless communication network. In particular, the architecture can reference handover transaction failures in order to identify issues, e.g., before such issues escalate to more severe fault situations. In addition, the architecture can dynamically query a set of devices or components potentially responsible for the handover failure and/or take appropriate actions aimed at remedying the issue in an expeditious manner.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations, comprising;

determining, from handover transaction messages received from network equipment, a handover failure associated with a handover that transfers a communication path for a user equipment from a first network access point to a second network access point that differs from the first network access point;

determining a first fault condition associated with the handover failure in response to comparing a count of a first number of instances of the handover failure to a first defined threshold;

storing information associated with the handover failure;

querying network devices involved with the handover failure;

receiving results data based on responses to the querying;

predicting, based on the results data, a second fault condition representing an escalation of the first fault condition associated with the handover failure;

determining a respective count of a second number of instances of the handover failure associated with different devices of the network devices involved with the handover failure and comparing the respective count to a second defined threshold; and

providing a notification in response to the respective count being determined to exceed the second defined threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network equipment is a universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access network-based radio network controller that manages handover operations for user equipment.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise identifying a set of devices connected to the network equipment that are involved with the handover failure.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the querying network devices comprises querying at least a subset of the set of devices.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a query to a component of the set of devices that comprises at least one of a first request for a first status of the component, a second request for a second status of an interface between the component and the network equipment, a third request for a type and a number of applications executing on the component, or a fourth request for a third status of an application executing on the component.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise identifying a faulty device from among the set of devices based upon an analysis of the responses to the querying.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the handover failure relates to an interruption of a voice communication session or a data communication session.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the handover failure relates to an unintentional termination of a voice communication session or a data communication session.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the handover failure relates to a handover in which a source channel for the handover and a target channel for the handover are maintained in parallel for a period during the handover.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the handover failure relates to a handover in which a source channel for the handover and a target channel for the handover are maintained in parallel for a period during the handover and in which the handover is maintained for a forward link and a reverse link in connection with a voice communication session or a data communication session.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the handover failure relates to a handover in which a source channel for the handover is released concurrently with a connection to a target channel for the handover.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining an action to remedy the second fault condition.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a second notification, wherein the notification comprises an identification of the second fault condition.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining an order to query network devices based on a determination of which network component has caused the handover failure.

15. A method, comprising:

monitoring, by a system comprising a processor, handover transaction messages relating to a wireless communication handover that transfers a communication path for a user equipment from a first network access point to a second network access point that differs from the first network access point;

identifying, by the system, a handover failure based on the monitoring of the handover transaction messages;

registering, by the system, the handover failure by storing the handover failure in a failure data structure in a data store;

determining, by the system, a first count of a first number of instances of the handover failure registered to the data store surpasses a first defined threshold;

determining a second count of a second number of instances of the handover failure registered to the data store and associated with different devices of network devices determined to be potentially responsible for the handover failure;

in response to determining the second count surpasses the second defined threshold, transmitting a notification indicative of the second count surpassing the second defined threshold;

querying, by the system, components of a the network devices determined to be potentially responsible for the handover failure;

identifying, by the system, a first error condition associated with the handover failure based on responses to the querying; and

predicting, by the system, a second error condition associated with a potential fault in the network representing an escalation of the first error condition determined to be potentially responsible for the handover failure.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the querying the network devices determined to be potentially responsible for the handover failure comprises transmitting, by the system, a first request for a first status of a device of the network devices, a second request for a second status of an interface between the device and other network equipment, a third request for a type and a number of applications executing on the device, or a fourth request for a third status of an application executing on the device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprises determining, by the system, the network devices potentially responsible for the handover failure based on map data representing a topological map of the network devices.

18. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a failure data structure including information associated with a set of handover failures detected from data received from a radio network controller, wherein the set of handover failures correspond to a failure in connection with transferring a communication path for a user equipment from a first network access point to a different network access point;

determining a first count of the set of handover failures and a second count of the set of handover failures associated with different devices of network devices involved with the set of handover failures;

determining the first count exceeds a first defined threshold and the second count exceeds a second defined threshold;

providing a notification in response to the second count exceeding the second defined threshold;

determining, by the system, a set of devices connected to the radio network controller;

transmitting, by the system, a query to a subset of the set of devices connected to the radio network controller;

analyzing, by the system, a response to the query; and

determining, by the system, a first fault condition representing a source of the set of handover failures based upon the analyzing; and

predicting a second fault condition representing an increase of a severity of the first fault condition associated with the source of the set of handover failures.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

accessing, by the system, a topology data store to determine the set of devices connected to the radio network controller; and

determining, by the system, an action to identify the source of the set of handover failures.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the transmitting the query comprises transmitting, by the system, a first request for a first status of a device of the network devices, a second request for a second status of an interface between the device and the radio network controller, a third request for a type and a number of applications executing on the device, or a fourth request for a third status of an application executing on the device.