Method and device for monitoring and measurement of Wi-Fi internet services

• US 9,549,333 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Türk Telekomünikasyon AS (Levent Yapilandirma Yönetimi Telekomünikasyon AS)
• Original Assignee: Türk Telekomünikasyon AS (Levent Yapilandirma Yönetimi Telekomünikasyon AS)
• Inventors: Akman, Arda, Eker, Onur, Yargicoglu, Burcu, Kement, Cihan Emre, Atalar, Mustafa
• Primary Examiner(s): Pezzlo, John
• Application Number:
  US13/907,343
• Publication Number:
  US 20130322262A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/329, 370/216, 370/241, 370/386
• 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 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

The present invention is related to a method and a device which contains a diagnostic client (5) and a monitoring server (9) which aim to detect connection problems and service failures of Wi-Fi hotspot (wireless access field) services and measure user experience and connection quality.

Claims

1. A device for detecting connection problems and service failures and measuring and controlling user experience and connection quality in hotspot services, comprising:

at least one diagnostic client which identifies itself to a hotspot by taking required steps acting as if it is a customer and is configured to experience the use of hotspot by different Wi-Fi devices, tests the operability and performance of hotspot services and in each new test process, identifies itself to wireless point differently from the device of a previous test process and generates reports, and submits said reports to monitoring server;

at least one monitoring server which receives, records and displays the operability and performance reports of said diagnostic clients, and produces required warnings, and reports the results to a Wi-Fi service provider;

an optional mobile connection which provides an alternative connection if and when the diagnostic client fails to transmit its produced reports to the monitoring server through a wireless access point.

2. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one diagnostic processor ensuring the operability of operating system, applications and scripts in the diagnostic client;

at least one Wi-Fi module enabling the diagnostic client to establish a data connection with the wireless access point;

at least one mobile module enabling the diagnostic client to establish an alternative mobile connection to the monitoring server;

at least one diagnostic memory with retained data storage attribute, which records measurement results of the diagnostic client; and

at least one diagnostic program memory hosting the scripts, applications and operating system of the diagnostic client.

3. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one monitoring processor ensuring the operability of operating system, applications and scripts in the monitoring server;

at least one network connection module establishing the data connection of the monitoring server with diagnostic client;

at least one monitoring display which ensures that the data and reports recorded by the monitoring server are properly displayed and used by service provider;

at least one user interface which ensures control and management of the monitoring server by service provider;

at least one monitoring memory with retained data storage attribute, where the monitoring server records the measurement results received from diagnostic clients; and

at least one monitoring program memory hosting the scripts, applications and operating system of the monitoring server.

4. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one diagnostic client which can automatically connect to the hotspot, and does not require a special installation specific to hotspot, and contains a program with a plug-and-play attribute.

5. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one diagnostic client which contains certain specific information about the hotspot and/or Wi-Fi service provider network (SSD, Wi-Fi wireless network security method.

6. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one diagnostic client which can test the operability and performance of the hotspot services acting in the customer profiles supported by the Wi-Fi service provider.

7. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising;

at least one diagnostic client which can log in by using such authentication methods as captive portal, WDSL and 802.1x determined by Wi-Fi service provider in order to have access to Internet and/or Intranet through the Wi-Fi service provider.

8. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one diagnostic client which has a feature to operate different scripts which in turn enables the diagnostic client to test the services of different Wi-Fi service providers without making any change in main client program.

9. A hotspot connection control and measurement device according to claim 1, wherein:

at least one diagnostic client which is configured to change its physical address information and act as if it is a different Wi-Fi device in each measurement, control and test process.

10. A method for detecting connection problems and service failures and measuring user experience and connection quality in hotspot services, comprising:

establishing, by utilizing at least one diagnostic client, a connection with a hotspot identified in accordance with criteria determined by a service provider;

automatically logging into a system, by utilizing said diagnostic client, by providing the service provider with the diagnostic client'"'"'s identity information acting like a real user and by using user profiles supported by the service provider;

conducting, by utilizing said diagnostic client, service operability tests in accordance with criteria determined by the service provider;

conducting, by utilizing said diagnostic client, performance tests in accordance with criteria determined by the service provider;

keeping, by utilizing said diagnostic client, records and issuing reports with respect to the tests and controls; and

sending, by utilizing said diagnostic client, the reports to a monitoring server;

determining, by utilizing WiFi service provider, criteria for applying hotspot service operability and performing tests on hotspots;

applying, by utilizing at least one diagnostic client, hotspot service operability and performance tests on the hotspots accessible with an adequate Wi-Fi signal quality, at locations where several hotspots are available, by using the criteria determined by the Wi-Fi service provider, and

starting from the hotspot with the strongest signal strength and going to the weakest hotspot.

11. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 10, wherein:

at least one diagnostic client continuously tests and reports the hotspot by repeating the test and measurement operations with periodical intervals determined by Wi-Fi service provider.

12. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 10, further comprising:

after completion of test process, inquiring, by utilizing the diagnostic client, monitoring server which tests are required to be operated in the next test process;

performing, by utilizing the diagnostic client, applicable test steps from the monitoring server; and

operating, by utilizing the diagnostic client, tests that are to-be-applied.

13. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 10, further comprising:

detecting, by utilizing at least one diagnostic client, all reports after successfully transmitting the test and performance reports to monitoring server.

14. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 10, further comprising:

following and monitoring, by utilizing at least one diagnostic client, successful/non-successful Wi-Fi connection demands filed to the hotspot by Wi-Fi devices and reporting the results to the monitoring server, in order to measure performance of the hotspot.

15. A method for detecting connection problems and service failures and measuring user experience and connection quality in hotspot services, comprising:

determining, by utilizing a Wi-Fi service provider, criteria for applying hotspot service operability and performing tests on hotspots;

applying, by utilizing at least one diagnostic client, hotspot service operability and performance tests on the hotspots accessible with an adequate Wi-Fi signal quality, at locations where several hotspots are available, by using the criteria determined by the Wi-Fi service provider, and

starting from the hotspot with the strongest signal strength and going to the weakest hotspot.

16. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, wherein where the diagnostic client fails to link to the monitoring server through hotspot, in order to enable the diagnostic client to send its measurement report to monitoring server:

the diagnostic client contains at least one mobile connection ensuring its access to monitoring server.

17. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising:

performing, by utilizing said at least one diagnostic client, tests measuring the operability and performance of services which do not require authentication in case of failure to receive an authentication verification from the hotspot.

18. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising:

sending, by utilizing said at least one diagnostic client, the measurement and performance report to monitoring server even in case of failure to receive an authentication verification from the hotspot.

19. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising:

performing, by utilizing said at least one diagnostic client, tests measuring the operability and performance of the hotspot services by using the information on other user profiles, if any, supported by the Wi-Fi service provider.

20. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising the following operational steps performed by the diagnostic client:

establishing a wireless network link with the hotspot;

performing an authentication for identification through authentication server;

conducting Internet and/or Intranet connection test; and

logging out via authentication server;

in order to verify the operability of services provided by the hotspot.

21. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising the following operational steps performed by the diagnostic client:

measuring the signal strength of wireless access points within its coverage area;

testing the speed of taking a DHCP IP address from wireless access point it is linked;

conducting an access speed test to information login web page, if any, depending on the authentication method supported by the service provider;

testing the speed of connection to the authentication server;

testing the speed of authentication of its identity;

testing the DNS analysis speed;

testing the packet loss;

conducting an access speed test to a web page determined by service provider on Internet and/or Intranet;

testing Internet and/or Intranet bandwidth through data uploading/downloading; and

testing the speed of logout through authentication server,

in order to ensure that the diagnostic client measures the hotspot performance.

22. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising the following operational steps performed by the diagnostic client:

linking to the monitoring server through the hotspot in order to transmit its report;

conducting a data access test on the monitoring server;

if the result of control of access to the monitoring server is positive, sending the records to the monitoring server;

if the result of control of access to monitoring server is negative, trying to establish a data connection to the monitoring server through mobile connection;

if the result of control of access to the monitoring server through the mobile connection is positive, sending the records; and

if the result of control of access to the monitoring server through the mobile connection is negative, storing the records in retained data diagnostic memory;

in order to ensure that the diagnostic client sends its report to monitoring server.

23. The hotspot detection method of claim 15 wherein:

at least one diagnostic client continuously tests and reports the hotspot by repeating the test and measurement operations with periodic intervals determined by the Wi-Fi service provider.

24. A hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 23, wherein the mobile connection is one of 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE and 5G other mobile network connection models.

25. The hotspot connection control and measurement method according to claim 15, further comprising:

after completion of test process, inquiring, by utilizing the diagnostic client, monitoring server which tests are required to be operated in the next test process;

performing, by utilizing the diagnostic client, applicable test steps from the monitoring server; and

operating, by utilizing the diagnostic client, tests that are to-be-applied.