Locally Diagnosing and Troubleshooting Service Issues

• US 20110228665A1
• Filed: 03/19/2010
• Published: 09/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ravi, Narendra, Kumar, Shiv, Bajpay, Paritosh, Liu, Jackson, Savoor, Raghvendra G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,705,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/216
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis

Abstract

A method includes detecting, at a customer premises equipment (CPE) device, a problem associated with a network device. The network device is communicatively coupled to the CPE device via a local area network. For example, the CPE device may include a residential gateway (RG). The method includes determining, at the CPE device, whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable. When the CPE device determines that the problem is locally correctable, the method includes initiating a corrective action to resolve the problem. When the CPE device determines that the problem is not locally correctable, the method includes sending data associated with the problem from the CPE device to a network system via a wide area network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, at a customer premises equipment (CPE) device, a problem associated with a network device communicatively coupled to the CPE device via a local area network;

determining, at the CPE device, whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable;

when the CPE device determines that the problem is locally correctable, initiating a corrective action to resolve the problem; and

when the CPE device determines that the problem is not locally correctable, sending data associated with the problem from the CPE device to a network operation support system via a wide area network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the CPE device includes a residential gateway, and wherein the local area network is associated with a customer premises.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the CPE device, one or more rules and device configuration data from a network source communicatively coupled to the CPE device via the wide area network; and

storing the one or more rules and the device configuration data at a memory of the CPE device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the CPE device determines whether the problem is locally correctable based on the one or more rules and the device configuration data received from the network source.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the wide area network includes an access network of an internet protocol television (IPTV) system.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving updated rules and device configuration data from the network source for at least one network device communicatively coupled to the CPE device via the local area network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the network operation support system determines a source of the problem based at least in part on data associated with the problem received via the CPE device when the CPE device determines that the problem is not locally correctable.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the network operation support system initiates a second corrective action via the CPE device after the CPE device sends the data associated with the problem to the network operation support system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device communicatively coupled to the CPE device via the local area network is a set-top box device, and wherein the corrective action initiated by the CPE device includes a reboot of the set-top box device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the local area network includes a wireless local area network, and wherein the corrective action initiated by the CPE device includes communicating with the network device via a wireless encryption protocol.

11. A customer premises equipment (CPE) device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory comprising;

instructions executable by the processor to receive one or more rules and device configuration data from a network source via a wide area network;

instructions executable by the processor to detect a problem associated with a network device communicatively coupled to the CPE device via a local area network;

instructions executable by the processor to determine whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable based on the one or more rules and the device configuration data;

instructions executable by the processor to initiate a corrective action to resolve the problem when the problem is locally correctable; and

instructions executable by the processor to send data associated with the problem to a network system via the wide area network when the problem is not locally correctable.

12. The CPE device of claim 11, further comprising a universal serial bus interface.

13. The CPE device of claim 11, wherein the memory further comprises:

instructions executable by the processor to collect performance data associated with the network device;

instructions executable by the processor to determine whether a negative performance trend is associated with the network device based on the performance data; and

instructions executable by the processor to locally initiate a corrective action when the negative performance trend satisfies a threshold based on a procedure included in the one or more rules and the device configuration data received from the network source.

14. The CPE device of claim 13, wherein the network system includes at least one network operation support system, and wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to send the collected performance data to the at least one network operation support system when the negative performance trend satisfies the threshold and when the one or more rules and the device configuration data received from the network source do not include a procedure associated with the corrective action.

15. The CPE device of claim 11, wherein the wide area network includes an access network of an internet protocol television (IPTV) system.

16. The CPE device of claim 11, wherein the memory further comprises:

instructions executable by the processor to receive one or more updated rules and updated device configuration data from the network source via the wide area network; and

instructions executable by the processor to determine whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable based on the one or more updated rules and the updated device configuration data.

17. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor to:

detect a problem associated with a network device communicatively coupled to a customer premises equipment (CPE) device via a local area network;

determine whether the problem associated with the network device is locally correctable;

initiate a corrective action to resolve the problem when the problem is locally correctable; and

send data associated with the problem to a network operation support system when the error is not locally correctable.

18. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to:

detect a new device communicatively coupled to the CPE device via the local area network;

request data associated with the new device from a network source via a wide area network; and

receive one or more rules and device configuration data associated with the new device from the network source.

19. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 18, wherein the wide area network includes an access network of an internet protocol television (IPTV) system.

20. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) adapted to receive one or more user updates with respect to the one or more rules and the device configuration data associated with the new device.