METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING, ANALYZING, AND PRESENTING DATA IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20130148531A1
• Filed: 02/07/2013
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2004
• 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: Moisan, Kevin James, Martinez, Juan Carlos, Tisiker, Michael, Khan, Richard, Rele, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 9,231,837 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for analyzing, collecting, and presenting data in a communication network are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing collected data to generate gateway metrics representative of a user experience of a user-initiated communication within a network, the network comprising network elements, the gateway metrics comprising at least one of a number of termination attempts for a DS0 channel, a number of rejected attempts for the DS0 channel, a number of terminations answered for the DS0 channel, a number of attempts for a hunt group, a number of rejected attempts for the hunt group, or a number of terminations answered for the hunt group; determining an average upper transaction time per customer based on the collected data; and presenting the gateway metrics in a plurality of tabular views corresponding to service area levels, the views presenting performance data representing the average upper transaction times of the service area levels.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a communication network, comprising:

analyzing collected data to generate gateway metrics representative of a user experience of a user-initiated communication within an Internet protocol-based integrated voice and electronic mail communication network, the network comprising a plurality of network elements, the gateway metrics comprising at least one of a number of termination attempts for a digital signal 0 channel, a number of rejected termination attempts for the digital signal 0 channel, a number of terminations answered for the digital signal 0 channel, a number of termination attempts for a hunt group, a number of rejected termination attempts for the hunt group, or a number of terminations answered for the hunt group;

determining an average upper transaction time per customer based on the collected data; and

presenting the gateway metrics in a plurality of hierarchically interrelated tabular views corresponding to a plurality of geographic network service area levels, the tabular views presenting performance data metrics representative of the average upper transaction times of respective ones of the geographic network service area levels.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining capacity metrics for the network based on the collected data, the tabular views to present the capacity metrics.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising displaying an alert in at least one of the tabular views based on a comparison of at least some of the collected data to a threshold.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the gateway metrics comprise an end-to-end performance characteristic of the communication network.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein analyzing the collected data comprises synthesizing a plurality of message sets that employ at least two different protocols.

6. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

analyzing collected data to generate gateway metrics representative of a user experience of a user-initiated communication within an Internet protocol-based integrated voice and electronic mail communication network a plurality of network elements, the gateway metrics comprising at least one of a number of termination attempts for a digital signal 0 channel, a number of rejected termination attempts for the digital signal 0 channel, a number of terminations answered for the digital signal 0 channel, a number of termination attempts for a hunt group, a number of rejected termination attempts for the hunt group, or a number of terminations answered for the hunt group;

determining an average upper transaction time per customer based on the collected data; and

presenting the gateway metrics in a plurality of hierarchically interrelated tabular views corresponding to a plurality of geographic network service area levels, the tabular views presenting performance data metrics representative of the average upper transaction times of respective ones of the geographic network service area levels.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise determining capacity metrics for the network based on the collected data, the tabular views to present the capacity metrics.

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise displaying an alert in at least one of the tabular views based on a comparison of at least some of the collected data to a threshold.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the gateway metrics comprise an end-to-end performance characteristic of the communication network.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein analyzing the collected data comprises synthesizing a plurality of message sets that employ at least two different protocols.

11. A tangible machine accessible storage device, the storage device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to perform a method comprising:

analyzing collected data to generate gateway metrics representative of a user experience of a user-initiated communication within an Internet protocol-based integrated voice and electronic mail communication network, the network comprising a plurality of network elements, the gateway metrics comprise at least one of a number of termination attempts for a digital signal 0 channel, a number of rejected termination attempts for the digital signal 0 channel, a number of terminations answered for the digital signal 0 channel, a number of termination attempts for a hunt group, a number of rejected termination attempts for the hunt group, or a number of terminations answered for the hunt group;

determining an average upper transaction time per customer based on the collected data; and

presenting the gateway metrics in a plurality of hierarchically interrelated tabular views corresponding to a plurality of geographic network service area levels, the tabular views presenting performance data metrics representative of the average upper transaction times of respective ones of the geographic network service area levels.

12. A storage device as defined in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises determining capacity metrics for the network based on the collected data, the tabular views to present the capacity metrics.

13. A storage device as defined in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises displaying an alert in at least one of the tabular views based on a comparison of at least some of the collected data to a threshold.

14. A storage device as defined in claim 11, wherein the gateway metrics comprise an end-to-end performance characteristic of the communication network.

15. A storage device as defined in claim 11, wherein analyzing the collected data comprises synthesizing a plurality of message sets that employ at least two different protocols.