System and method for collecting, reporting and analyzing data on application-level activity and other user information on a mobile data network

• US 8,108,517 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ribbon Communications Securities Corp. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Umber Systems Incorporated (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalavade, Asawaree
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalencourt, Yves
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lai, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US12/324,672
• Publication Number:
  US 20090138593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/231, 709/232, 705/1, 705/14
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

System and method for collecting and analyzing information on application-level activity and other user information on a mobile data network. A platform non-intrusively and transparently monitors data activity on a mobile data network in real-time so that user-level information can be reported to an operator. The platform comprises a plurality of collectors, a data manager, and a report manager. The collectors communicate with network routers to almost all network data. The collectors inspect the data for IP addresses and correlate them to user mobile phone numbers. The data manager receives the data and augments it with information obtained by querying carrier information. The data manager stores the data and monitors it to see if it satisfies a set of defined real-time reports. The report manager then works with the data manager to develop and test new reports based on operator instructions for a specific report.

Claims

1. A platform for a real-time, non-intrusive, transparent monitoring of application-level data activity on a mobile data network so that the activity may be correlated to specific users or aggregated and then reported to an operator, the monitoring platform comprising:

a plurality of collectors distributed throughout the mobile data network, each collector corresponding to and being in communication with a corresponding router in said mobile data network to receive data communications from said corresponding router, said each collector inspecting said communications to detect source IP addresses and correlating said communications with phone numbers associated with user mobile devices;

a data manager receiving said communications and the correlated phone numbers from a plurality of said collectors, said data manager using a corresponding phone number for each communication to query carrier information associated with said corresponding phone number to determine at least one of a location of a user, demographics of the user, content of the site accessed by the user, a type of application the user is accessing, and a device type the user is using, said data manager analyzing said received communications and said associated carrier information to provide information to satisfy a set of input requirements of a set of defined real-time reports, said real-time reports providing real-time information on aggregated usage of said network correlated to at least one of the location of the user, demographics of the user, content of the site accessed by the user, type of application the user is accessing, and device type the user is using, and said data manager maintaining a database storing said received communications and associated carrier information;

a report manager, cooperating with said data manager, to facilitate development and testing of new real-time reports, said report manager receiving operator instructions specifying information to be included in said new real-time reports and causing said data manager to analyze said received communications and said associated carrier information to provide information to satisfy a different set of input requirements of said new real-time reports and to include said new reports in said set of defined real-time reports, wherein said different set of input requirements of said new real-time reports requires a different subset of said received communications and said associated carrier information than required by said set of input requirements of said set of defined real-time reports to provide real-time information on aggregated usage of said network correlated to at least one of the location of the user, demographics of the user, content of the site accessed by the user, type of application the user is accessing, and device type the user is using.

2. The platform of claim 1 wherein said each collector removes a subset of data including management traffic.

3. The platform of claim 1 wherein said data manager computes metrics including time spent on an event and data consumed during said event and adds said metrics to session data.