Call leg quality differentiation in network telephony systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017237851-A1
Application number	US-201615045532-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 17, 2016
Priority date	Feb 17, 2016
Publication date	Aug 17, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Network telephony monitoring systems are provided herein. In one example, a monitoring service is configured to present an interface for a network telephony monitoring system to receive link metrics for media legs of a packet voice call that extends from an originating network over a plurality of transport networks, with each of the media legs spanning between border control nodes of the plurality of transport networks. A leg quality processor is configured to process the link metrics to differentiate quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A network telephony monitoring system, comprising:
a monitoring service configured to present an interface for the network telephony monitoring system to receive link metrics for media legs of a packet voice call that extends from an originating network over a plurality of transport networks, with each of the media legs spanning between border control nodes of the plurality of transport networks; a leg quality processor configured to process the link metrics to differentiate quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs.

2 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the border control nodes comprise session border controllers (SBCs), and wherein the media legs each comprise a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk.

3 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the interface presented by the monitoring service comprises one or more software defined network (SDN) interface elements configured to interface with at least the border control nodes to receive the link metrics and provide the link metrics to the leg quality processor.

4 . The monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein the SDN interface elements each comprise an application programming interface (API) configured to receive the link metrics as pushed to associated APIs by the border control nodes.

5 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the link metrics are established by at least the border control nodes using Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) Control Protocol (RTCP) loops established for associated ones of the media legs.

6 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the link metrics comprise network condition metrics, bandwidth limitation metrics, congestion metrics, jitter metrics, packet loss metrics, Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metrics, transmitted octet counts, packet counts, packet delay variation metrics, and round-trip delay times.

7 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein ones of the media legs comprise Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks that carry the packet voice call and couple session border controllers (SBCs) of associated transport networks operated by different network operators than the originating network.

8 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , comprising:
responsive to differentiating the quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs, the leg quality processor configured to transfer one or more alerts indicating at least one of the media legs associated with the quality degradation.

9 . The monitoring system of claim 1 , comprising:
responsive to differentiating the quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs, the leg quality processor configured to alter service parameters employed for the packet voice call, the service parameters comprising at least one of a codec and a route.

10 . A method of operating a network telephony monitoring system, comprising:
presenting an interface for the network telephony monitoring system to receive link metrics for media legs of a packet voice call that extends from an originating network over a plurality of transport networks, with each of the media legs spanning between border control nodes of the plurality of transport networks; processing the link metrics to differentiate quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the border control nodes comprise session border controllers (SBCs), and wherein the media legs each comprise a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the interface comprises one or more software defined network (SDN) interface elements configured to interface with at least the border control nodes to receive the link metrics and provide the link metrics to the leg quality processor.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the SDN hubs interface elements comprise an application programming interface (API) configured to receive the link metrics as pushed to associated APIs by the border control nodes.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the link metrics are established by at least the border control nodes using Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) Control Protocol (RTCP) loops established for associated ones of the media legs.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the link metrics comprise network condition metrics, bandwidth limitation metrics, congestion metrics, jitter metrics, packet loss metrics, Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metrics, transmitted octet counts, packet counts, packet delay variation metrics, and round-trip delay times.

16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein ones of the media legs comprise Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks that carry the packet voice call and couple session border controllers (SBCs) of associated transport networks operated by different network operators than the originating network.

17 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
responsive to differentiating the quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs, transferring one or more alerts indicating at least one of the media legs associated with the quality degradation.

18 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
responsive to differentiating the quality degradation of the packet voice call among one or more of the media legs, altering service parameters employed for the packet voice call, the service parameters comprising at least one of a codec and a route.

19 . A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call monitoring system, comprising:
one or more software defined network (SDN) interface elements configured to receive quality metrics transferred by session border controllers (SBCs) for associated Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks of a VoIP call that extends from an originating network over a plurality of transport packet networks operated by different network operators than the originating network, with each of the SIP trunks spanning between ones of the SBCs of the plurality of transport packet networks; a call quality processor configured to process the quality metrics to identify ones of the SIP trunks experiencing quality degradation for the VoIP call.

20 . The VoIP call monitoring system of claim 19 , comprising:
responsive to identifying the ones of the SIP trunks experiencing the quality degradation for the VoIP call, the call quality processor configured to alter service parameters employed for the VoIP call, the service parameters comprising at least one of a codec and a route.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Hassan Amer
• Leeb Gunter
• Gonsalves Mitchelle Fernandes
• Menezes Pascal

Classifications

• H04L43/0876

  Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level · CPC title

• H04M7/006

  Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer (H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42) · CPC title

• H04L43/087

  Jitter · CPC title

• H04L41/5087

  wherein the managed service relates to voice services (management of VoIP services H04M7/0081) · CPC title

• H04L43/0829

  Packet loss · CPC title