Network management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9401851-B2
Application number	US-201414229448-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2014
Priority date	Mar 28, 2014
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

A system may be configured to store a set of service-level agreements (“SLAs”) associated with a subscriber. The system may receive key performance indicator (“KPI”) information for traffic that traverses one or more nodes of a network; forecast, based on the SLA information and the KPI information, a violation of the particular SLA; take corrective action, based on the forecasting; and output, to the subscriber, derived information based on the KPI information. The derived information may be outputted after taking the corrective action, and may indicate that the particular SLA was not violated. The derived information may be outputted at a slower rate than a rate at which the KPI information is received by the system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a server device, one or more service-level agreements (“SLAs”) associated with a subscriber,
wherein a particular SLA, of the one or more SLAs, indicates a threshold level for a particular key performance indicator (“KPI”);

receiving, by the server device, KPI information for traffic that traverses one or more nodes of a network;
forecasting, by the server device and based on the KPI information, a violation of the particular SLA, of the one or more SLAs, the forecasting including:
detecting, within a first period of time, that at least one value, of the received KPI information, exceeds the threshold level,
the at least one value corresponding to the particular KPI,
the first period of time being shorter than a second period of time that corresponds to average values of the particular KPI;

modifying, by the server device and based on the detecting, one or more configuration parameters of one or more nodes of the network to mitigate the violation of the particular SLA,
wherein the modifying causes a particular average value of the particular KPI, during the second period of time, to not exceed the threshold level; and

outputting, by the server device and to the subscriber, information that is derived from the KPI information pertaining to the second period of time,
the derived information being outputted to the subscriber at a slower rate than a rate at which the KPI information is received by the server device,
the derived information including the particular average value of the particular KPI,
wherein the derived information does not indicate that the threshold level was exceeded.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the KPI information includes two or more values, regarding one or more KPIs, and
wherein outputting the derived information includes outputting one value that is based on the two or more values regarding the one or more KPIs.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the derived information includes an average of the two or more values over the second period of time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein forecasting the violation of the particular SLA further includes:
identifying a trend associated with the one or more KPIs, and
determining, based on the trend, that the one or more KPIs are likely to exceed the threshold value.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the one or more configuration parameters of the one or more nodes of the network includes:
outputting an instruction to at least one of the one or more nodes of the network, the instruction causing the at least one node to modify a configuration of the at least one node.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the modification of the configuration of the at least one node causes traffic, associated with the subscriber, to be re-routed from a first set of routing hops to a different second set of routing hops.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the KPI information includes information regarding traffic associated with the subscriber, the KPI information including at least one of:
a measure of inter-node latency, associated with the traffic, between two or more nodes of the network,
a measure of intra-node latency, associated with the traffic, and associated with a particular node of the network,
a measure of downlink throughput associated with the traffic,
a measure of uplink throughput associated with the traffic,
a measure of packet error rate (“PER”) associated with the traffic,
a measure of packet drop rate associated with the traffic, or
a measure of packet jitter associated with the traffic.

8. A system, comprising:
a non-transitory memory device storing:
one or more service-level agreements (“SLAs”) associated with a subscriber,
wherein a particular SLA, of the one or more SLAs, indicates a threshold level for a particular key performance indicator (“KPI”), and

a set of computer-executable instructions; and

one or more processors configured to execute the computer-executable instructions, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions causes the one or more processors to:
receive KPI information for traffic that traverses one or more nodes of a network;
forecast, based on the KPI information, a violation of the particular SLA, of the one or more SLAs, the instructions to forecast further causing the one or more processors to:
detect, within a first period of time, that at least one value, of the received KPI information, exceeds the threshold average level,
the at least one value corresponding to the particular KPI,
the first period of time being shorter than a second period of time that corresponds to average values of the particular KPI;

take corrective action, based on the forecasting,
wherein the corrective action causes a particular average value of the particular KPI, during the second period of time, to not exceed the threshold average level; and

output, to the subscriber, information derived from the KPI information, including the at least one value corresponding to the particular KPI,
the derived information being outputted after taking the corrective action,
the derived information indicating that the particular SLA was not violated during the second period of time.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the KPI information includes two or more values, regarding one or more KPIs, and
wherein outputting the derived information based on the KPI information includes outputting one value that is based on the two or more values regarding the one or more KPIs.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the derived information includes an average of the two or more values over the second period of time.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein executing the instructions, to forecast the violation of the particular SLA, further causes the one or more processors to:
identify a trend associated with the one or more KPIs, and
determine, based on the trend, that the one or more KPIs are likely to exceed the threshold value.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein executing the instructions, to take the corrective action, further causes the one or more processors to:
output an instruction to at least one of the one or more nodes of the network, the instruction causing the at least one node to modify a configuration of the at least one node.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the modification to the configuration of the at least one node causes traffic, associated with the subscriber, to be re-routed from a first set of routing hops to a different second set of routing hops.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the KPI information includes information regarding traffic associated with the subscriber, the KPI information including at least one of:
a measure of inter-node latency, associated with the traffic, between two or more nodes of the network,
a measure of intra-node latency, associated with the traffic, and associated with a particular node of the network,
a measure of downlink throughput associated with the traffic,
a measure of uplink throughput associated with the traffic,
a measure of packet error rate (“PER”) associated with the traffic,
a measure of packet drop rate associated with the traffic, or
a measure of packet jitter associated with the traffic.

15. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a server device and during a particular time period, first key performance indicator (“KPI”) information regarding traffic associated with a subscriber,
the first KPI information including a first plurality of values that each correspond to a particular time within the particular time period;

providing, by th

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Kakadia Deepak
• Aggarwal Arvind
• Draznin Sagiv
• Kotecha Lalit R

Classifications

• H04L43/0888

  Throughput · CPC title

• H04L43/0817

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H04L43/0835

  One way packet loss · CPC title

• H04L43/0858

  One way delays · CPC title

• H04L43/087

  Jitter · CPC title