Pathway-based data interruption detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9843948-B2
Application number	US-201514661886-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 18, 2015
Priority date	Mar 18, 2015
Publication date	Dec 12, 2017
Grant date	Dec 12, 2017

Abstract

A telecommunication carrier may use data collected from user devices to pinpoint sources of data interruptions in the communication connection between a carrier network and the user devices. The telecommunication carrier may receive multiple reports of detected data interruptions at one or more computing devices of a carrier network. The detected data interruptions include a data interruption to a user device that is detected by an agent application on the user device that monitors of at least one of an audio pathway or a video pathway of the user device. The telecommunication carrier may aggregate data interruption information from the multiple reports of the detected data interruptions, and analyze the data interruption information to pinpoint one or more sources of a detected data interruption.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at one or more computing devices of a carrier network, at least one report of detected data interruptions of data communication between a carrier network and a user device, the detected data interruptions including a data interruption to the user device that is detected by an agent application on the user device that monitors at least one of an audio pathway or a video pathway of the user device;
receiving, at the one or more computing devices, a report of one or more additional data interruptions to the user device that is provided by an analysis engine at a base station node of the carrier network, the analysis engine detecting the one or more additional data interruptions by independently analyzing transmission of data packets from the base station node to a plurality of user devices, the one or more additional data interruptions being different from the data interruption detected by the agent application on the user device;
aggregating, at the one or more computing devices, the at least one report of the detected data interruptions received from the user device and the report of the one or more additional data interruptions from the base station node of the carrier network into data interruption information; and
analyzing, at the one or more computing devices, the data interruption information that includes at least one report of the detected data interruptions from the user device and the report of the one or more additional data interruptions from the base station node to pinpoint one or more sources of a detected data interruption.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising generating, via the one or more computing devices, a resolution report that includes a resolution for remedying the one or more sources of the detected data interruption.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving user feedback inputted by a user regarding a quality of experience at a time of the data interruption to the user device, wherein the analyzing includes analyzing the data interruption information and the user feedback to pinpoint one or more sources of the detected data interruption.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the analyzing includes analyzing the data interruption information and the user feedback in response to a statistical analysis indicating that a reliability score for the user feedback is above a predetermined reliability score threshold.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the user feedback includes at least one of a user rating of audio clarity or a user rating of image clarity.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the audio pathway is provided by hardware and software audio processing components of the user device that convert audio data packets received by the user device to audio wave signals that drive one or more audio speakers of the user device, and wherein the video pathway is provided by hardware and software video processing components of the user device that convert video data packets received by the user device to video signals that drive a display of the user device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing reveals a pattern in the detected data interruptions, forecasts future problems with multiple user devices or the carrier network that cause additional data interruptions, captures a sequence of events that leads to a data interruption, or finds common traits between the multiple user devices that experienced the detected data interruptions.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sources of the detected data interruptions include a network component of the carrier network, a component of a third party service provider, a hardware component of a user device, or a software component of the user device.

9. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that upon execution cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving a report from an agent application on a user device that indicates a data interruption in a flow of data from a carrier network to the user device during downloading of audio or video data by the user device from a carrier network;
receiving a report of one or more additional data interruptions to at least one user device that is detected by an analysis engine at a base station node of the carrier network, the analysis engine detecting the one or more additional data interruptions by independently analyzing transmission of data packets from the base station node to a plurality of user devices, the one or more additional data interruptions being different from the data interruption detected by the agent application on the user device;
aggregating the data interruption determined to interrupt the flow of data to the user device with the report of the one or more additional data interruptions from base station node of the carrier network into data interruption information; and
analyzing the data interruption information that includes the data interruption and the report of the one or more additional data interruptions from the base station node to pinpoint one or more sources of the data interruption in the flow of data.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the data interruption is reported by the agent application at least in response to an audio quality of an audio pathway during audio data downloading or a video quality of a video pathway during video data downloading as determined by a trained classifier algorithm dropping below a corresponding quality threshold.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the data interruption is reported by the agent application in response to a drop of the audio quality or the video quality below a corresponding quality threshold being correlated to one or more additional indicators, the one or more additional indicators including a decrease in a number of data packets that are received at the user device or a loss in a strength of a radio signal that is received by the user device.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the data interruption is reported by the agent application in response to a drop in the video encoding rate for a video pathway of the user device during video downloading by the user device from the carrier network being correlated to one or more additional indicators, the one or more additional indicators including a decrease in a number of data packets that are received at the user device or a loss in a strength of a radio signal that is received by the user device.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the data interruption is reported by the agent application in response to a zero data state in an audio pathway or a video pathway of the user device that lasts for more than a predetermined minimal time period.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the data interruption is reported by the agent application in response to a zero data state in an audio pathway of the user device lasting for a duration that is between a predetermined minimal time period and a predetermined maximum time period.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the zero data state in the audio pathway of the user device occurred during a voice call.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the data interruption is reported by the agent application in response to a zero data st

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Hui Jie
• Jia Yunhan
• Satpathy Suchit
• Lau Kevin
• Sontineni Kranthi
• Kwong Samson Kim-Sun

Classifications

• H04W24/02

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04W24/04 Primary

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title