Measurement of field reliability metrics

摘要

A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include an access segment of a mobility network in which routers receive network traffic data from base transceiver stations, forward the network traffic data by way of aggregation routers, originate probe packets directed to a targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation router to determine, by way of an expected reply to each probe packet, reachability of the targeted one of the base transceiver station or the aggregation router. A change from reachability to unreachability of the targeted one of the base transceiver station or the aggregation router is determined to be an indication of service impacted outage. Determined service impacted outages are logged. Reliability metrics, such as average uptime, are computed from reachability status to quantify the impact of service level outages perceptible by the mobile communication devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.

主权项

1. An Internet Protocol (IP) router comprising:
a memory configured to store computer instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising:
receiving network traffic data from a base transceiver station;forwarding the network traffic data by way of an aggregation IP router, wherein the aggregation IP router receives similar network traffic data from a plurality of other base transceiver stations by way of a plurality of other IP routers;originating a plurality of probe packets directed to a targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router, wherein each probe packet of the plurality of probe packets has a lower priority than network traffic data so as not to interfere with the forwarding of the network traffic data;sending the plurality of probe packets to the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router to determine, by way of an expected reply to each probe packet of the plurality of probe packets, reachability of the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router;detecting, for each probe packet of the plurality of probe packets, a respective response or failure of the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router to provide the expected reply as an indication of reachability;detecting a change in reachability of the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router as an indication of a service impacted outage, wherein detecting the change in reachability of the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router comprises:
determining a respective service impacted outage start time as a time instant of a first failure of the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router to provide the expected reply after having previously replied;determining a respective service impacted outage end time as a time instant of a first reply of the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router after having previously failed to reply; andcalculating for each targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router a respective service impacted outage duration as a difference between the respective service impacted outage end time and the respective service impacted outage start time; andrecording in outage log records, the indication of the service impacted outage for the targeted one of the base transceiver station and the aggregation IP router.