Patent ID: 7936694
Filing Date: 2011-05-03
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of monitoring a packet-switched network via which real-time data is transmitted, the method comprising: in response to signaling messages issued by a media gateway controller, non-promiscuously sniffing only data packets of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone call, said data packets containing real-time data, said non-promiscuous sniffing conducted by a monitor subagent to monitor a quality-of-service parameter, said monitor subagent accepting commands from a softswitch to start and stop the non-promiscuous sniffing such that unnecessary non-promiscuous sniffing in an absence of Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) traffic does not occur, wherein the sniffing is with regard to at least one of RTP packets and RTP Control Packets (RTCP), wherein said real-time data is encapsulated with a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) header and a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) trailer and said Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) header and said Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) trailer are encapsulated with a user datagram protocol (UDP) header and a user datagram protocol (UDP) trailer; notifying, in response to a threshold breach of the quality-of-service parameter detected via said non-promiscuous sniffing, a monitor agent about the threshold breach; forwarding to the media gateway controller the threshold breach of the quality-of-service parameter, the media gateway controller then adapting to changed network conditions indicated by the quality-of-service parameter by directing media entities to renegotiate bandwidth communication for a higher bandwidth communication for the VoIP phone call; notifying, by the monitor agent, a network node manager about the threshold breach, wherein the network node manager is a hardware entity comprising computer code stored thereon; and determining, by the network node manager via responsive initiation and performance of a path analysis, a root cause of a fault of the threshold breach.