Abstract:
An embodiment of a method, system, and medium provide for determining information about a communications call. The method includes receiving call data associated with establishing a communications path to communicate at least a portion of data using a voice-over-packet technology, and formatting at least a portion of said call data such that a source identifier and a destination identifier are viewable in a common area along with two or more of the following call-identifier information; physical-termination information and possible release codes. The format can be filterable.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     In various Voice Over Packet (VOP) settings (such as VoIP, VoATM, etc.) problems occur with a communications pathway. Illustrative problems may include poor sound quality, dropped calls, etc. One way of resolving issues associated with establishing communications pathways in a VOP setting is to analyze trace data received from a monitoring device. 
     But this trace data can often consume tens or hundreds of pages, which is difficult and time-consuming to analyze. Accordingly, there is a need for, among other things, a method and system that condenses and supplements original call trace data to make it easier to read and understand so that problems can be identified more quickly in a communications networking environment. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present invention is defined by the claims below, not this summary. Embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method, and product for, among other things, presenting call trace data in an easier to read format than what is natively received from monitoring equipment. The present invention has several practical applications in the technical arts, including reducing the time associated with identifying problems that are at least in part identifiable by portions of data in, for example, a trace file produced by a monitoring device that monitors call setup, maintenance, and tear down. 
     In a first aspect, a computer program product for performing a method of determining information about a communications call is provided. The method includes receiving call data (including trace data) associated with establishing a communications path to communicate at least a portion of data using a voice-over-packet technology, formatting at least a portion of said call data such that a source identifier and a destination identifier are viewable in a common area along with two or more of the following call-identifier information; physical-termination information and possible release codes. 
     In another illustrative aspect, a computer program product is provided for exposing information to troubleshoot a voice-over-packet call. This can include obtaining trace data associated with at least a portion of a communications link and formatting a desired subset of data from the trace data. The formatting may include indicating a source identifier associated with an origination point of a leg of the call, indicating a destination identifier associated with a destination point of a leg of the call, and listing in a viewable area common to said source identifier and to said destination identifier, predetermined portions of said trace data. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which are incorporated by reference herein and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  depicts an illustrative operating environment suitable for practicing an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  depicts an illustrative method for practicing an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  depicts a tiny portion of illustrative trace data associated with a communications call; 
         FIG. 4  depicts illustrative data associated with a type of message found in trace data according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 5A-5E  depict an illustratively formatted result that stems from an embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIGS. 6A-6D  depict an alternative formatting of a portion of trace data according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Throughout the description of the present invention, several acronyms and shorthand notations are used to aid the understanding of certain concepts pertaining to the associated system and services. These acronyms and shorthand notations are solely intended for the purpose of providing an easy methodology of communicating the ideas expressed herein and are in no way meant to limit the scope of the present invention. The following is a list of these acronyms:
         CM cable modem   PA phone adapter   PC personal computer   PSTN public switched telephone network   VoIP voice over internet protocol   VOP voice over packet       

     Embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as, among other things: a method, system, or computer-program product. Accordingly, the embodiments may take the form of a hardware embodiment, a software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. In one embodiment, the present invention takes the form of a computer-program product that includes computer-useable instructions embodied on one or more computer-readable media. 
     Computer-readable media include both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and nonremovable media, and contemplates media readable by a database, a computer, and various other network devices. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media comprise computer-storage media and communications media. 
     Computer-storage media, or machine-readable media, include media implemented in any method or technology for storing information. Examples of stored information include computer-useable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data representations. Computer-storage media include but are not limited to RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile discs (DVD), holographic media or other optical disc storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, and other magnetic storage devices. These memory components can store data momentarily, temporarily, or permanently. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , an illustrative operating environment suitable for practicing an embodiment of the present invention is provided and referenced generally by the numeral  100 . Operating environment  100  depicts an illustrative high-level overview of communicating across one or more networks that include voice-over-packet (VOP) technology. A variety of different communications devices, in addition to those illustratively shown, could be used in connection with operating environment  100 . But by way of example, a mobile end point  110  can communicate through a first network  112  (such as the PSTN, a mobile-communications network, etc., through the Internet or portion thereof  114  and ultimately to illustrative devices such as a conventional telephone  116 , an Ethernet or VOP phone  118 , a personal computer  120 , or a second conventional phone  122 . 
     Mobile end point  110  may take on a variety of forms of devices. For example, it may be a personal data assistant, a cell phone, notebook computer, blackberry-type device, etc. Another device that may be coupled with first network  112  includes a conventional phone  124 . This is shown to make clear that the current invention is applicable even in environments made from a first conventional phone  124  to a second conventional phone  122  if at least a portion of the data is communicated via a VOP provider  126 . 
     VOP provider  126  provides voice-over-packet communications of data from a sender to a receiver and vice versa. VOP provider  126  is associated with monitoring device  128  that gathers call data, or trace data, and various messages associated with facilitating a VOP communications call. An illustrative monitoring device includes the NgN analysis system (NgNAS) offered by Agilent Technologies, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif. A brief overview of an illustrative system is accompanied with the filing of this application and information disclosure statement, which is incorporated by reference herein to provide additional detail as to how data associated with a communications call is gathered. Although the Agilent device is recited, it is done so in an illustrative manner to merely indicate one type of monitoring device suitable for practicing an embodiment of the invention. Clearly, a variety of other devices and types of devices can be employed to gather call trace data, which is referred to herein by reference numeral  130 . 
     Trace data  130  is large. For example, an illustrative trace file is also submitted here with this application in an information disclosure statement, which is incorporated herein by reference to illustrate the magnitude of data included in a trace file. For example, the illustrative trace data is 123 pages in length. As previously mentioned, attempting to determine and identify desired data among such vast amounts of data has historically been a time-intensive and resource-intensive process. But an embodiment of the invention condenses and supplements the call trace data  130  into a form and format that is easily understandable by a reader. This will be explained in greater detail below. 
     In some embodiments, conventional phone  116  is coupled to the Internet by way of a phone adapter  132  and cable modem  134 . The cable modem provides access to the Internet, and phone adapter  132  provides dial tone and other functionality to conventional phone  116 . But in other embodiments a phone such as VOP phone  118  can connect directly to the Internet. Similarly, a PC  120  outfitted with a headset and any necessary call-making software can be coupled to Internet  114  by way of cable modem  136  in a residential environment, or even without cable modem  136  in a corporate or other setting that does not require a cable modem. And as previously mentioned, a second conventional phone  122  that is also coupled to the PSTN (referred to as  122 A for the sake of clarity) may also be used. 
     As previously mentioned call traces that emerge from monitoring device  128  or other devices such as Etheral or other network tracing tools are routinely over 100 pages long and take large amounts of time to sift through. This data is for only a single telephone call. That is, there is enough call trace data associated with a single telephone call to consume over 100 pages of text. Turning now to  FIG. 2 , an illustrative method for practicing an embodiment of the present invention is provided and referenced generally by the numeral  200 . Under step  210  trace data  130  is received. This can take on a variety of formats. 
     In one embodiment, a trace file is received, and its data made accessible to a processing system, which can be a conventional computer. In another embodiment, the trace data itself is provided divorced from a trace file per se. But in either case trace data  130  is received to be processed. At a step  212 , a desired portion of information that is presented is identified. The type of information that is desired can vary. Some illustrative types of information will be provided. A first type of information includes a source ID associated with a message. In one embodiment, the source ID or source identifier takes the form of an IP address. Similarly, a destination identifier associated with a message can also be sought. One embodiment of a destination identifier includes a destination IP address associated with a message. A third illustrative form of information that may be sought is a context identifier that identifies a leg of a call between two pieces of equipment. 
     This identifier will identify a specific leg of a specific phone call. In some embodiments, calls can have four legs or even more, and a context identifier identifies an appropriate leg associated with a call, such as illustrative call pathway  140  shown in  FIG. 1 . A fourth portion of information that may be desired includes an indication of a physical facility that part of the call traversed. This may be a card identifier such as a DS1/DS0 card identifier. Often the context ID is tied to this terminal identifier. A fifth portion of information that might be desired includes a SIP (session initiated protocol) call identifier. A sixth illustrative portion of information that may be desired includes a SIP end point identifier. In some embodiments, this takes the form of a SIP end point IP, which can be the same as an SDP port address used to transport voice via IP packets. Thus, a seventh type of information that may illustratively be desired to be known includes a SIP end point port, which is the address used to transport voice via IP packets. An eighth illustrative portion of information includes an SS7CIC, which is an identifier associated with information between two point codes, namely a physical termination point between two point codes on which a call rides. A final illustrative portion of information includes an SS7 cause code. A cause code can indicate a variety of causes associated with a message, such as a code indicating that a call ended normally, such as when a caller hangs up, but may include a different code if, for example, a switch malfunctioned. The aforementioned types of information that may be sought from trace data  130  are merely illustrative in nature. 
     At a step  214 , the portion of trace data desired to be known is formatted into a desired format, which will be explained in greater detail below. At a step  216  a determination is made as to whether there is any remaining information to ultimately be presented to a reader. If yes, then processing reverts to step  212 . But if no, then the final formatted information will be presented at a step  218 . 
     Turning now to  FIG. 3  the very beginning of trace data associated with a trace file is shown. As previously mentioned, this trace data can consume many tens and even over a hundred pages of information and is provided to show the cryptic form by which it originally takes as an ASCII or text file. In one embodiment, this data is searched for certain parameters to identify the beginning of a section of trace data  130  that is to be filtered. An illustrative section of data is shown in  FIG. 4 . 
       FIG. 4  shows data delineated by a string of delimiters  400  followed by an indication of what the data relates to, which here relates to a “BYE” message indicated by numeral  412 . In one embodiment a temporary file for each type of message can be created taking a form of that shown in  FIG. 4 , so that this file can be parsed easily based on the type of message it is. For example, if the message is a “BYE” message, then the present invention will search for certain parameters or constraints in the message to be extracted and ultimately displayed in a format that will accompany a source address and a destination address with the information of the message. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 5A , an illustrative embodiment of the present invention shows a first screen  500  of an embodiment of the final product of an embodiment of the invention, which depicts certain portions of trace data  130  in an easy-to-read format, including a filterable format. As can be seen the source address and to address (in columns B and C) accompany the previous types of information that were discussed. For example, rows 1 and 2 indicate a “sig tran” message from a specific device to another device, (from “KSCYMO-LSG” to “KSCYMO-LNC”) and data corresponding to that “sig tran” message. Row 2 of  FIG. 5A  indicates that a human-readable identifier has been associated with a from and a to indicator. That is, instead of an obscure IP address, a device identifier has been provided. This is an example of supplementing the data originally found in data  130 . The remaining portion of  FIG. 5A  speaks for itself in indicating the various types of information that can be provided by the present invention.  FIG. 5B  picks up where  FIG. 5A  left off, and so does  FIG. 5C  and  FIG. 5D , and finally  FIG. 5E . Collectively,  FIGS. 5A through 5E  illustratively show that the many tens or hundreds of pages of obscured text has been synthesized into less than four pages of information that a network analyzer could readily peruse and use to identify problems. Alternatively this data can be easily read by a script or other file to automatically take action and resolve problems or present other reports. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 6A , an alternative method of presenting the data shown in  FIGS. 5A through 5E  is shown and referenced generally by the numeral  600 . This data continues through  FIG. 6B ,  FIG. 6C , and  FIG. 6D . In this embodiment, each row includes the potential for the same type of data. This embodiment is somewhat more concise, but another aspect of the invention is reflected in  FIG. 5A , which is to condition the type of data displayed on each row to turn on the type of message. For example, returning to  FIG. 5A , it is shown that the “TAM” message of row 2 includes an “OPC” and “DST” identifiers. But the “MEGACO” record of row 4 indicates a “term ID” and “ECAN,” which refer to data items that would not be present with the “sig tran” message of rows 1 and 2. In this way, data is presented in a more user-friendly format so that a user does not have to scroll to the left and to the right. 
     The present invention can be coded in a variety of languages. An illustrative format includes a scripting language such as “Aspect” (via Procom Plus). The application could also be a web or other network-based application. 
     Many different arrangements of the various components depicted, as well as components not shown, are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Embodiments of the present invention have been described with the intent to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art that do not depart from its scope. A skilled artisan may develop alternative means of implementing the aforementioned improvements without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
     It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations and are contemplated within the scope of the claims. Not all steps listed in the various figures need be carried out in the specific order described.