Patent ID: 7051099

Claim:
A method of detecting network failures in a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, the method comprising: receiving VoIP call usage records for VoIP call traffic passing through the VoIP network during a particular time period, wherein each of the VoIP call usage records identifies a disconnect cause code and one of a plurality of network elements responsible for reporting the disconnect cause code; generating a list of each of the plurality of network elements identified by the VoIP call usage records; determining for each of the plurality of network elements: a number of instances of each disconnect cause code identified by the VoIP call usage records, a number of instances of failure-type disconnect cause codes identified by the VoIP call usage records, a sum of the number of instances of each disconnect cause code, and a failure rate by dividing the number of instances of failure-type disconnect cause codes by the sum of the number of instances of each disconnect cause code; comparing for each of the plurality of network elements: the number of instances of failure-type disconnect cause codes with a first predetermined threshold, and the failure rate with a second predetermined threshold; and producing alarm information for each of the plurality of network elements for which the number of instances of failure-type disconnect cause codes exceeds the first predetermined threshold or for which the failure rate exceeds the second predetermined threshold.