Patent ID: 8307097

Claim:
A method of monitoring a telecommunications network, the network comprising a plurality of Mobility Management Entity (MME) nodes and a plurality of evolved UTRAN NodeB (eNodeB) nodes, the MME nodes and eNodeB nodes coupled by S1-MME interfaces, wherein a Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) association identifier is assigned to an SCTP association between interconnected MME and eNodeB nodes, the method comprising: capturing an S1-MME message from the S1-MME interfaces via a monitoring probe in a network monitoring system; creating an MMEGI-MMEC key comprising an MME Group Identifier (MMEGI) and an MME Code (MMEC) in the S1-MME message; associating an SCTP association identifier to the S1-MME message; identifying a Tracking Area Identity (TAI) in the S1-MME message; adding the SCTP association identifier from the S1-MME message to a list of SCTP association identifiers for an entry in an MME topology table, wherein the MME topology table entry corresponds to the MMEGI-MMEC key; creating a TA-MMEC key from the TAI and MMEC parameters in the S1-MME message; and adding one or more additional SCTP association identifiers to the list of SCTP association identifiers in the MME topology table, wherein the one or more additional SCTP association identifiers are from an entry in a TA-MMEC table, the TA-MMEC table entry corresponding to the TA-MMEC key; and selecting an SCTP association identifier from an MME entry in the MME topology table; comparing the selected MME table SCTP association identifier to SCTP association identifiers stored in an entry in an eNodeB topology table; and if the selected MME table SCTP association identifier matches one of the eNodeB table SCTP association identifiers, then adding an entry to an MME-eNodeB links table, the MME-eNodeB links table entry comprising an MME identifier, an eNodeB identifier, and the matching SCTP association identifier.