Patent ID: 8176154

Claim:
A method for monitoring a network, comprising: (a) providing at least first and second network nodes, the first and second network nodes communicating with one another in a session; (b) while the session is in progress, receiving a message from at least one of the first and second network nodes, the message indicating a Quality of Service or QoS problem with the session and the message being generated in response to a user determining that QoS is not satisfactory during the session and then providing an input to at least one of the first and second network nodes; and (c) in response to receiving the user initiated message related to the QoS problem and while the session is in progress, performing at least one of the following substeps: (i) reconfiguring one or more resources in the network, said reconfiguring step being at least one of (A) causing at least one of the packets associated with the session and transmitted by the at least one of the first and second network nodes to use a different Differentiated Services Code Point, (B) converting the session from an unguaranteed service into a guaranteed service when the QoS problem is caused by packet traffic, and (D) switching the contents of at least one of the packets associated with the session onto a circuit-switched network; (ii) varying a sampling frequency of one or more session-related performance attributes associated with the network; (iii) altering the types of session-related performance attributes being collected regarding the network; and (iv) collecting session-related information from nonparticipant nodes other than the at least first and second network nodes, the nonparticipant nodes not being involved in the session.