# US 10,320,647 B2 · Evaluation of network conditions > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,320,647 B2 - Document ID: US10320647B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/751,296 - Filed: 2016-08-24 - Published: 2018-08-16 - Granted: 2019-06-11 - Earliest claimed: 2015-09-04 - Assignees: British Telecommunications public limited company - Applicants: British Telecommunications Public Limited Company - Inventors: Okung Ntofon; Siddhartha Shakya; Gilbert Owusu; Jonathan Malpass; Alistair McCormick - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10320647B2 ## CPC - H04L 43/12: Network monitoring probes - G06F 11/3048: {where the topology of the computing system or computing system component explicitly influences the monitoring activity, e.g. serial, hierarchical systems} - G06F 11/3065: {Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in reporting the monitored data (error or fault reporting or logging G06F11/0766)} - H04L 41/0695: the faulty arrangement being the maintenance, administration or management system - H04L 41/142: using statistical or mathematical methods - H04L 43/04: Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation - H04L 43/10: Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route - H04L 43/16: Threshold monitoring - G06F 11/34: Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation {; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment} - H04L 41/046: comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Information received from disparate individual monitors that are concurrently measuring a predetermined property of a predetermined resource in a network are compared in a reliability computation engine to compute a metric of the degree of similarity between their measurements, and thus to determine a measure of the reliability of one or more of the individual monitors. This information can be used by a provisioning engine to select or reject individual resources for use in meeting service requirements on the basis of the reliability of the reports of their performance, as well as the reported performance itself. Monitors identified as unreliable can also be reported to a fault diagnosis function. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for determining a measure of reliability of one or more individual monitors, comprising: concurrently measuring a predetermined property of a predetermined resource in a network, by taking measurements of a predetermined resource using a plurality of monitors, selecting one of the plurality of monitors as a first monitor for obtaining live data when taking measurements, defining measurements taken by the first monitor when obtaining live data as reference measurements, determining a difference value between each of the reference measurements and corresponding measurements taken from each of the other monitors when obtaining live data, and deriving a value for reliability of the measured property of the resource from the difference values so determined. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1, wherein a weighting is applied to the difference values used for a current cycle of measurements, the weighting being derived from values derived using the difference values in one or more previous cycles of measurements. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) A method according to claim 2, wherein a training algorithm determines whether a monitoring probe has generated information that results in values for the difference values outside a predetermined tolerance value. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) A method according to claim 3, wherein monitoring probes identified as exceeding the predetermined tolerance value are reported to a fault diagnosis processor. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1, in which resources are selected for use according to the measured properties, and wherein only measurements which are determined to have met a predetermined level of similarity with each other are used for such selection. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) A method according to claim 1, wherein the monitors include at least one active monitor, which actively polls resources for live data relating to their performance, and at least one passive monitor which acts on live data received from the network without such polling, wherein an active monitor is selected to be the first monitor, which defines reference measurements against which measurements from the other monitors are compared. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) A computer program element comprising computer program code to, when loaded into a computer system and executed thereon, cause the computer to perform the steps of a method as claimed in claim 1. ### Claim 8 A networked component adapted to determine a measure of reliability of one or more individual monitors that concurrently measure a predetermined property of a predetermined resource in a network, comprising: a reliability computation engine for determining a reliability measurement for a property of a resource, having measurement receivers, concurrently taking measurements of a predetermined resource using a plurality of monitors, a selector for selecting one of the plurality of monitors as a first monitor for obtaining live data when taking measurements, which are defined as reference measurements, a comparator for determining the difference value between each of the reference measurements and corresponding measurements taken from each of the other monitors when obtaining live data, and a reliability value generator for deriving a value for reliability of the measured property of the resource from the said difference values so determined. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) A networked component according to claim 8, further comprising a consistency weighting generator for generating a measure of consistency between a plurality of measurements. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) A networked component according to claim 9, wherein the consistency weighting generator determines how often each of the monitors has generated information which is inconsistent with measurements taken by other monitors. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) A networked component according to claim 9, further comprising an output from the consistency weighting generator to a fault diagnosis processor. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) A networked component according to claim 8, wherein the monitors include at least one active monitor, which actively polls resources for live data relating to their performance, and at least one passive monitor which acts on live data received from the network without such polling, wherein an active monitor is selected to be the first monitor, which defines reference measurements against which measurements from the other monitors are compared.