Systems and methods for monitoring operational statuses of network services

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a control server from a monitoring probe deployed in a media service network that provides a set of network services, via a plurality of network service devices, to a plurality of end users, a first request for test configuration data;
• providing, by the control server in response to the first request, the test configuration data to the monitoring probe for use by the monitoring probe to test the set of network services, the test configuration data indicating the set of network services to be tested, service types of the network services, and resource addresses for the network services, wherein:
• the set of network services includes a media resource locator network service to be tested,
• the service types of the network services include a media resource locator service type for the media resource locator network service,
• the resource addresses for the network services include a media resource locator address for a media resource locator server that provides the media resource locator network service, wherein the media resource locator server provides the media resource locator network service in support of at least one of the set of network services by receiving a second request for media resource locator data from end user media service access devices and providing the media resource locator data to the end user media service access devices in response to the second request, and
• the media resource locator network service, the media resource locator service type of the media resource locator network service, and the media resource locator address for the media resource locator server are configured for use by the monitoring probe to:
• test the network services to determine operational statuses of the network services,
• update, based on the testing of the network services, the test configuration data to include the operational statuses of the network services;
• parse a media resource locator file accessed from the media resource locator address of the media resource locator server to identify a set of additional network services to be tested, the set of additional network services indicated in the media resource locator file including network services that are associated with the media resource locator service and that were not indicated in the test configuration data as being the network services to be tested, the set of additional network services comprising at least one of a multicast network service and a unicast network service,
• update, based on the parsing of the media resource locator file, the test configuration data to include the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service as being network services to be tested in addition to the set of network services,
• test the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service,
• determine, based on the testing of the set of additional network services, operational statuses of the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service, and
• update, based on the testing of the set of additional network services, the test configuration data to include the operational statuses of the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service;
• and
• receiving, by the control server from the monitoring probe, the updated test configuration data that includes test results data indicating the operational statuses of the set of network services and the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service, the operational statuses of the set of network services comprising an operational status of the media resource locator network service,
• wherein, when the set of additional network services includes the multicast network service to be tested,
• the testing of the multicast network service comprises:
• sending a join request to a resource address for the multicast network service;
• and
• determining whether a multicast data packet is received from the resource address for the multicast network service within a predefined time period after the sending of the join request, and
• the monitoring probe determines whether the multicast network service is operational based on whether the multicast data packet is received within the predefined time period after the sending of the join request.

A system comprising:

• a control server connected to a media service network that provides a set of network services, via a plurality of network service devices, to a plurality of end users;
• and
• a monitoring probe deployed in the media service network, configured to communicate with the control server, and that:
• accesses test configuration data from the control server, the test configuration data indicating the set of network services to be tested, service types of the network services, and resource addresses for the network services, wherein:
• the set of network services includes a media resource locator network service to be tested,
• the service types of the network services include a media resource locator service type for the media resource locator network service, and
• the resource addresses for the network services include a media resource locator address for a media resource locator server that provides the media resource locator network service;
• tests the network services based on the test configuration data to determine operational statuses of the network services and to determine whether a media resource locator file is accessible at the media resource locator address of the media resource locator server, wherein the media resource locator server provides the media resource locator network service in support of at least one of the set of network services by receiving a request for media resource locator data from end user media service access devices and providing the media resource locator data to the end user media service access devices in response to the request;
• updates, based on the testing of the network services, the test configuration data to include the operational statuses of the network services;
• accesses the media resource locator file from the media resource locator address, the media resource locator file including a set of additional network services that is associated with the media resource locator service and that is not indicated in the test configuration data as being the network services to be tested, the set of additional network services comprising at least one of a multicast network service and a unicast network service;
• parses the media resource locator file to identify:
• the set of additional network services including the multicast network service and the unicast network service that are indicated in the media resource locator file but that were not indicated in the test configuration data accessed from the control server as being the network services to be tested,
• service types of the set of additional network services, and
• resource addresses for the set of additional network services;
• updates, based on the parsing of the media resource locator file, the test configuration data to include the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service as being network services to be tested in addition to the set of network services;
• tests the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service;
• determines operational statuses of the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service based on the testing of the set of additional network services;
• updates, based on the testing of the set of additional network services, the test configuration data to include the operational statuses of the set of additional network services including the at least one of the multicast network service and the unicast network service;
• and
• reports the updated test configuration data including the operational statuses of the set of network services and the set of additional network services to the control server,
• wherein, when the set of additional network services includes the multicast network service to be tested,
• the testing of the multicast network service comprises:
• sending a join request to a resource address for the multicast network service;
• and
• determining whether a multicast data packet is received from the resource address for the multicast network service within a predefined time period after the sending of the join request, and
• the monitoring probe determines whether the multicast network service is operational based on whether the multicast data packet is received within the predefined time period after the sending of the join request.