# US 12,114,192 B2 · System and method for distributed network performance management

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- Number: US 12,114,192 B2
- Document ID: US12114192B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/321,277
- Filed: 2023-05-22
- Published: 2023-09-21
- Granted: 2024-10-08
- Earliest claimed: 2016-05-20
- Assignees: 7Signal, Inc.
- Applicants: 7Signal, Inc.
- Inventors: Russell S. Wangler; Joseph Tennant; Nathan Cain; Veli-Pekka Ketonen
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12114192B2

## CPC

- H04W 24/08: Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic
- H04L 41/5009: Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
- H04L 41/5019: Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
- H04L 43/50: Testing arrangements
- H04L 43/55: Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage
- H04L 67/53: using third party service providers
- H04W 24/04: Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
- H04L 41/22: comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
- H04L 41/5067: Customer-centric QoS measurements
- H04L 67/306: User profiles
- H04W 24/10: Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports}
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

A distributed network performance management system and method that distributes a large portion of the network performance management to wireless client devices connected to the network. Rather than rely on a central server to perform the bulk of network performance management, a distributed network performance management system offloads much of the work of service quality testing, reporting, and troubleshooting to wireless client devices that are connected to the network. It utilizes spare computing power and storage space on the wireless client devices to reduce the cloud operation costs of the system including such things as bandwidth requirements, data storage requirements, and data processing requirements.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of distributed network performance management, the method comprising:
a) sending configuration instructions comprising a level of autonomy to each of a plurality of client devices forming a network;
b) receiving network test data from at least some of the plurality of client devices;
c) determining a condition of performance of the network from the network test data;
d) changing the configuration instructions for at least one of the plurality of client devices in response to the condition of performance of the network; and
e) performing distributed testing on at least one of the plurality of client devices, the distributed testing comprising: i) establishing a network testing regime that is based on the level of autonomy; ii) selecting a type of network testing to be performed; iii) scheduling the performance of the selected type of network testing;
iv) selecting a granularity level for the selected type of network testing;
v) performing the selected type of network testing to generate network test results
vi) scheduling reporting of generated network test results of the selected type of network testing to a control server; and
vii) reporting generated network test results to the control server; and
f) changing the configuration instructions for at least one of plurality of client devices based on the distributed testing;
wherein the type of network testing is a test of wireless communication performance;
wherein the distributed testing comprises wireless performance monitoring;
wherein the wireless performance monitoring comprises capturing wireless packet data from a wireless device driver of at least one of the plurality of client devices; extracting frame data from the wireless packet data; and calculating an indicator of wireless performance from the extracted frame data.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting the type of network testing to be performed is based on statistical sampling methodologies.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the scheduling the reporting of network test results is based on statistical sampling methodologies.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the performing the selected type of network testing to generate network test results is based on statistical sampling methodologies.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the control server comprises a third-party server.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising performing a distributed testing application installed on at least two of the plurality of client devices.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising performing a distributed testing application that causes a client device to establish a network testing regime based on the level of autonomy and then to report network test results to the control server.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7 further comprising selecting a granularity level for the network testing regime.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7 further comprising adjusting the network testing regime based on a service level.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring of a parameter of network performance and increasing network testing frequency in response to the monitoring.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring of a parameter of network performance and increasing the granularity level in response to the monitoring.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring of a parameter of network performance and decreasing network testing frequency in response to the monitoring.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring of a parameter of network performance and decreasing the granularity level in response to the monitoring.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising determining the configuration instructions.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein the configuration instructions comprise instructions to capture geolocation data regarding at least one of the plurality of client devices geolocation.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15 further comprising providing the captured geolocation data in conjunction with the generated network test results.

### Claim 17 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein the configuration instructions comprise instructions to send generated network test results to a third-party server for analysis and reporting.

### Claim 18 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein the configuration instructions comprise instructions to send detailed test results to a third party while sending only results at a level of detail required by the control server to manage the statistical sampling and testing regimes to the control server.