Methods and apparatus to provide service assurance for communication networks
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsChaoxin Charles Qiu, Haifeng Bi, Robert Francis Dailey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to provide service assurance for communication networks are disclosed. An example apparatus comprises a service provisioning server to initiate provisioning of a service to a user device, and a service testing server to perform a test of the service and to report a service test result to the service provisioning server, the service testing server responsive to a request from the user device to initiate the test of the service, the user device automatically generating the request in response to the service provisioning.
Claims25
An apparatus comprising:
- a communication service server to provide a service to a user device;
- a service provisioning server to initiate sending of provisioning data for the service to the user device, and to activate the service at the communication service server based on a service test result, the provisioning data comprising a service test parameter to instruct the user device to automatically initiate a test of the service to generate the service test result;
- and
- a service testing server to:
- establish a bearer path to perform the test of the service responsive to a request received from the user device to initiate the test of the service;
- establish a companion real time control protocol channel to report the service test result to the service provisioning server, the companion real time control protocol channel to exchange real time packet stream performance information associated with the service test result;
- send a BYE message in response to receiving a threshold number of packets, the BYE message to instruct the user device to stop sending packets;
- and
- refrain from sending duplicate test results when repeated packets are received from the user device after the BYE message is sent.
A method comprising:
- establishing a bearer path and a companion real time control protocol channel in response to receiving a configuration notification for a communication service provided to a user device, the companion real time control protocol channel to exchange real time packet stream performance information associated with a test of the communication service;
- sending service configuration data including a first test call parameter to the user device to provision the communication service and to enable the user device and a service testing server to test the communication service via the bearer path based on the first test call parameter;
- receiving a result of the test via the companion real time control protocol channel of the communication service;
- sending a BYE message in response to receiving a threshold number of packets, the BYE message to instruct the user device to stop sending packets;
- refraining from sending duplicate test results when repeated packets are received from the user device after the BYE message is sent;
- and
- in response to receiving the test result, activating the communication service to the user device.
A tangible machine readable storage medium, excluding propagating signals, comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
- establishing a bearer path and a companion real time control protocol channel in response to receiving a configuration notification for a communication service provided to a user device, the companion real time control protocol channel to exchange real time packet stream performance information associated with a test of the communication service;
- sending service configuration data including a first test call parameter to the user device to provision the communication service and to enable the user device and a service testing server to test the communication service via the bearer path based on the test call parameter;
- receiving a result of the test via the companion real time control protocol channel of the communication service;
- sending a BYE message in response to receiving a threshold number of packets, the BYE message to instruct the user device to stop sending packets;
- refraining from sending duplicate test results when repeated packets are received from the user device after the BYE message is sent;
- and
- in response to receiving the test result, activate the communication service to the user device with a quality of service parameter associated with the communication service based on the test result.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.