Back to results
US 9,178,791 B2Granted
System and method for data acquisition in an internet protocol network
AssigneeITXC IP Holdings S.a.r.l.
InventorsCarlos Miranda, Alan Tai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A communication network system for monitoring data traffic is disclosed, in which at least one switch serving as an intermediary to a plurality of data input streams and a plurality of data output streams; a capture server in communication with the switch; and a data acquisition control engine operable to receive data acquisition instructions from a user and cause the received instructions to be implemented at the switch.
Claims23
A network monitoring system comprising:
- at least one network switch serving as an intermediary to i) at least one data input stream arriving on at least one port and ii) at least one data output stream, in a network;
- a capture server in communication with, and for capturing data from, the at least one network switch;
- and
- a data acquisition control engine that is configured to
- (i) receive a data acquisition instruction from a user, the instruction comprising a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) equipment identification (ID) and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) ID,
- (ii) based on the received data acquisition instruction, derive commands for the at least one network switch, including at least one port number that identifies the at least one port and that is based on the VOIP equipment ID and VLAN ID received,
- (iii) cause the received data acquisition instruction to be implemented on the at least one port at the at least one network switch according to the derived commands, and
- (iv) manage mapping between the at least one port number and specific devices in a manner that is opaque to the user.
5 more elements
A method comprising:
- presenting a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user by a data acquisition control engine in a network such that the GUI conceals, from the user, mappings of at least one port number to particular devices;
- receiving, by the GUI presented by the data acquisition control engine, a data acquisition instruction from the user, wherein the data acquisition instruction specifies a data acquisition plan that comprises a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) equipment identification (ID) and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) ID;
- deriving, by the data acquisition control engine, commands to issue to one or more network switches in the network, including the at least one port number, wherein the at least one port number identifies at least one port and is based on the VOIP equipment ID and VLAN ID received, wherein the commands are based on the data acquisition plan, and wherein each of the one or more network switches serves as an intermediary to i) at least one data input stream arriving on the at least one port and ii) at least one data output stream;
- and
- transmitting, by the data acquisition control engine, the derived commands to the one or more network switches, wherein the transmitting of the derived commands causes the data acquisition plan to be implemented on the at least one port at the one or more network switches.
2 more elements
A data acquisition control engine for monitoring a network, comprising:
- a database to store data describing network elements within the network and links interconnecting the network elements;
- a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to receive information from a user specifying one or more data acquisition operations for the network, the received information comprising a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) equipment identification (ID) and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) ID;
- a processor configured to access the database and to transmit a data acquisition instruction corresponding to a specified data acquisition operation specified in the database;
- and
- a first network link for connecting the data acquisition control engine to a network element of the network elements, and configured to convey the data acquisition instruction to the network element, wherein the data acquisition instruction instructs the network element to mirror data arriving on a port at the network element, wherein the identification number of the port is based on the VOIP equipment ID and VLAN ID received, and wherein mapping of the identification number of the port to a particular device is concealed from the user.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.