System and method for collecting, reporting and analyzing data on application-level activity and other user information on a mobile data network
View Patent ↗System and method for collecting and analyzing information on application-level activity and other user information on a mobile data network. A platform non-intrusively and transparently monitors data activity on a mobile data network in real-time so that user-level information can be reported to an operator. The platform comprises a plurality of collectors, a data manager, and a report manager. The collectors communicate with network routers to almost all network data. The collectors inspect the data for IP addresses and correlate them to user mobile phone numbers. The data manager receives the data and augments it with information obtained by querying carrier information. The data manager stores the data and monitors it to see if it satisfies a set of defined real-time reports. The report manager then works with the data manager to develop and test new reports based on operator instructions for a specific report.
1. A platform for a real-time, non-intrusive, transparent monitoring of application-level data activity on a mobile data network so that the activity may be correlated to specific users or aggregated and then reported to an operator, the monitoring platform comprising:
a plurality of collectors distributed throughout the mobile data network, each collector corresponding to and being in communication with a corresponding router in said mobile data network to receive data communications from said corresponding router, said each collector inspecting said communications to detect source IP addresses and correlating said communications with phone numbers associated with user mobile devices;
a data manager receiving said communications and the correlated phone numbers from a plurality of said collectors, said data manager using a corresponding phone number for each communication to query carrier information associated with said corresponding phone number to determine at least one of a location of a user, demographics of the user, content of the site accessed by the user, a type of application the user is accessing, and a device type the user is using, said data manager analyzing said received communications and said associated carrier information to provide information to satisfy a set of input requirements of a set of defined real-time reports, said real-time reports providing real-time information on aggregated usage of said network correlated to at least one of the location of the user, demographics of the user, content of the site accessed by the user, type of application the user is accessing, and device type the user is using, and said data manager maintaining a database storing said received communications and associated carrier information;
a report manager, cooperating with said data manager, to facilitate development and testing of new real-time reports, said report manager receiving operator instructions specifying information to be included in said new real-time reports and causing said data manager to analyze said received communications and said associated carrier information to provide information to satisfy a different set of input requirements of said new real-time reports and to include said new reports in said set of defined real-time reports, wherein said different set of input requirements of said new real-time reports requires a different subset of said received communications and said associated carrier information than required by said set of input requirements of said set of defined real-time reports to provide real-time information on aggregated usage of said network correlated to at least one of the location of the user, demographics of the user, content of the site accessed by the user, type of application the user is accessing, and device type the user is using.
2. The platform of claim 1 wherein said each collector removes a subset of data including management traffic.
3. The platform of claim 1 wherein said data manager computes metrics including time spent on an event and data consumed during said event and adds said metrics to session data.