System and method for subscriber aware network monitoring
View Patent ↗A system and method for subscriber aware network monitoring is provided. The method includes: determining subscriber and session data, wherein the subscriber has a non-unique IP (Internet Protocol) address; retrieving identifying data from a packet; and comparing the identifying data with the determined subscriber and session data to determine the subscriber associated with the packet. The system includes: at least one network probe configured to determine subscriber and session data, wherein the subscriber has a non-unique Internet Protocol (IP) address; at least one traffic probe configured to retrieve identifying data from a packet; and a processing module configured to compare the identifying data with the stored subscriber and session data to determine the subscriber associated with the packet.
1. A method for subscriber aware network monitoring for a network having at least one subscriber with a non-unique IP (Internet Protocol) address during a session comprising:
determining non-unique subscriber data and session data at a network probe on a network side of a carrier grade network address translation (CGN) device;
retrieving subscriber identifying data at a traffic probe on a subscriber side of the CGN device;
mapping the determined non-unique subscriber and session data to the subscriber identifying data to determine a subscriber associated with the non-unique subscriber and session data; and
determining subscriber attributes based on the mapped data.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying data comprises a combination of an IP address and port data.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying data comprises a combination of an IP address and a network identifier.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
determining whether the identifying data indicates that a packet is from a public IP address; and
associating the packet with the subscriber having the public IP address.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising producing network capacity planning reports based on an aggregated total of the mapped data.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining billing based on the subscriber attributes.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
storing the identifying data and subscriber associated with a packet; and
retrieving historical records indicating a relation between the subscriber and the non-unique IP address.
8. A system for subscriber aware network monitoring for a network having at least one subscriber with a non-unique IP (Internet Protocol) address during a session comprising:
at least one network probe, located on a network side of a Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGN) device, configured to determine non-unique subscriber data and session data;
at least one traffic probe, located on a subscriber side of the CGN device configured to retrieve subscriber identifying data; and
a processor module configured to map the non-unique subscriber and session data to the subscriber identifying data to determine a subscriber associated with the non-unique subscriber data and session data and to determine subscriber attributes based on the mapped data.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the identifying data comprises a combination of an IP address and port data.
10. The system of claim 8 wherein the identifying data comprises a combination of an IP address and a network identifier.
11. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor module is further configured to:
determine whether the identifying data indicates that a packet is from a public IP address; and
associate the packet with the subscriber having the public IP address.
12. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor module is further configured to produce network capacity planning reports based on an aggregated total of the mapped data.
13. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor module is further configured to determine billing based on the subscriber attributes.
14. The system of claim 8 further comprising:
a memory module configured to store the identifying data and subscriber associated with a packet; and
the processor module further configured to retrieve historical records indicating a relation between the subscriber and the non-unique IP address.
15. The system of claim 8 wherein the network probe is a Network Address Translation (NAT) probe and the traffic probe is a NAT traffic probe.
16. The system of claim 8 wherein the network probe is an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) probe and the traffic probe is a private traffic probe.
17. The system of claim 8 wherein the system comprises:
at least two network probes, a Network Address Translation (NAT) probe and an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) probe; and
at least two traffic probes, a NAT traffic probe and a private traffic probe.
18. The system of claim 8 further comprising:
a database configured to store data related to subscribers and IP sessions; and
a network interface configured to allow access to query the database.
19. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscriber attributes are selected from a group consisting of: subscriber tier, subscriber type and session attributes.
20. The system of claim 8 further comprising:
an event handler configured to update the identifying data on an event, wherein an event comprises a change in the determined subscriber and session data.