Method and system for quality of service (QoS) monitoring for wireless devices
Method and apparatus to monitor MQoS of wireless mobile devices is described. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method to monitor the health of 3G mobile devices and provide a status check of such health to network technicians, supervisors, and management. In one aspect, mobile devices on the network perform measurement of MQoS factors that are reported to a quality of service backend. The MQoS data is combined to show current and historical network status. In another aspect, alarms may be set to notify specific managers when manager programmable conditions occur, such as low system performance, or specific error conditions occur. Reports may be generated summarizing and illustrating performance in tabular and graphical form. Parameters used for testing and monitoring mobile devices may be input to specific mobile devices or groups of mobile devices in a system. In one aspect, customer care or call centers may be enabled to request specific tests from specific mobile devices and utilize the overall network status to diagnose and/or resolve customer issues.
1. A method of determining a quality of service relevant to a user of a wireless mobile handset wirelessly communicating with a fixed transceiver on a data packet-based communication network from multiple locations, wherein the wireless mobile handset has hardware and software enabling the wireless mobile handset to interact with a human user, the method comprising the steps of:
initiating a self-test by the user with the enabling hardware and software of the wireless mobile handset to determine the quality of service experience by the user of the wireless mobile handset;
establishing a digital communication link between the wireless mobile handset and the fixed transceiver;
determining the location of the wireless mobile handset and at least one quality of service metric to measure with respect to the quality of service experience by the user of the wireless mobile handset;
generating, from the network, at least some data relevant to the at least one quality of service metric that is associated with a quality of service experience by the user at a location where the digital communication link is established, wherein the at least some data is transmitted between the network and the handset utilizing the existing established link;
processing the at least some data in the handset to determine the results of at least one quality of service metric relevant to the quality of service experience by the user at the determined location; and,
communicating the results to the user by the interactive enabling hardware and software of the wireless mobile handset.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least some data comprises RSSI, SIR, EBNR, ECNR, mobile identification, timestamp, data packet group information, network transitions, air interface parameters, pre-defined data sequences, checksum, connection time, time duration with respect to downloading data, time duration with respect to uploading data, packet loss, a number of downloads, a number of data uploads, file size, inter-packet delay, number of dropped connections, type of network communicating thereon, client IP address, data associated with the wireless mobile handset, data compression capability of the wireless mobile handset and combinations thereof.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a display and the step of communicating the results to the user comprises displaying the results to the user on the display of the wireless mobile handset.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the data packet-based communication network is at least in part controlled by a network provider providing service to the user including quality of service testing, and the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a user input device having at least one user input element, and before the step of initiating a self-test by the user, the user activates the user input element to alert the network provider of a deficiency in the quality of service.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the user input element of the user input device is one of a special key or touch pad input.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data packet-based communication network is at least in part controlled by a network provider providing service to the user including quality of service testing, and, after the step of processing the at least some data in the handset to determine the at least one quality of service metric relevant to the user at the determined location, the step of communicating the results to the network provider.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein after the step of communicating the results to the network provider, the network provider sends a message to the user relating to instructions on improving the quality of service experience of the user of the wireless mobile handset.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a memory and the software of the wireless mobile handset includes a quality of service client module that at least in part resides in the memory of the wireless mobile handset.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the data packet-based communication network has a network provider and the quality of service client module in the wireless mobile handset is provided by the network provider and the network provider has a complementary quality of service server module that operates with the quality of service client module to provide the quality of service experience of the user.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a SIM and the software of the wireless mobile handset includes a quality of service client module that at least in part resides in the SIM of the wireless mobile handset.
11. A method of determining a quality of service relevant to a user of a wireless mobile handset wirelessly communicating with a fixed transceiver on a data packet-based communication network, from multiple locations, wherein the wireless mobile handset has hardware and software enabling the wireless mobile handset to interact with a human user, the method characterized by the steps:
embedding a quality of service client program in the wireless mobile handset that interacts with the software enabling the wireless mobile handset to interact with a human user;
initiating a self-test by the user with the enabling hardware and software of the wireless mobile handset to determine the quality of service experience by the user of the wireless mobile handset;
establishing wireless digital communication between the wireless mobile handset and the fixed transceiver and;
determining the location of the wireless mobile handset and at least one quality of service metric to measure with respect to the quality of service experience by the user of the wireless mobile handset;
generating, from the network during the digital communication between the wireless mobile handset and the fixed transceiver, at least some data relevant to the at least one quality of service metric that is associated with a quality of service experience by the user at a location where the digital communication is established, wherein the at least some data is transmitted between the network and the handset utilizing the existing established digital communication;
processing the at least some data in the handset with the quality of service client program to determine the results of at least one quality of service metric relevant to the quality of service experience by the user at the determined location; and,
communicating the results to the user by the interactive enabling hardware and software of the wireless mobile handset.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least some data comprises RSSI, SIR, EBNR, ECNR, mobile identification, timestamp, data packet group information, network transitions, air interface parameters, pre-defined data sequences, checksum, connection time, time duration with respect to downloading data, time duration with respect to uploading data, packet loss, a number of downloads, a number of data uploads, file size, inter-packet delay, number of dropped connections, type of network communicating thereon, client IP address, data associated with the wireless mobile handset, data compression capability of the wireless mobile handset and combinations thereof.
13. The method of claim 11 wherein the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a display and the step of communicating the results to the user is characterized by displaying the results to the user on the display of the wireless mobile handset.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein the data packet-based communication network is at least in part controlled by a network provider providing service to the user including a quality of service server with quality of service testing, and the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a user input device having at least one user input element, and before the step of initiating a self-test by the user, the user activates the user input element to alert the network provider of a deficiency in the quality of service.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the user input element of the user input device is one of a special key or touch pad input.
16. The method of claim 11 wherein the data packet-based communication network is at least in part controlled by a network provider providing service to the user including a quality of service server program with quality of service testing, and, after the step of processing the at least some data in the handset to determine the at least one quality of service metric relevant to the user at the determined location, the step of communicating the results to the network provider.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein after the step of communicating the results to the network provider, the network provider sends a message to the user relating to instructions on improving the quality of service experience of the user of the wireless mobile handset.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the data packet-based communication network has a network provider and the quality of service client module in the wireless mobile handset is provided by the network provider and the quality of service server program of the network provider has a complementary quality of service server module that operates with the quality of service client module to provide the quality of service experience of the user.
19. The method of claim 11 wherein the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a memory and the quality of service client of the wireless mobile handset includes a quality of service client module that resides in the memory of the wireless mobile handset.
20. The method of claim 11 wherein the hardware of the wireless mobile handset includes a SIM and the quality of service client program of the wireless mobile handset includes a quality of service client module resides in the SIM of the wireless mobile handset.