Network Troubleshooting System Using Importance Scoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network troubleshooting processes are inefficient due to overwhelmed support teams, who often prioritize problems based on the number of user reports rather than their impact, leading to delayed fixes for critical issues and unintended side effects when modifying network hardware or software configurations.
Innovation Solution
A computer system that collects connection quality metrics, uses a model to determine importance scores based on demographics and network usage data, and prioritizes work orders to address the most impactful problems first, while dynamically updating user interfaces for efficient data presentation and analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If technicians prioritize problems based on first-in-first-out scheme or number of user reports, then support teams can systematically process reports, but critical issues affecting fewer users may be delayed and resolved later
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the prioritization parameter from simple metrics (FIFO order or report count) to a composite importance score that incorporates multiple factors including user demographics, network usage patterns, and problem characteristics. This allows critical issues to be identified and prioritized based on their actual impact rather than superficial metrics.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary importance scoring model that acts as a mediator between raw problem reports and technician prioritization. This model processes multiple input factors (user profile, network usage, problem type) to generate an objective priority ranking, eliminating the need for technicians to manually assess issue importance.
2Ease of operation
If technicians modify hardware or software configurations to fix reported problems, then individual user issues can be resolved, but unintended side effects may occur affecting other users
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis by collecting and evaluating multiple factors (user demographics, network usage patterns, problem characteristics) before prioritizing and implementing fixes. This preliminary assessment ensures that the most impactful problems are addressed first, and configuration changes are made with full awareness of their potential network-wide effects.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors network performance and user reports to provide feedback on the effectiveness of implemented fixes. This feedback loop allows the system to detect unintended side effects early and adjust prioritization accordingly, preventing cascading problems while maintaining individual user resolutions.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for troubleshooting network problems is disclosed. A model can use demographic information, network usage information, and network membership information to determine an importance of a problem. The importance of the problem for the user who reported the problem, a number of other users affected by the problem, and the importance of the problem to the other users can be used to determine a priority for resolving the problem. Before and after a work order is executed to resolve the problem, network metrics can be gathered, including aggregate network metrics, and automatically presented in various user interfaces. The analysis of the metrics can be used to update a database of which work orders are assigned in response to which problems.