Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to systems and methods for managing and optimizing end-to-end communication sessions involving the delivery of application data (e.g., audio data, audio/video data, electronic file download data, etc.) over third party networks using an optimized communication system (OCS), as described herein. Embodiments of the disclosed system enable optimal quality (e.g., reduced delay, packet loss, jitter, etc.) of communication sessions. In one example, the system provides a real-time or close to real-time evaluation of network conditions, e.g., network congestion, nodes best-suited for application data transfer, etc., and other factors associated with geographically diverse and unpredictable routing infrastructure characteristics of the Internet to enable optimized communication sessions.

A flow based routing method and apparatus selects a path from a plurality of different paths for assignment to a flow. The path is selected based on traffic performance measurements which identify relative congestion and performance of the different paths, so that traffic flows can be diverted away from network congestion points, thereby allowing network resources to be load balanced at a flow granularity. The present invention may be configured on physical or virtual links on an NE to enhance the forwarding of packets using the primary link and one or more alternate links to any given destination.

The embodiments herein relate to a method performed by a control plane node (303) for handling a UE (101) which roams into a visited network (100a). At least the network in which the control plane node (303) is comprised is a MSC network. The control plane node (303) transmits a create chain request message to a service chain controller (305). The create chain request message is a request to create a chain of UPF nodes (308) that user plane packets to or from the UE (101) should traverse. The control plane node (303) receives a create chain response message from the service chain controller (305). The create chain response message indicates that the requested chain has been created.

A network management system for management of a communications network is disclosed. The system comprises an inventory database storing a network inventory comprising information representative of network resources of the communications network. The system comprises means for receiving a change request specifying a modification to be made to the network, and an inventory update component adapted to modify the network inventory in response to the change request. The system also includes an implementation component adapted to access the inventory database, identify modifications made to the network inventory, and transmit configuration data to the network to implement the inventory modifications in the network.

Network packet traffic in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network is analyzed by associating a micro network access agent with a single network element in the LTE network and performing packet traffic analysis for packet traffic processed by the single network element using the micro network access agent.

A flow based routing method and apparatus selects a path from a plurality of different paths for assignment to a flow. The path is selected based on a traffic performance measurements which identify relative congestion and performance of the different paths, so that traffic flows can be diverted away from network congestion points, thereby allowing network resources to be load balanced at a flow granularity. The present invention may be configured on physical or virtual links on an NE to enhance the forwarding of packets using the primary link and one or more alternate links to any given destination.

A method, a computer program product, and a computer system for monitoring conversational audio quality of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are provided. A monitoring system determines a size of an audio file and an available bandwidth. The monitoring system predicts time of receiving the audio file, based on the size and the bandwidth. The monitoring system determines whether the time of receiving the audio file exceeds a monitoring timer interval by a certain threshold. The monitoring system uses an intrusive testing method for monitoring call quality, in response to determining that the time of receiving the audio file exceeds the monitoring timer interval by the certain threshold.

A pin-hole firewall network communications device that includes a first port configured to communicate data packets over a packet network and a first counter module in communication with the first port. A pin-hole firewall module may be in communication with the first counter module. A call control module may be in communication with the first counter module and the pin-hole firewall function. The call control module is configured to communicate with the pin-hole firewall module to alter the communication of data packets through a firewall pin-hole. A second counter module may be in communication with the pin-hole firewall function and the call control module. A second port may in communication with the second counter module and the packet network and be configured to communicate data packets over a second node segment of the packet network.

A method, a computer program product, and a computer system for monitoring conversational audio quality of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are provided. A monitoring system determines a size of an audio file and an available bandwidth. The monitoring system predicts time of receiving the audio file, based on the size and the bandwidth. The monitoring system determines whether the time of receiving the audio file exceeds a monitoring timer interval by a certain threshold. The monitoring system uses an intrusive testing method for monitoring call quality, in response to determining that the time of receiving the audio file exceeds the monitoring timer interval by the certain threshold.

Systems and methods for managing network resources, including managing a generated virtualized data plane network using a central controller. Virtual machine (VM) resources are assigned to two or more different network functions at a local data center. Traffic is dynamically optimized based on at least one of aggregate traffic demands and quality of service (QoS) goals, and resource allocations and inter-data center (DC) bandwidth resources are determined for VMs for a plurality of services. VMs for each middlebox function and a routing plane for each service are configured based on the determined resource allocation, and flows are routed based on the resource allocation and one or more configured network paths using an overlay-routing framework.