Method and system for monitoring the health of wireless telecommunication networks

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring the health of a wireless telecommunication network. Network health is monitored without placing an administrative burden on the carrier network itself, instead, this burden is placed on components that lie outside the carrier network and pass communications through it. The data service provider infrastructure sends a request to a mobile device, asking that it return data regarding its location. The carrier networks handling the request insert location information into the packet that is sent to the mobile device, but this information is not sent to the data service provider infrastructure itself. The mobile device harvests this location information from the packets it receives and inserts it in a response packet that finds its way back to the data service provider infrastructure. The data service provider infrastructure is able to collate this location data and to analyze it, determining the carrier network's health.