Method and apparatus for real-time collection of information about application level activity and other user information on a mobile data network

Abstract

Method and apparatus for real-time collection of information about application level activity and other user information on a mobile data network. A collector device communicates with a router in a mobile data network so that the collector can obtain substantially all of the data coming from the router in real-time and correlate the data to specific users. The collector device comprises a user identity subsystem, filter, and data transfer subsystem. The user identity subsystem inspects the data for source IP addresses and correlates them to corresponding mobile phone numbers. The filter then inspects the collected data and retains only application-level data. Lastly, the data transfer subsystem transfers the filtered data to a data reporting and analysis system.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A device for real-time, transparent monitoring of application-level data activity on a mobile data network including a network router, the device comprising:
 at least one processor;   a storage memory coupled to the at least one processor, the storage memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, are configured to cause the at least one processor to:
 receive a copy of substantially all data communications passing through the network router, the data communications including application-level data relating to specific users' use of applications on corresponding user mobile devices coupled to the data network; 
 filter the substantially all data communications to retain only the application-level data; 
 identify session requests in the application-level data from the specific users' use of the applications on the user mobile devices; 
 parse at least one of a uniform resource locator (URL) and a user agent in each of the session requests to identify specific destinations requested therein; 
 classify a content type of a webpage associated with the content requested in each of the session requests using information parsed from at least one of the URL and the user agent; 
 receive user identity information, the user identity information comprising a correlation of phone numbers associated with the user mobile devices with IP addresses and the application-level data; and 
 determine demographic information to associate with each of the specific users' phone numbers, wherein the demographic information is determined using at least some of the user identify information. 
   
     
     
         2 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to receive the copy of substantially all data communications from at least one of:
 a physical segment before the data communications have been received by any subsequent gateway or proxy; and 
 a port mirror of the network router. 
 
     
     
         3 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to detect new session request messages to identify new IP addresses and to detect specific network messages to determine corresponding mobile phone numbers. 
     
     
         4 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to inspect packetized data received from the mobile data network to detect layer 7 protocols used by each packet, the protocols including at least one of HTTP, WAP, RTSP, and SMPP. 
     
     
         5 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to determine and monitor a physical location of each user using the IP addresses and phone numbers. 
     
     
         6 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to determine demographic information using a carrier associated with the mobile data network. 
     
     
         7 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the demographic information includes information about a specific user. 
     
     
         8 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the demographic information includes information about a specific user mobile device. 
     
     
         9 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to collect out-of-band information including at least one of log files from the mobile data network, client-generated data, subscriber data, and Short Messaging Service Center data. 
     
     
         10 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to detect whether application-level data is an advertisement including an image. 
     
     
         11 . The device of  claim 1  wherein the processor is further configured to modify the correlation of phone numbers to IP addresses and application-level data in response to detecting new IP address assignments for a corresponding phone number.