Bandwidth broker for cellular radio access networks

• US 20020181394A1
• Filed: 08/29/2001
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Wallentin, Bo Stefan Pontus, Partain, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,068,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5077 wherein the managed service relates to simple transport services, i.e. providing only network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1036 Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]

Abstract

An architecture for resource management of an IP-based cellular radio access network is presented. A measurement-based admission control scheme is used to monitor the load for each path in the network and QoS (quality of service) class and resource decisions are made based upon that information. A bandwidth broker is introduced in the cellular radio access network (RAN). The bandwidth broker processes the on-demand admission requests for IP resources by using the results of load control measurements. Since the requests can be processed very quickly using a simple table look-up, response times are fast, and the architecture is thus suitable for the cellular environment.

Claims

1. A method of access control in a communication network comprising the steps of:

determining a load status of the network between a call originating node and a call terminating node;

determining whether the load status permits a specified quality of service; and

if the specified quality of service is permitted, establishing a transport connection between the call originating node and the call terminating node.

2. A method of access control in a network comprising the steps of:

sending a probe packet through the network from a first node to at least one other node;

updating a portion of the probe packet at each node based on the load status of the node;

determining whether the load status permits a specified quality of service; and

if the specified quality of service is permitted, establishing a transport connection between the at least two nodes in the network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of sending a probe packet through the network is performed continuously.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of sending a probe packet through the network is performed at predetermined times.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of sending a probe packet through the network is performed in response to a network event.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of sending a probe packet is performed for each of a plurality of traffic classes.

7. An access control system in a network comprising:

at least one load measurement proxy, which probes the network to determine the congestion state of the network;

a bandwidth broker server in communication with the at least one load measurement proxy and correlating the determined congestion state information; and

a bandwidth broker client in communication with the bandwidth broker server and an application, wherein the bandwidth broker client queries the bandwidth broker server based on requirements of the application.

8. The access control system of claim 7, wherein the requirements of the application include at least two node addresses and a quality of service.

9. The access control system of claim 7, wherein the requirements of the application include at least one of an application traffic class, a peak bit rate, a packet delay, a delay variation, a packet loss, and a guaranteed bit rate.

10. The access control system of claim 7, wherein the load measurement proxy continuously probes the network.

11. The access control system of claim 7, wherein the load measurement proxy probes the network at predefined intervals.

12. The access control system of claim 7, wherein the load measurement proxy probes the network in response to a network event.

13. The access control system of claim 7, wherein the load measurement proxy determines the congestion state of the network for each of a plurality of traffic classes.

14. An access control system in a network comprising:

at least one load measurement proxy, which probes the network to determine the congestion state of the network;

a bandwidth broker server in communication with the at least one load measurement proxy and correlating the determined congestion state information; and

a plurality of bandwidth broker clients in communication with the bandwidth broker server and a respective one of a plurality of applications, wherein each of the plurality of bandwidth broker clients queries the bandwidth broker server based on requirements of the respective one of a plurality of applications.