Traffic control in an ip based network

• US 20050122900A1
• Filed: 12/21/2001
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Honkasalo, Zhi-Chun, Strandberg, Ove, Niemela, Kari, Tuulos, Martti, Raisanen, Vilho, Salo, Erik, Paski, Pertti, Ruutu, Jussi, Kynaslahti, Ari, Varanki, Kari-Matti
• Granted Patent: US 7,626,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/12 between access points and access point controllers

Abstract

According to the present invention, traffic control in an IP based network is provided. For this purpose, traffic situation in the network is measured, and the traffic flow is controlled on the basis of the measured traffic situation. Moreover, an operator may define rules for different measured situations, and the traffic flow is controlled on the basis of these rules.

Claims

1. A system for providing traffic control in an IP based communication network, said system comprising:

means for measuring traffic situation in said communication network; and

means for controlling traffic flow, on the basis of the measured traffic situation.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means are arranged to measure delay and/or loss of transmitted data.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means are arranged to measure or detect topology of said network and routing data of said network.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means are arranged to combine the measured topology and routing data and the measured traffic load data in order to obtain traffic situation data for a specific part of said network.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means are arranged to combine measured topology and routing data and measured traffic load data in order to obtain actual traffic situation data within each routing domain of a specific part of the network.

6. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a broker in a specific part of the network for providing the topology and routing data and a radio part for providing the traffic load data to said measuring means.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein said controlling means are arranged to perform incoming traffic flow control at gateways of said network towards a specific part of the network.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein said controlling means are arranged to provide to each gateway an allowed amount of traffic and priorities to be set for the traffic flow.

9. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a policy entity for providing rules to said controlling means, wherein said controlling means are arranged to control the traffic flow on the basis of the provided rules.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein said policy entity is arranged to provide rules for different measured traffic situations.

11. A system according to claim 9, wherein the rules are set by an operator.

12. A system according to claim 1, wherein specific parts of the network comprise a transport part and a core part of said network.

13. A system according to claim 1, wherein information on the bandwidth between IP address ranges, e.g. IP host address ranges of gateways (GWs) between BTS and GW site is presented to a control layer, preferably a 3GPP layer, so as to allow a call control, preferably a 3GPP call control, to verify that a new microflow of bandwidth X of Class Y can be admitted.

14. A system according to claim 1, wherein feedback of IP transport network QoS situation is provided for connection admission control, in particular 3GPP connection admission control.

15. A system according to claim 1, comprising IP RAN access network controlling admission control based on QoS feedback from the network.

16. A system according to claim 1, wherein Frame Protocol (FP) frames, in particular, DSCH FP frames for data transmission on lub, include information for supporting flow control, preferably between RNC and node B.

17. A system according to claim 16, wherein the FP frames include at least one of the following fields:

a field for identifying the number of a MAC;

-hS data unit in the frame,

a field indicating buffer status of one or more RNC buffers and informs node B, how much data belonging to the same data flow is still left in RNC,

a field containing UE Id type and a Common Transport Channel Priority Indicator (CmCH-PI),

a field indicating how many RNC buffers data has been applied into this FP frame,

a field indicating size of MAC SDU.

18. A system according to claim 1, wherein an IP transport resource manager (ITRM) is provided which is adapted for dynamically updating bandwidth information for base transceiver stations (BTSs) to use.

19. A system according to claim 1, including interfaces related to connection admission control, wherein interfaces from which ITRM gains information include at least one of the following interfaces:

Router notification interface,

Topology monitoring interface,

SNMP polling interface,

Interface towards Radio Network admission control,

Interface towards Management system.

20. A system according to claim 1, including interfaces related to connection admission control, wherein interfaces to which ITRM outputs control information include at least one of the following interfaces:

interface for configuring DiffServ and/or MPLS PIBs in IP elements,

interface for providing information for connection admission control, preferably towards gateway-type elements such as IP BTS and RAN GW,

interface for providing notifications of QoS status changes in IP Transport,

interface towards to management system.

21. A system according to claim 1, including an ITRM which comprises a Control software (SW) module having a Central IP Transport Bandwidth Manager (IP Tr bw Mgr), a bandwidth control element or function, a Differentiated Services tuning element or function, and a report storage element or function, the ITRM further comprising a Baseband software module having Topology, Routing and Bookkeeping elements or functions.

22. A system according to claim 21, the Bookkeeping element or function being adapted to receive, from the Central IP Transport Bandwidth Manager, traffic load information, per DS code point, related to traffic load from each monitored gateway to other monitored gateways, and QoS level information (preferably loss, delay), and sends, to the bandwidth Control, a notification when the traffic between some gateways has exceeded a given threshold range.

23. A system according to claim 21, the bandwidth Control further receiving from the measurements report storage information on the measured values, and sends to the Control software information on the bandwidth (in bits per second, bps) to be used for the gateways, and on code point sharing.

24. A system according to claim 21, wherein the measurements reports storage sends measurement information to the DS Tuning element and to the Policy Manager, the Policy Manager defining target values of the bandwidth to be used depending on set threshold range and area to be served by an element, e.g. gateway, or network, and informs the bandwidth Control on these set target values.

51. A system according to claim 1, wherein the traffic flow is the incoming traffic flow.

52. A system according to claim 1, wherein the IP based network is an IP based mobile network.

25. A method for providing traffic control in an IP based communication network, comprising the steps of:

measuring traffic situation in said network; and

controlling traffic flow on the basis of the measured traffic situation.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein said measuring step measures delay and/or loss of transmitted data.

27. A method according to claim 25, wherein said measuring step measures or detects actual topology of said network and routing data of said network.

28. A method according to claim 25, wherein said measuring step is arranged to combine the measured topology and routing data and the measured traffic load data in order to obtain traffic situation data for a specific part of said network.

29. A method according to claim 25, wherein said measuring step is arranged to combine measured topology and routing data and measured traffic load data in order to obtain traffic situation data within each routing domain of a specific part of the network.

30. A method according to claim 25, further comprising a broker in a specific part of the network for providing the topology and routing data and a radio part for providing the traffic load data to said measuring step.

31. A method according to claim 25, wherein said controlling step is arranged to perform traffic flow control, preferably incoming traffic flow control, at gateways of said network towards a specific part of the network.

32. A method according to claim 31, wherein said controlling step is arranged to provide to each gateway an allowed amount of traffic and priorities to be set for the traffic flow.

33. A method according to claim 25, further comprising a policy entity for providing rules to said controlling step, wherein said controlling step is arranged to control the incoming traffic flow on the basis of the provided rules.

34. A method according to claim 33, wherein said policy entity is arranged to provide rules for different measured traffic situations.

35. A method according to claim 33, wherein the rules are set by an operator.

36. A method according to claim 25, wherein specific parts of the network comprise a transport part and a core part of said network.

37. A method according to claim 25, wherein information on the bandwidth between IP address ranges, e.g. IP host address ranges of gateways (GWs) between BTS and GW site is presented to a control layer, preferably a 3GPP layer, so as to allow a call control, preferably a 3GPP call control, to verify that a new microflow of bandwidth X of Class Y can be admitted.

38. A method according to claim 25, wherein feedback of IP transport network QoS situation is provided for connection admission control, in particular 3GPP connection admission control.

39. A method according to claim 25, comprising IP RAN access network controlling admission control based on QoS feedback from the network.

40. A method according to claim 25, wherein Frame Protocol (FP) frames, in particular, DSCH FP frames for data transmission on lub, include information for supporting flow control, preferably between RNC and node B.

41. A method according to claim 40, wherein the FP frames include at least one of the following fields:

a field for identifying the number of a MAC;

-hS data unit in the frame,

a field indicating buffer status of one or more RNC buffers and informs node B, how much data belonging to the same data flow is still left in RNC,

a field containing UE Id type and a Common Transport Channel Priority Indicator (CmCH-PI),

a field indicating how many RNC buffers data has been applied into this FP frame,

a field indicating size of MAC SDU.

42. A method according to claim 25, wherein an IP transport resource manager (ITRM) is provided which is adapted for dynamically updating bandwidth information for base transceiver stations (BTSs) to use.

43. A method according to claim 25, including interfaces related to connection admission control, wherein interfaces from which ITRM gains information include at least one of the following interfaces:

Router notification interface,

Topology monitoring interface,

SNMP polling interface,

Interface towards Radio Network admission control,

Interface towards Management system.

44. A method according to claim 25, including interfaces related to connection admission control, wherein interfaces to which ITRM outputs control information include at least one of the following interfaces:

interface for configuring DiffServ and/or MPLS PIBs in IP elements,

interface for providing information for connection admission control, preferably towards gateway-type elements such as IP BTS and RAN GW,

interface for providing notifications of QoS status changes in IP Transport,

interface towards to management system.

45. A method according to claim 25, including an ITRM which comprises a Control software (SW) module having a Central IP Transport Bandwidth Manager (IP Tr bw Mgr), a bandwidth control element or function, a Differentiated Services tuning element or function, and a report storage element or function, the ITRM further comprising a Baseband software module having Topology, Routing and Bookkeeping elements or functions.

46. A method according to claim 45, the Bookkeeping element or function being adapted to receive, from the Central IP Transport Bandwidth Manager, traffic load information, per DS code point, related to traffic load from each monitored gateway to other monitored gateways, and QoS level information (preferably loss, delay), and sends, to the bandwidth Control, a notification when the traffic between some gateways has exceeded a given threshold range.

47. A method according to claim 45, the bandwidth Control further receiving from the measurements report storage information on the measured values, and sends to the Control software information on the bandwidth (in bits per second, bps) to be used for the gateways, and on code point sharing.

48. A method according to claim 45, wherein the measurements reports storage sends measurement information to the DS Tuning element and to the Policy Manager, the Policy Manager defining target values of the bandwidth to be used depending on set threshold range and area to be served by an element, e.g. gateway, or network, and informs the bandwidth Control on these set target values.

49. A method according to claim 25, wherein the traffic flow is the incoming traffic flow.

50. A method according to claim 25, wherein the IP based network is an IP based mobile network.

53. A measuring device in an IP based network, said measuring device being arranged to measure traffic situation in said network, wherein the measured traffic situation data are used for traffic flow control.

54. A control device in an IP based network, said control device being arranged to control traffic flow on the basis of traffic situation measured in said network.

55. A policy entity in an IP based network, said entity being arranged to provide rules for traffic situations measured in said mobile network so that traffic flow is controlled on the basis of the provided rules.