Methods and apparatus for controlling bandwidth and service in a communications system

• US 20050226251A1
• Filed: 04/01/2004
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Services Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Krzanowski, Roman M., McManus, Jean M., Wilkes, Charles Thomas, Garrett, William Ed Jr., Leiden, Stevan Harvey
• Granted Patent: US 7,573,819 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.410
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2883 ATM DSLAM
• 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 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/765 triggered by the end-points
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/825 Involving tunnels, e.g. MPLS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for performing admission control and bandwidth allocation from a centralized network location in a communications system which supports various IP based services are described. Admission control is performed based on user interaction with a Web interface hosted by a centralized control. Users may subscribe/unsubscribe to premium (e.g., high bandwidth) services. Admission control to the premium services is controlled by the centralized control. The control interfaces with a gateway (edge) router which implements service decisions. The centralized control maintains a database of the users, links in the network, network elements, and estimates of allocated/free bandwidth on the links. In some embodiments, traffic, not under centralized control, e.g., from business switches and/or legacy gateway routers may be injected onto the network links. Load estimation methods are used to account for bandwidth consumed on the links by this injected traffic.

Claims

1. A centralized method of providing admission control functionality in a communications system including a plurality of nodes, said plurality of nodes including a control node, at least a first node coupled to a second node by a first link, a third node coupled to the second node by a second link and a fourth node coupled to the third node by a third link, together by communications links connected together by links, the method comprising:

maintaining a set of link bandwidth utilization information, the set of link bandwidth utilization information including bandwidth utilization statistics for at least each of the first, second and third nodes; and

operating the control node to receive a service request corresponding to the first node and to determine from said maintained set of link bandwidth utilization information if there is sufficient bandwidth available on at least said second and third links to satisfy said service request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when it is determined from said maintained set of link bandwidth utilization information that there is sufficient bandwidth available to satisfy said service request;

operating the control node to signal at least one of said first, second, third and fourth nodes that said service request has been granted; and

operating the control node to update link bandwidth utilization statistics for at least two of said first, second and third links to reflect bandwidth that will be utilized by the requested service that was granted.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating the control node to generate the link bandwidth utilization information corresponding to said second link from an estimate of bandwidth that will be used on said second link by services over which said control node does not have admission control and a sum of services which will used said second link which said control node authorized.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said link bandwidth utilization information corresponding to said second link is further generated as a function of a link utilization scaling factor.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein best effort Internet traffic is carried over said second link and where said link bandwidth utilization information corresponding to said second link is further generated as a function of the physical link capacity of links used to couple Internet service users to said second link and an average of the physical link capacity which is used over a period of time by said users for Internet service.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said control node generates a control message to reduce the amount of bandwidth allocated to best effort traffic on one of said first, second and third links, when a service request for a service requiring a guaranteed amount of bandwidth on said one of said first, second and third links is received and said guaranteed amount of bandwidth is not available due to best effort traffic on said one of said first, second and third links.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when it is determined from said maintained set of link bandwidth utilization information that there is insufficient bandwidth available to satisfy said service request; and

determining if a user to whom said service request corresponds is using other services which can be terminated to provide the bandwidth required to satisfy said service request.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

when it is determined that said user to whom said service request corresponds is not using other services which can be terminated to provide the bandwidth required to satisfy said service request, operating the control node to send a messagedenying said service request.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

when it is determined that said user to whom said service request corresponds is using other services which can be terminated to provide the bandwidth required to satisfy said service request, presenting the user with the operation of terminating the services being provided to said user which can be used to provide the bandwidth required to satisfy the service request.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

operating the control node to receive a reply from said user indicating a desire to terminate services or not to terminate services; and

denying said service request when said reply indicates a desire not to terminate services; and

granting said service request when said reply indicates a desire to terminate services.

11. The method of claim 10, where said step of granting said service request includes:

operating the control node to terminate at least some services provided to said user and to reallocate at least some of the bandwidth used by said services to providing the requested service.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein presenting the user with the operation of terminating the services includes:

providing information to said user through a web interface indicating which services are available for termination.

13. A communications system comprising:

a first node;

a second node coupled to the first node by a first link;

a third node coupled to the second node by a second link;

a fourth node coupled to the third node by a third link; and

a control node coupled to at least one of said first, second, third, and further nodes, said control node including and maintaining a set of link bandwidth utilization information, the set of link bandwidth utilization information including bandwidth utilization statistics for at least each of the first, second and third nodes;

said control node further including;

means for receiving a service request corresponding to the first node and to determine from said maintained set of link bandwidth utilization information if there is sufficient bandwidth available on at least said second and third links to satisfy said service request.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said control node further includes:

means for signaling at least one of said first, second, third and fourth nodes that said service request has been granted when it is determined from said maintained set of link bandwidth utilization information that there is sufficient bandwidth available to satisfy said service request;

; and

means for updating link bandwidth utilization statistics for at least two of said first, second and third links to reflect bandwidth that will be utilized by the requested service that was granted.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein said control node further comprises:

means for generating link bandwidth utilization information corresponding to said second link from an estimate of bandwidth that will be used on said second link by services over which said control node does not have admission control and a sum of services which will used said second link which said control node authorized.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said link bandwidth utilization information corresponding to said second link is further generated as a function of a link utilization scaling factor.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein best effort Internet traffic is carried over said second link and where said link bandwidth utilization information corresponding to said second link is further generated as a function of the physical link capacity of links used to couple Internet service users to said second link and an average of the physical link capacity which is used over a period of time by said users for Internet service.