System and method for load balancing network resources using a connection admission control engine

• US 20080049753A1
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Heinze, John M., McNaughton, James L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,144,587 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/247 using M:N active or standby paths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• 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 47/726 Reserving resources in multiple paths to be used simultaneously by balancing the load H04L47/125
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/746 Reaction triggered by a failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

A system and method for load balancing network resources. Network performance information regarding data flow through a network is gathered using performance information packet data packets. The data flow is distributed through access points of the network using connection control admission control engines. The distributing includes routing the data flow to more efficiently use the network resources based on the PIP data packets.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing network resources, said method comprising:

gathering network performance information regarding data flow through a network using performance information packet (PIP) data packets; and

distributing the data flow through access points of the network using connection admission control (CAC) engines,

wherein the distributing includes routing the data flow to more efficiently use the network resources based on the PIP data packets.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering further comprises:

determining an application associated with packets in the data flow, wherein the distributing is performed based on a priority of the application.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the distributing further comprises:

limiting the data flow based on parameters.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

determining thresholds for real-time data and non real-time data based on service level agreements, quality of service guarantees and a delivery policy; and

performing the distributing based on the thresholds.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data flow is rerouted around a node experiencing problems.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein distributing further comprises:

communicating data to a customer through a first CAC engine associated with a first access point and a second CAC engine associated with a second access point; and

balancing the data communicated to the customer so that approximately half of the data is passed through the first CAC engine and the second CAC engine.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

communicating all the data through the second CAC engine in response to determining the first access point is experiencing problems.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein one of the parameters is packets associated with a program application.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the gathering step comprises:

determining a status of the network by checking a status of the access points.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining is performed using any of the network performance information, network pings, and network traces.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein distributing further comprises:

determining a network connection for a connecting customer based on the network performance information that provides details about a plurality of network connections, wherein the network connection provides the best quality of service.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the determining comprises:

comparing ratings of network connections to determine the best quality of service.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein distributing further comprises:

switching a network connection for one or more of a plurality of customers from a first network connection to a second network connection in response to determining the second network connection offers better quality of service.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the thresholds are stored in a table.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining further comprises:

isolating a root cause of a performance problems for an access node across a plurality of Ethernet domains and a plurality of equipment; and

determining a corrective action for the access node.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

controlling connection admission control engines in order to temporarily block traffic flow in response to determining the access node is experiencing failure.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein controlling further comprises:

rerouting packet traffic around the access point.

18. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

delivering instructions to a plurality of elements including a network control center indicating the access node is experiencing failure.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the correction action is any of a manual or automatic rerouting around the access node or resetting a policy or rule in the access node.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the determining the corrective action is performed by a correlation engine that selects the corrective action by comparing the comparison against rule-based statistics.

21. The method according to claim 18, wherein the instructions are alarms indicating the access node is experiencing failure.

22. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

managing a CAC engine in a different network to perform load balancing.

28. The access node of claim 15, further comprising:

a role based engine configured to provide solutions for the access node experiencing the performance problem.

23. An access node for controlling network resources, said access node comprising:

a CAC engine configured to communicate data between a customer and a data stream of an communications network, the CAC engine configured to evaluate network performance information of an communications network to gather network performance information regarding the communications network compare the network performance information against thresholds, determine an access node experiencing a performance problem based on a result, and take a corrective action for the performance problem based on the result; and

a correlation engine in communication with the CAC engine configured to compare the network performance information against values in a table to determine the result.

24. The access node of claim 23, wherein the correlation engine sends an alert to a plurality of access nodes to correct a network problem.

25. The access node of claim 23, further comprising:

a network cache of storing data and network performance information for reference and historical usage.

26. The access node of claim 23, further comprising:

a performance information table configured to store the network performance information.

27. The access node of claim 23, wherein the CAC engine request trace information for a failing access node.

29. A server for handling network reservations, said server comprising:

a processor for processing a set of instructions; and

a memory for storing the set of instructions, wherein the set of instructions gather network performance information regarding data flow through a network, and distribute the data flow through access points of the network using connection admission control engines, wherein the distributing includes rerouting the data flow to more efficiently use the network resources based on the PIP data packets.