System and method for using centralized network performance tables to manage network communications

• US 20080049776A1
• 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: Bugenhagen, Michael K., Morrill, Robert J., Wiley, William L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,107,366 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/419
• 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 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding

Abstract

A system for centrally controlling packet network communications may include an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets over a packet network with multiple network communications devices, a processing unit in communication with the I/O unit and configured to communicate with the network communications devices via respective node segments, and a memory in communication with the processing unit and configured to store a table. The processing unit may be configured to receive and store network performance information of node segments generated by the network communications devices. The network performance information may be stored in the table in association with indicia representative of the node segments, respectively. The processing unit may further be configured to control network communications by the network communications devices over the node segments based on the network performance information stored in the table.

Claims

1. A system for centrally controlling packet network communications, said system comprising:

an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets over a packet network with multiple network communications devices;

a processing unit in communication with said I/O unit and configured to communicate with the network communications devices via respective node segments; and

a memory in communication with said processing unit and configured to store a table, said processing unit configured to receive and respectively store network performance information of node segments generated by the network communications devices in association with indicia representative of the node segments in the table, said processing unit further configured to control network communications by the network communications devices over the node segments based on the network performance information stored in the table.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information is data generated by each of the network communications devices receiving performance information data packets from other network communications devices over node segments and computing network performance information.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the performance information data packets are IEEE 802.1AG data packets.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information includes information representative of transmission performance of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information represents bandwidth of data packets communicated over the respective node segments.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the bandwidth includes bandwidth of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments during a time period.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to:

determine whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment crosses a predetermined threshold value; and

generate a notification in response to determining that at least one network performance information value of a node segment crossed the predetermined threshold.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to:

determine, prior to initiating a communications session, whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment has crossed a predetermined threshold value; and

in response to determining that at least one network performance information value crossed a predetermined threshold value, initiate the communications session over a different node segment.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to store multiple tables of historical network performance information.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to communicate a request to each network communications device located on the packet network requesting network performance information stored at the respective network communications devices.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to compute statistics associated with network performance information.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to update the table periodically.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein network performance information for each node segment includes network performance information associated with data packet communications for both directions of data packet communications over respective node segments.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the table is configured as multiple, related tables and wherein the tables include line address information associated with end-users and physical locations of node segments.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said processing unit is further configured to generate a value associated with operational status of each node segment in the table.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein said processing unit is further configured to generate an operational status indicator indicative of the operation status of each node segment stored in the table and store the operational status indicators in the tables in association with each node segment.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein said processing unit is further configured to:

receive a request for a call to be set up;

determine origination and destination end-points for the call;

determine a first set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could to be communicated;

determine operational status of the first set of node segments by accessing the operational status indicators of the node segments determined to be between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated; and

if the operation status of the first set of node segments determined to be between the origination and destination end-points are determined to be operational, initiate the call between the end-points over the first set of node segments,

otherwise determine a second set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated that are operational and initiate the call between the origination and destination end-points and over the second set of node segments.

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

determining, prior to initiating a communications session, whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment has crossed a predetermined threshold value; and

in response to determining that at least one network performance information value crossed a predetermined threshold value, initiating the communications session over a different node segment.

18. A method for centrally controlling packet network communications, said method comprising:

communicating with at least one network communications device over a packet network to collect network performance information of node segments providing communications between multiple network communications devices on the packet network;

respectively storing network performance information in association with indicia representative of the node segments; and

controlling network communications by the network communications devices over the node segments based on the stored network performance information.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein storing the network performance information includes storing the network performance information in a table.

20. The method according to claim 18, further comprising receiving the network performance information from the network communications devices, the network communications devices generating the network performance information using performance information data packets being communicated over the node segments by the network communications devices.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the performance information data packets communicated over the node segments are IEEE 802.1AG data packets.

22. The method according to claim 18, further comprising storing the network performance information arranged by network performance information of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments.

23. The method according to claim 18, wherein storing network performance information includes storing network performance information representing bandwidth of data packets communicated over the respective node segments.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein storing the performance information representing bandwidth includes performance information representative of bandwidth of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments during a time period.

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

determining whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment crosses a predetermined threshold value; and

generating a notification in response to determining that at least one network performance information value of a node segment crossed the predetermined threshold.

27. The method according to claim 18, further comprising storing multiple tables of historical network performance information.

28. The method according to claim 18, further comprising communicating a request to each network communications device located on the packet network requesting network performance information stored at the respective network communications devices.

29. The method according to claim 18, further comprising computing statistics associated with network performance information.

30. The method according to claim 18, further comprising updating the network performance information periodically.

31. The method according to claim 18, wherein storing network performance information for the node segments includes storing network performance information associated with data packet communications for both directions of data packet communications over respective node segments.

32. The method according to claim 18, wherein storing network performance information includes storing network performance information in a table configured as multiple, related tables, and further comprising storing line address information associated with end-users and physical locations of node segments.

33. The method according to claim 32, further comprising generating a value associated with operational status of each node segment.

34. The method according to claim 33, further comprising:

generating an operational status indicator associated with each node segment, the operational status indicator being indicative of the operation status of each node segment; and

storing the operational status indicators in association with each node segment.

35. The method according to claim 34, further comprising:

receiving a request for a call to be set up;

determining origination and destination end-points for the call;

determining a first set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could to be communicated;

determining operational status of the first set of node segments by accessing the operational status indicators of the node segments determined to be between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated; and

if the operation status of the first set of node segments determined to be between the origination and destination end-points are determined to be operational, initiating the call between the end-points over the first set of node segments,

otherwise, determining a second set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated that are operational and initiating the call between the origination and destination end-points and over the second set of node segments.