INTELLIGENT NETWORK PLANNING AND PROVISIONING TOOL

• US 20080101242A1
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tellabs Operations Incorporated (Infinera Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Tellabs Operations Incorporated (Infinera Corp.)
• Inventors: Sadler, Jonathan B., Scholtens, Dale A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,488,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/238
• 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 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour

Abstract

An intelligent network planning and provisioning tool is provided. The intelligent network planning and provisioning tool includes a forecaster coupled to a network control plane. The forecaster receives an estimate of initial network resources from a user and generates a set of link costs and constraints for use by the network control plane in making routing decisions for a network. The network control plane transmits provisioning experience information, representing network traffic demands received by, and provisioning decisions made by, the network control plane, back to the forecaster. When the forecaster receives the provisioning experience from the network control plane, the forecaster generates a new set of link costs that are transmitted to the network control plane for use in making further provisioning decisions. The forecaster may optionally generate link costs, termed “smart costs”, that may be used to route traffic through the network using preferred links.

Claims

1. A method of intelligent network planning, comprising:

generating by a network planning tool, first link costs for a network based on a set of initial network resources and a set of temporal demands;

transmitting by the network planning tool, a feed-forward of the first link costs, to a control plane of the network;

determining by the control plane, routing decisions for the network using the first link costs and actual network demands;

transmitting by the control plane, a feed-back of a provisioning experience including the routing decisions and the actual network demands, to the network planning tool;

generating by the network planning tool, second link costs for the network using the provisioning experience;

transmitting by the network planning tool, the second link costs, to the control plane; and

determining by the control plane, additional routing decisions using the second link costs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning experience further comprises regularly scheduled network demands transmitted by an operation support system to the network planning tool.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning experience further includes actual network traffic demands and routing decisions transmitted to the network planning tool by an element management system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of second link costs further comprises:

generating a revised demand forecast for the network using the actual network demands; and

modifying the temporal demands in accordance with the revised demand forecast.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the generating of second link costs further comprises using a link inventory along with the demand forecast.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second link costs are generated using link preferences for routing network traffic.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the link costs are smart link costs and determining routing decisions for the network further comprises utilizing the smart link costs to assign specific links to a traffic demand presented to the network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating by the network planning tool, an optimal forecast using the set of initial network resources and the actual network demands.

9. A system for intelligent network planning, comprising:

a network planning tool coupled to a control plane of a network,

the network planning tool adapted to feed-forward to the control plane link costs generated using a set of network resources and a set of demands,

the control plane adapted to feed-back to the network planning tool routing decisions based on the link costs and actual network demands for use in generating new link costs by the network planning tool for use by the control plane.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising an operation support system adapted to transmit regularly scheduled network demands to the to the network planning tool.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising an element management system adapted to transmit actual network traffic demands and routing decisions to the network planning tool.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the network planning tool is further adapted to generate link costs by generating a revised demand forecast for the network using the actual network demands and modifying the temporal demands in accordance with the revised demand forecast.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the network planning tool is further adapted to generate link costs using a link inventory along with the demand forecast generated by a forecaster.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the network planning tool is further adapted to generate link costs using link preferences for routing network traffic.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the control plane is further adapted to use smart link costs to determine routing decisions for the network utilizing the smart link costs to assign specific links to a traffic demand presented to the network.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the network planning tool is further adapted to generate an optimal forecast using the set of initial network resources and the actual network demands.

17. A method of operating a control plane for a network, comprising:

receiving by the control plane from a network planning tool, a feed-forward of first link costs generated using a set of initial network resources and a set of temporal demands;

determining routing decisions for the network using the first link costs and actual network demands;

transmitting by the control plane to the network planning tool, a feed-back of a provisioning experience including the routing decisions and the actual network demands;

receiving by the control plane from the network planning tool, second link costs generated by the network planning tool using the provisioning experience; and

determining by the control plane, additional routing decisions using the second link costs.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the provisioning experience further includes regularly scheduled network demands, the method further comprising transmitting the regularly scheduled network demands by the control plane to the network planning tool.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the provisioning experience further includes actual network traffic demands, the method further comprising transmitting the actual network traffic demands by the control plane to the network planning tool.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the second link costs comprises generating a revised demand forecast for the network using the actual network demands and modifying the temporal demands in accordance with the revised demand forecast.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the second link costs are generated using a link inventory along with the demand forecast.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the second link costs are generated using link preferences for routing network traffic.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the link costs are smart link costs, the executable instructions further comprising determining routing decisions for the network utilizing the smart link costs to assign specific links to a traffic demand presented to the network.

24. A control plane for a network, comprising:

a router comprising;

a link cost receiver configured to receive from a network planning tool, a feed-forward of first link costs generated using a set of initial network resources and a set of temporal demands;

a routing decision generator configured to determine routing decisions for the network using the first link costs and actual network demands; and

an actual demand transmitter configured to transmit to the network planning tool a feed-back of a provisioning experience including the routing decisions and the actual network demands.

25. The control plane for a network of claim 24, further comprising an element management system configured to transmit to the network planning tool, actual network traffic demands and routing decisions as part of the provisioning experience.

26. The control plane for a network of claim 24, wherein the link cost receiver is further configured to receive from the network planning tool, second link costs generated by the network planning tool using the provisioning experience.

27. The control plane for a network of claim 26, wherein the second link costs are generated by generating a revised demand forecast for the network using the actual network demands and modifying the temporal demands in accordance with the revised demand forecast.

28. The control plane for a network of claim 24, wherein the link costs are generated using a link inventory along with the demand forecast.

29. The control plane for a network of claim 24, wherein the second link costs are generated using link preferences for routing network traffic.

30. The control plane for a network of claim 24, wherein the link costs are smart link costs and the routing decision generator if further configured to determinine routing decisions for the network utilizing the smart link costs to assign specific links to a traffic demand presented to the network.