METHOD AND APPARATUS OF PROVIDING RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND ADMISSION CONTROL SUPPORT IN A VPN

• US 20080259944A1
• Filed: 05/16/2008
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kadangode K. Ramakrishnan, Satish Raghunath
• Original Assignee: Kadangode K. Ramakrishnan, Satish Raghunath
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Kadangode K., Raghunath, Satish
• Granted Patent: US 7,907,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 Provisions for intelligent networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0062 Provisions for network management

Abstract

Method and apparatus for effectively supporting resource allocation and admission control of a Virtual Private Network in a service provider network.

Claims

1. A method for performing resource allocation and admission control of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in a communications network with a plurality of customer endpoints and a plurality of edge routers, said method comprising:

receiving a new customer VPN request; and

determining whether to admit or reject said new customer VPN request based upon an available capacity on paths between said plurality of provider edge routers (PEs) and customer traffic between said plurality of customer endpoints and said plurality of edge routers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring newly admitted customer traffic aggregates if said new customer VPN request is admitted; and

updating PE to PE path and customer traffic matrices.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

computing available capacity; and

making provisioning decisions.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

provisioning edge resources to optimize routing table sizes and backhaul distance upon receiving said new customer VPN request; and

computing initial traffic matrix using customer specified peak rate traffic information and available capacity information.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

requesting capacity increase in provisioned capacity if said new customer VPN request is rejected in said determining step.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said computing initial traffic matrix comprises:

finding said traffic matrix TM(i,j) for traffic from one of said customer endpoints, CE_i to one of said customer endpoints, CE_j using a gravity model and the customer specified peak rate traffic information as inputs, for each customer endpoint traffic source i and traffic sink j, where i<

>

j; and

initiating PE-PE traffic monitoring for all traffic source and sink pair (i,j)

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said initiating PE-PE traffic monitoring step comprises:

measuring PE-PE traffic statistics;

increasing available capacity allocated to a PE-PE path if there has been a request for increase or if utilization threshold is exceeded; and

checking if higher link bandwidth is needed.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining whether to admit or reject said new customer VPN request step comprises:

obtaining a capacity available along a PE-PE path for each source-destination pair; and

examining if expected traffic deduced from said traffic matrix along the PE-PE path can be admitted without violating assurances on loss-rates.

9. An apparatus for performing resource allocation and admission control of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in a communications network with a plurality of customer endpoints and a plurality of edge routers, comprising:

means for receiving a new customer VPN request; and

means for determining whether to admit or reject said new customer VPN request based upon an available capacity on paths between said plurality of provider edge routers (PEs) and customer traffic between said plurality of customer endpoints and said plurality of edge routers.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

means for monitoring newly admitted customer traffic aggregates if said new customer VPN request is admitted; and

means for updating PE to PE path and customer traffic matrices.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

means for computing available capacity; and

means for making provisioning decisions.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

means for provisioning edge resources to optimize routing table sizes and backhaul distance upon receiving said new customer VPN request; and

means for computing initial traffic matrix using customer specified peak rate traffic information and available capacity information.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

means for requesting capacity increase in provisioned capacity if said new customer VPN request is rejected in said determining step.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said means for computing initial traffic matrix comprises:

means for finding said traffic matrix TM(i,j) for traffic from one of said customer endpoints, CE_i to one of said customer endpoints, CE_j using a gravity model and the customer specified peak rate traffic information as inputs, for each customer endpoint traffic source i and traffic sink j, where i<

>

j; and

means for initiating PE-PE traffic monitoring for all traffic source and sink pair (i,j)

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said means for initiating PE-PE traffic monitoring comprises:

means for measuring PE-PE traffic statistics;

means for increasing available capacity allocated to a PE-PE path if there has been a request for increase or if utilization threshold is exceeded; and

means for checking if higher link bandwidth is needed.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said means for determining whether to admit or reject said new customer VPN request comprises:

means for obtaining a capacity available along a PE-PE path for each source-destination pair; and

means for examining if expected traffic deduced from said traffic matrix along the PE-PE path can be admitted without violating assurances on loss-rates.

17. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising of:

receiving a new customer VPN request; and

determining whether to admit or reject said new customer VPN request based upon an available capacity on paths between said plurality of provider edge routers (PEs) and customer traffic between said plurality of customer endpoints and said plurality of edge routers.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

monitoring newly admitted customer traffic aggregates if said new customer VPN request is admitted; and

updating PE to PE path and customer traffic matrices.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:

computing available capacity; and

making provisioning decisions.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

provisioning edge resources to optimize routing table sizes and backhaul distance upon receiving said new customer VPN request; and

computing initial traffic matrix using customer specified peak rate traffic information and available capacity information.