CAPACITY MANAGEMENT FOR DATA NETWORKS

• US 20100306353A1
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.), Amdocs Systems Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Amdocs Systems Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tector, Elizabeth Graves, Briscoe, Peter John
• Granted Patent: US 8,023,429 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• 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 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service

Abstract

A method of processing capacity information is disclosed. The capacity information relates to data capacity in a data network in which a consumer circuit is carried on, and consumes bandwidth made available by, a bearer circuit. The method comprises storing, in a network information database, an entity representing the bearer circuit, and associating capacity information with the bearer circuit entity specifying a first bandwidth quantity defining a quantity of bandwidth made available by the bearer circuit. Also stored is an entity representing the consumer circuit, and capacity information is associated with the consumer circuit entity specifying a second bandwidth quantity defining a quantity of bandwidth allocated to the consumer circuit. The consumer capacity information is then associated with the bearer capacity information in the database to indicate that the second bandwidth quantity allocated to the consumer circuit is to be consumed from the first bandwidth quantity made available by the bearer circuit. The resulting capacity model can be used to support service provisioning, service assurance and SLA management, network engineering and network planning processes.

Claims

1. A data capacity modelling system having a data capacity model for modelling data capacity in a telecommunications network, the model specifying one or more communications circuits and capacity information associated with the one or more circuits, the capacity information comprising for at least one communications circuit, one or more bandwidth partitions each representing a portion of the bandwidth of the communications circuit.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein a consumer partition representing a consumer circuit is associated in the model with a bearer partition representing a bearer circuit, the association representing the allocation of bandwidth from the bearer partition to the consumer partition.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a network planning system adapted to access the data capacity model, analyse the capacity information, and generate planning data in dependence on the outcome of the analysis.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the planning data relates to the creation of additional capacity, the system being adapted to modify the configuration of a network in dependence on the planning data to create the additional capacity in the network.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the system is adapted to modify the data capacity model in dependence on the planning data to create the additional capacity in the model, and to modify the configuration of the network in response to the modification made to the capacity model.

6. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a service provisioning system adapted to access the data capacity model, the service provisioning system being further adapted to receive a service request for a telecommunications service having a data transmission component with at least one associated requirement, to assign a circuit to the service using the capacity model in dependence on the at least one requirement, and to provision the service using the assigned circuit.

7. A system according to claim 6, further comprising means for storing one or more service definitions, each defining a service available to users of a telecommunications network and specifying one or more capacity requirements associated with the service, and wherein the service request specifies one of the stored service definitions;

the system being adapted to assign one or more circuits to the service using the capacity model in dependence on the one or more capacity requirements, and to provision the service using the assigned circuit or circuits.

8. A network management system for managing a communications network, comprising:

database means for storing a capacity model modelling allocation of bandwidth to data circuits in the network;

a capacity management component operable to change the capacity model so as to add, remove or modify bandwidth allocations; and

a capacity implementation component for implementing capacity model changes, adapted to reconfigure the network in response to a change to the capacity model to thereby implement the capacity model change in the network.

9. A system according to claim 8, further comprising database means for storing a network model modelling network nodes and connections between network nodes, and a network implementation component adapted to reconfigure the network in response to changes made to the network model.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the capacity implementation component is adapted, in response to a change to the capacity model, to modify the network model to implement the capacity model change in the network model, whereby the modification to the network model is implemented in the network by the network implementation component.