COMMUNICATION ROUTING

• US 20100316022A1
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: PARKER, Benjamin James, TAN, Thomas H.K., KAKADIA, Deepak
• Granted Patent: US 8,761,163 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/332
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/121 by minimising delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing

Abstract

A method includes identifying a number of nodes in a network, where the nodes may correspond to cellular communication sites. The method may also include selecting some of the nodes as potential hub nodes and determining, for each of the potential hub nodes, a bandwidth needed to forward traffic from the potential hub node to a mobile switching office. The method may further include determining, for each of the potential hub nodes, bandwidths needed to forward traffic from the potential hub node to other ones of the nodes and calculating, for each of the potential hub nodes, costs or latencies associated with forwarding traffic from the potential hub node to the mobile switching office and to other ones of the nodes. The method may also include selecting a hub node based on the calculated costs and/or latencies.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of nodes in a network, the plurality of nodes comprising cellular communication sites;

selecting at least some of the nodes as potential hub nodes;

determining, for each of the selected potential hub nodes, a first bandwidth needed to forward traffic from the potential hub node to a first mobile switching office;

determining, for each of the selected potential hub nodes, bandwidths needed to forward traffic from the potential hub node to other ones of the plurality of nodes;

calculating, for each of the potential hub nodes, at least one of costs or latencies associated with forwarding traffic from the potential hub node to the first mobile switching office and to other ones of the nodes; and

selecting a hub node from the potential hub nodes based on the calculated at least one of costs or latencies.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring the plurality of nodes, other than the hub node, to forward received communications to the hub node.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, by the hub node, a communication from one of the plurality of nodes;

determining, by the hub node, whether a destination of the communication is associated with an other one of the plurality of nodes; and

forwarding, by the hub node, the communication to the other one of the plurality of nodes, when the destination of the communication is associated with an other one of the plurality of nodes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining whether a destination of the communication is associated with an other one of the plurality of nodes comprises:

accessing a database identifying a plurality of cellular communication sites, and

determining if a destination cellular communication site associated with the communication is included in the database.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, by the hub node, a communication from one of the plurality of nodes; and

forwarding, by the hub node, the communication to the first mobile switching office when a destination of the communication is not associated with an other one of the plurality of nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a second mobile switching office;

determining, for each of the selected potential hub nodes, a second bandwidth needed to forward traffic from the potential hub node to the second mobile switching office;

comparing, for each of the potential hub nodes, at least one of costs or latencies associated with forwarding traffic from the potential hub node to the first mobile switching office to at least one of cost or latencies associated with forwarding traffic from the potential hub node to the second mobile switching office;

selecting a hub node based on the at least one of costs or latencies; and

selecting one of the first or second mobile switching offices to which the hub node will forward communications based on the comparing.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining a first bandwidth comprises:

calculating at least one of a maximum or average amount of traffic transmitted between each of the plurality of nodes and the first mobile switching office over a period of time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining a first bandwidth further comprising:

applying a statistical multiplexing factor to the calculated amount of traffic to determine the first bandwidth; and

providing a link having the first bandwidth from the hub node to the first mobile switching office.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining bandwidths needed to forward traffic from the potential hub node to other ones of the plurality nodes comprises:

calculating a maximum or average amount of traffic transmitted from each of the nodes and all of the other ones of the plurality of nodes over a first period of time, the method further comprising;

providing a link, from each of the plurality of nodes other than the hub node, to the hub node, wherein each link has a bandwidth based on the calculated amount of traffic.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the hub node includes a serving gateway.

11. A device, comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive communications from a plurality of cellular communication sites; and

logic configured to;

determine whether a destination associated with a received communication is associated with one of the plurality of cellular communication sites,

forward the received communication to the one of the plurality of cellular communication sites when the destination is associated with one of the plurality of communication sites, and

forward the received communication to a mobile switching office when the destination is not associated with one of the plurality of communication sites.

12. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

a database configured to store information identifying the plurality of cellular communication sites, wherein when determining whether a destination associated with a received communication is associated with one of the plurality of cellular communication sites, the logic is configured to;

access the database to determine if the destination associated with the received communication is included in the database.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the logic comprises serving gateway logic.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the serving gateway logic is configured to act as termination point or an interface for an Internet protocol (IP) based connection between a cellular phone and an IP network.

15. The device of claim 11, wherein the device acts as a hub for the plurality of cellular communication sites, wherein each of the plurality of cellular communication sites forwards received communications to the device.

16. A method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of cellular communication sites in a network;

selecting a hub site from the plurality of cellular communication sites based on at least one of costs or latencies associated with forwarding communications in the network;

configuring the plurality of cellular communication sites, other than the hub site, to forward received communications to the hub site;

configuring the hub site to forward received communications destined for an other one of the plurality of cellular communication sites to the other one of the cellular communication sites; and

configuring the hub site to forward received communications not destined for an other one of the plurality of cellular communication sites to a mobile switching office.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

configuring the plurality of cellular communication sites in a star topology, wherein each of the plurality of communication sites is directly coupled to the hub site.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

calculating, for each of the plurality of cellular communication sites, a bandwidth needed to forward communications to other ones of the plurality of communications sites and to the hub site; and

providing a wired link from each of the plurality of cellular communication sites to the hub site based on the calculated bandwidth.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

calculating a second bandwidth needed to forward communications between all of the cellular communication sites and a first mobile switching office; and

providing a wired link from the hub site to the mobile switching office based on the calculated second bandwidth.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

grouping the plurality of cellular communication sites into a cluster based on locations of the cellular communication sites.