APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR REAL-TIME MULTIMEDIA NETWORK TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT & CONTROL IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20100318652A1
• Filed: 06/10/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kent State University
• Original Assignee: Kent State University
• Inventors: Samba, Augustine S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate

Abstract

The invention is directed to network management systems and methods that provide substantially real-time network management and control capabilities of multimedia streaming traffic in telecommunications networks. The invention provides pre-emptive and autonomous network management and control capabilities, and may include shared intelligence of embedded systems—Heterogeneous Sensor Entities (HSE) and the Sensor Service Management (SSM) system. HSEs are distributed real-time embedded systems provisioned in various network elements. HSEs performs fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security network management functions in real-time; and real-time network management control activations and removals. SSM facilitates automated decision making, rapid deployment of HSEs and real-time provisioning of network management and control services. The service communication framework amongst various HSEs and the SSM is provided by the Heterogeneous Service Creation system. The proposed network management procedure provides real-time network management and control capabilities of multimedia traffic in wireless networks and clusters of independent networks respectively.

Claims

1. A network management system comprising:

a network management service creation system having a reference model which specifies procedures for a network management model, a network management function, a behavior segment which operates an at least one network element, and an attribute field which describes characteristics of a sensor entity;

an integrated network management system having a system for monitoring and controlling an at least one network element and bandwidth, facilitating provisioning which creates a management service throughout said integrated network management system, facilitating end-to-end network management and control of an at least one node, and providing reliability in said network management model; and

a sensor entity, having a system for communicating with said at least one network element, a means for communicating to facilitate operations with said integrated network management system, a system for embedding in said network element, and a system for communicating to prove abstractions of hardware resources.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said network management function is at least one server selected from the group consisting of fault management, configuration management, accounting management, performance management, and security management.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said behavior segment has a system for operating said network element.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said network element comprises equipment such as signaling systems, routers, switches, servers, multiplexers, Customer Premise Equipment, personal computer systems, PDAs, mobile devices, cell phones and combinations thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said sensor entity is autonomous.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said sensor entity further comprises a system for communicating with an at least one sensor entity.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said integrated network management system further comprises a system for communicating with an at least one cluster sensor entity.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein said cluster sensor entity is autonomous.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the services provided by the network management system are continuously and simultaneously managed in substantially real time.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the services provided by the network management system are represented as service waves providing a continuous stream of network management.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the services are selected from the group consisting of fault management, configuration management, accounting management, performance management, and security management and combinations thereof.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the system for monitoring and controlling an at least one network element and bandwidth facilitates substantially real-time provisioning to create a management service throughout said integrated network management system.

13. The system of claim 1, where the system for monitoring and controlling the at least one network element facilitates substantially real-time end-to-end network management and control of an at least one node.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor entity has a system for communicating with said at least one network element in substantially real-time, and a system for communicating to facilitate substantially real time operations with said integrated network management system.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said network management model further comprises a network element subsystem having defined therein a plurality of attributes, at least one of said attributes containing a representation of current snapshot of each sensor attribute in core network, logical topology, load levels, host type, coordinates, Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security and Active Controls.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said network management model further comprises a sensor manager subsystem having defined therein a plurality of attributes, at least one of said attributes containing a representation of Time stamped Sensor attributes:

Host, type, coordinates, Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security and Active Controls.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said network management model further comprises a service manager subsystem having defined therein a plurality of attributes, at least one of said attributes containing a representation of network management controls and service definitions of sensors in the core network.

18. A method operable in conjunction with real-time management of Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security and Control for updating information items in elements of wireless and converged network nodes and in the Sensor Service Management System, comprising the steps of:

(a) said sensor service management system defining and maintaining a master or golden copy of the network configurations, sensor attributes and network elements;

(b) said sensors determining which information items of said network elements are of a type which must change in real-time based on a pre-emptive diagnostics of said network elements and network clusters;

(c) said sensor systems generating instructions to the Service Management System and other sensors using bit mapped vectors to represent real-time status of network elements, network management types (FCAPS) and Control; and

non-optimal components of network elements;

(d) responsive to said instructions from a said sensor, recipient sensor performs real-time analysis and determines corrective actions to maintain optimal network operations and network services;

(e) responsive to said instructions from said sensor system, said sensor service management system updates the master or golden copy of the network topology and said network element attributes;

said sensor service management instructs operation support systems about the real-time status of the network and components of the said network elements.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of:

said sensor systems performing real-time control of heterogeneous streams of Fault, Configuration, Performance, Accounting, Security and Control services in wireless and converged networks.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of:

said sensor service management system performing real-time provisioning of heterogeneous streams of Fault, Configuration, Performance, Accounting, Security and Control services in wireless and converged networks.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of:

said service creation system and said sensor service management system perform service version management for Fault, Configuration, Performance, Accounting, Security and Control service instances.