Arrangement and Method Relating to Network Management

• US 20110188378A1
• Filed: 03/12/2007
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Ghamri-Doudane, Samir, Collins, Sandra, Sailhan, Francoise
• Granted Patent: US 8,582,470 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/236
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/32 for defining a routing cluster membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/02 Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop]

Abstract

The present invention relates to a network management system for management of a traffic network comprising a wired as well as a wireless network backbone. The wireless network backbone comprises relay nodes comprising wireless routers, some acting as gateways to the wired backbone network and some as relay bridge routers for access network access. The management system comprises a logical multilevel hierarchical network overlying the traffic network. It is adapted to use the infrastructure of the traffic network by using the relay nodes as management stations. It comprises grouping means adapted to perform a grouping process by arranging network nodes, comprising the relay nodes, in groups, each with selected a cluster head, on different hierarchical levels. Grouping control means are provided to control the grouping and allocation of cluster heads based on a number of grouping constraints given by one or more criteria to be fulfilled at each hierarchical level. Calculating means are adapted to calculate the criteria based on given metrics and modeling and verification means are provided for modeling the constraints and verifying fulfillment of said constraints at each hierarchical level.

Claims

1. A network management system for management of a traffic network comprising a wired network backbone and a wireless network backbone comprising a plurality of relay nodes comprising wireless routers, some of which acting as gateways to the wired backbone network and some of which acting as relay bridge routers supporting access of a number of access networks, said management system comprising a number of management stations arranged in a distributed manner and adapted to handle sub-networks of said traffic network,

wherein the management system comprises a logical multilevel hierarchical overlay network, with a top or central manager, based on the infrastructure of the traffic network and adapted to use the relay nodes as management stations, that it comprises grouping means adapted to perform a grouping process by arranging network nodes, comprising the relay nodes, in groups or clusters, each with a cluster head, on different hierarchical levels, and further comprising grouping control means adapted to control the grouping and allocation of cluster heads based on a number of grouping constraints given by one or more criteria to be fulfilled at each hierarchical level, calculating means adapted to calculate the criteria based on given metrics, and modelling and verification means for modelling the constraints and verifying fulfilment of said constraints at each hierarchical level.

2. A system according to claim 1,

wherein the grouping means are provided in the top or central manager.

3. A system according to claim 1,

wherein the grouping control means are external and in that they are adapted to statically group the nodes and statically select cluster heads.

4. A system according to claim 3,

wherein the external control means comprise administrating means or a network administrator.

5. A system according to claim 1,

wherein the grouping means comprise computing means running an algorithm incorporating said constraints and in that the central manager is adapted to collect data from the network needed to perform the grouping procedure.

6. A system according to claim 1,

wherein the processing means are distributed and comprise a distributed grouping algorithm containing said constraints and in that each network node is adapted to contain said distributed algorithm.

8. A system according to claim 1,

wherein a first grouping constraint is adapted to control the distribution of the gateways in the groups considering the numbers of gateways and the numbers of groups such that a substantially even distribution is obtained.

9. A system according to claim 1,

wherein a second grouping constraint is adapted to control the grouping such that within each group, each group member can be reached by the respective cluster head through a local path.

10. A system according to claim 9,

wherein a third grouping constraint is adapted to control the allocation of cluster heads such that in each group containing one gateway node, said gateway node is to be selected as cluster head.

11. A system according to claim 1,

wherein a fourth constraint is adapted to control the allocation of a cluster head in a group containing more than one gateway nodes such that the gateway node with the highest connectivity degree is selected as cluster head.

12. A system according to claim 1,

wherein a fifth constraint is adapted to control the allocation of a cluster head in a group with no gateway node such that the node closest to a default gateway is selected.

13. A system according to claim 8,

wherein the modellings and verification means are adapted to model at least one or more of said first to fifth constraints based on one or more of a number of parameters relating to numbers of clusters in the network, nodes constituting a particular group i, set of gateway nodes of group i, set of all gateways in the network, connectivity of set i, cluster head of group i, set of nodes constituting default path from a node n to a node nm, connectivity degree of node n, distance between a node n and a default gateway thereof.

14. A system according to claim 1,

wherein at least one of a first and second criterion is/are used for the constraint modelling, said criterion/criteria being defined by the metric physical distance and the metric temporal distance respectively, the metric physical distance comprising the hop count between two nodes and the metric temporal distance comprising the transmission time in expected round trip time between two nodes.

15. A system according to claim 14,

wherein the first criterion is the nearest physical distance or the nearest temporal distance between two nodes and the second criterion is the connectivity of a node being the number of nodes a given number of hops away from said node or the number of nodes a given time away from a node expressed in round trip time.

16. A system according to claim 1,

wherein the grouping means are adapted to optimize the number of groups in relation to network size, and the number of nodes in the groups with respect to network size and/or number of groups with regard to bandwidth consumption and message transmission overhead for managing purposes.

17. A system according to claim 1,

wherein each node comprises message generating means, message reception means and timer means, said message generating means being adapted to generate messages and send messages to node neighbours when a node is added to the network, and/or to generate and send messages for said establishment/selection of a cluster head, said message generating means activating the setting of a timer, the reception means being adapted to await response messages before lapse of the timer for grouping and establishing cluster heads.

7. (canceled)

18. A method for managing a traffic network comprising a wired network backbone and a wireless network backbone comprising a plurality of relay nodes comprising wireless routers, some of which acting as gateways to the wired backbone network and some of which comprising relay bridge routers for access of access networks, said method comprising the step of:

arranging a number of management stations in a distributed manner to handle sub-networks said traffic network,

wherein the arranging step comprises;

arranging the management system as a logical, hierarchical network overlying said traffic network;

using the infrastructure of the traffic network defining the relay nodes as management stations, by defining a number of metrics and representative of the traffic network characteristics to set up criteria;

performing, at different levels, a grouping process by arranging network nodes in groups or clusters;

for each group, on each level, selecting an overlying cluster head, and in the top layer providing a top, central manager, said grouping process comprising;

modelling a number of constraints based on said criteria;

verifying fulfilment of said constraints at each hierarchical level.

19. A method according to claim 18,

wherein the method comprises the steps of:

building the groups statically in a central manager acting as top manager;

selecting statically the cluster heads in the central manager.

20. A method according to claim 19,

wherein the method comprises the step of:

controlling the building of groups, selection of cluster heads in the central manager by a network manager.

21. A method according to claim 19,

wherein the method comprises the steps of:

sending election messages to selected cluster heads from the top or central manager;

setting a time limit in the control message, or a timer, within which, or before lapse of which a response is to be received from selected cluster heads, and if no response is received within the time limit, or lapse of the timer; and

selecting one or more new cluster heads;

notifying the group or cluster members about selected cluster head identity upon reception of a response message from a selected cluster head.

22. A method according to claim 18,

wherein the method comprises the step of:

using an algorithm, containing the constraints, in the top central manager to build groups, select cluster heads, maintain groups comprising handling, adding of/removal of nodes.

23. A method according to claim 18,

wherein the method comprises the steps of:

distributing an algorithm handling the grouping process to all nodes,

building groups, selecting cluster heads and maintaining groups comprising adding/removing nodes in a distributed manner using said distributed algorithms.

24. A method according to claim 18,

wherein the method comprises the step of:

building the overlay management network on top of an underlying Infrastructure Wireless Mesh Networks.

25. A method according to claim 18,

wherein the method comprises the steps of:

controlling the distribution of gateways in the groups considering the number of gateways in the network and the number of groups such that a substantially even distribution of gateways is obtained using a first constraint and/or;

controlling the grouping such that within each group, each group member can be reached by the respective cluster head through a local path, using a second constraint, and/or

controlling the grouping such that if a group contains one gateway, said gateway is selected as cluster head; and

/or

controlling the selection of cluster heads such that if a group contains several gateways, the gateway with the highest connectivity is selected.

26. A method according to claim 18,

wherein the method comprises the steps of:

defining metrics relating to physical distance and temporal distance;

computing criteria based on said metrics;

applying the criteria in a number of constraints, to be fulfilled;

verifying fulfilment of said constraints in the grouping procedure at each hierarchical level.