Mechanism for wireless access networks to throttle traffic during congestion
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving at an access network controller a request from a core network component to provide an additional connection to a mobile communications device that has one or more existing connections to a radio access network managed by the access network controller;
determining at the access network controller whether at least a portion of the radio access network is in an overload condition; and
sending at the access network controller a first message to the core network component that comprises a congestion indicator and a time value during which congestion control is in effect.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Exemplary methods and apparatuses are provided for throttling wireless traffic during congestion in radio access networks. Embodiments are provided that may assist service providers to reduce new requests for network resources during congestion and allow existing lower priority traffic to be pre-empted with a backoff time to allow a new request with higher priority traffic to be served. In response to a request for an additional connection to a radio access network from a terminal device that has one or more existing connections in the radio access network, an access network controller will compare a priority level of a requested connection to a priority level of other existing connections in the radio access network. The access network controller may reject or grant the request based on the comparison and send the terminal device a backoff time value and a congestion indicator.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
receiving at an access network controller a request from a core network component to provide an additional connection to a mobile communications device that has one or more existing connections to a radio access network managed by the access network controller; determining at the access network controller whether at least a portion of the radio access network is in an overload condition; and sending at the access network controller a first message to the core network component that comprises a congestion indicator and a time value during which congestion control is in effect. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. An access network controller configured to manage one or more radio access networks, monitor the one or more radio access networks for overload conditions, and receive requests via a core network component initiated by one or more mobile communications devices for connections to the one or more radio access networks, the access network controller comprising:
-
a processor configured to compare a priority level of a connection requested by a mobile communications device having at least one existing connection in one of the one or more radio access networks to a priority level for connections in a set of one or more existing connections in the one of the one or more radio access networks when the access network controller determines that at least a portion of the one of the one or more radio access networks is in an overload condition, and configured to generate a first message when the comparison results in a determination that the priority level of the connection requested is not equal to the priority level of connections in the set of the one or more existing connections, wherein the first message comprises a congestion indicator and a time value during which congestion control is in effect; and a transmitter configured to send the first message to the core network component. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. An access network controller comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:
-
means for receiving a request from a core network component to provide an additional connection to a mobile communications device that has one or more existing connections to the radio access network; means for determining that at least a portion of the radio access network is in an overload condition; and means for sending a message to the core network component that comprises a congestion indicator and a time value during which congestion control is in effect.
-
-
17. A communications device comprising:
-
a processor configured to generate, while having one or more connections to a radio access network, a first request to a core network for an additional connection to the radio access network, initialize a timer to a time value received in a response to the first request, wherein the time value represents a duration of time during which congestion control is in effect for an area impacted by congestion, and store a priority level under congestion control indicator received in the response to the first request; and a memory component associated with the processor for storing the time value of the timer and the priority level under congestion control indicator. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
Specification