Method and apparatus for improved call control scheduling in a distributed system with dissimilar call processors

• US 6,061,442 A
• Filed: 03/07/1997
• Issued: 05/09/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bhat, Kabekode Venkata
• Primary Examiner(s): Wolinsky, Scott
• Application Number:
  US08/813,532
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 379/268, 379/269, 379/242, 379/243, 379/244, 379/112, 379/113, 370/229, 370/230, 370/231, 370/232, 370/233, 395/682, 395/672, 395/673, 395/674, 395/675
• US Class Current: 379/269
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/563 Signalling, e.g. protocols, reference model
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/365 Load metering of control unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13056 Routines, finite state machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1307 Call setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13107 Control equipment for a part of the connection, distributed control, co-processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13164 Traffic (registration, measurement,...)
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13166 Fault prevention
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1329 Asynchronous transfer mode, ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13299 Bus
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13344 Overflow
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/54533 Configuration data, translation, passwords, databases

Abstract

A call scheduling and assignment method and apparatus that schedules each call request on an application processor of a multiple processor system that will process the call request in the smallest amount of time. This method and apparatus then places response time as the important criterion over equal utilization of application processors in a multiple processor system. This method and apparatus recognizes that some application processors are able to respond faster than others, even when operating at the same or higher call load as other processors in the system. For such very common situations, the faster processors can and should be allowed to process a proportionally greater amount of the call processing load. By doing so, the calling customer receives a shorter wait and the system owner receives more call revenue for the same system equipment.

Claims

1. In an automatic call distribution system having a plurality of diverse application call processors, a method for directed call control scheduling comprising the steps of:

a. determining if a call request is present and if there is not a call request present repeating step a, otherwise continuing to step b;

b. determining if one of said application call processors has been assigned to the call request and if an application call processor has been assigned to the call request then continuing to step c, otherwise proceeding to step d;

c. terminating the call request, updating application call processor utilization data table entries and returning to step a;

d. using a computed response time data T(i) for i=1 to N for each of the 1 to N application call processors of class i with performance data of S(i) for i=1 to N of each of the 1 to N application call processors in class i and utilization data U(i) for i=1 to N to find one application call processor that has a minimum response time T(j) of the j-th application call processor of the plurality of application processors to fulfill the call request;

e. determining if the minimum response time T(j) is greater than maximum allowable response time τ and

if the minimum response time T(j) is greater than maximum allowable response time τ

continuing to step f, otherwise proceeding to step g;

f. shedding said call request and returning to step a;

g. updating expected utilization of U(j) of the j-th application processor for call processing and assigning said call request to the j-th application processor for call processing; and

h. returning to step a.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said updating of application call processor utilization table entries comprises updating entries for U(j)=U(j)-S(j)/p;

where the first U(j) is the updated utilization of the j-th application processor, the second U(j) is the utilization previous to the update, S(j) is the performance of the j-th application call processor, and p is the mean length of each call.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said computed response time T(i) for each of the N application call processors is computed by the following C language program

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the updating of utilization U(j) is according to the C language expression U(j)=U(j)+S(j)/p;

where the first U(j) is the updated utilization of the j-th application processor, the second U(j) is the utilization previous to the update, S(j) is the performance of the j-th application call processor, and p is the mean length of each call.

5. In an automatic call distribution system having a plurality of diverse application call processors, an apparatus for directed call control scheduling comprising:

means for determining if a call request is present;

means for determining if one of said application call processors has been assigned to the call request and if an application processor has not been assigned to the call request then using a computed response time data T(i) for i=1 to N of N application call processors with performance data of S(i) for i=1 to N and utilization data U(i) for i=1 to N finding one application call processor that has a minimum response time T(j) of the j-th application call processor of the plurality of application call processors to fulfill the call request; and

means for determining if the response time T(j) is greater than maximum allowable response time τ and

if the response time T(j) is greater than maximum allowable response time τ

shedding said call request and if the response time T(j) is not greater than maximum allowable response time τ

updating an expected utilization of U(j) of the j-th application processor for call processing and assigning said call request to the j-th application processor for call processing.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein all of the means are provided by an administrative application processor executing a program that includes a method for assigning an application processor of the plurality of diverse processors that is able to respond to a call request in the fastest time.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the administrative application processor is provided by a portion of each application processor.

8. In an automatic call distribution system having a plurality of N diverse application call processors, a method for directed call control scheduling comprising the steps of:

a. determining if a call request is present and if there is not a call request present repeating step a, otherwise continuing to step b;

b. determining if one of said application call processors has been assigned to the call request and if an application call processor has been assigned to the call request then continuing to step c, otherwise proceeding to step d;

c. terminating the call request, updating application call processor utilization data table entries and returning to step a;

d. using a computed response time for each of the N application call processors, performance data of each of the N application call processors and utilization data for each of the N application call processors to find one application call processor that has a minimum response time of the plurality of N application call processors to fulfill the call request;

e. determining if the minimum response time found in step d is greater than maximum allowable response time and if the minimum response time found is greater than maximum allowable response time continuing to step f, otherwise proceeding to step g;

f. shedding said call request and returning to step a;

g. updating expected utilization of the application call processor found in step d to have the minimum response time and assigning said call request to that application call processor for call processing; and

h. returning to step a.