Digital subscriber line user capacity estimation

• US 7,126,914 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2004
• Issued: 10/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Blackburn, Stuart Lynch
• Primary Examiner(s): Rao, Seema S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOM, SHICK C
• Application Number:
  US10/766,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20050163128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/230, 370/232, 370/233, 370/234, 370/235, 370/253, 370/254, 370/230.1, 370/395.21, 370/395.4
• US Class Current: 370/233
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2883 ATM DSLAM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/007 Access interface units for simultaneous transmission of speech and data, e.g. digital subscriber line [DSL] access interface units DSL access multiplexers H04Q11/0478, and H04L12/2856

Abstract

In a particular embodiment, the present disclosure is directed to a data communications system. The data communication system includes a plurality of digital subscriber lines, a digital subscriber line multiplexer coupled to each of the plurality of digital subscriber lines; and a data switch coupled to the digital subscriber line multiplexer via a communication link. The data communications system is configured such that the number of digital subscriber line users supported by the digital subscriber line multiplexer is determined based on an estimated maximum number of users, the estimated maximum number of users determined based on an average peak bandwidth per user value, a data communication capacity of the communication link, and a data transmission slowdown indicator.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a data network, the method comprising:

determining an average peak bandwidth per user value for the data network;

determining a capacity of a communication link connecting a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) and an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch;

determining a data transmission slowdown indicator that includes a slowdown amount and a probability of experiencing a slowdown event;

determining an estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines that may be supported by the DSLAM, where the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is based on the average peak bandwidth per user value, the capacity of the communication link, and the customer data transmission slowdown indicator; and

configuring the data network such that the DSLAM has a configured number of users of digital subscriber lines that is less than or equal to the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is further based on a probability of a random user downloading data at a given period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is further based on an Erlang model calculation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link is one or more Digital Signal-level 3 (DS3) type communication links or an Optical Carrier-level 3 (OC3) type communication link.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is calculated with an assumption of a data transfer speed associated wit a plurality of users.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data transfer speed is about 1.5 Mbits/second.

7. A method of configuring a data network, the method comprising:

determining an average peak bandwidth per user value for the data network;

determining a capacity of a communication link connecting a remote terminal (RT) to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch via an optical concentrator device;

determining a data transmission slowdown indicator that includes a slowdown amount and a probability of experiencing a slowdown event;

determining an estimated maximum number of users that may be supported by the RT, where the estimated maximum number of users is based on the average peak bandwidth per user value, the capacity of the communication link, and the data transmission slowdown indicator; and

configuring the data network such that the RT has a configured number of users of subscriber lines that is less than or equal to the estimated maximum number of users that may be supported by the RT.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the communication link comprises a plurality of T1 transmission lines.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the communication link comprises one of an Optical Carrier-level 3 (OC3) and one or more Digital Signal-level 3 (DS3) links.

10. A data communications system comprising:

a plurality of digital subscriber lines;

a digital subscriber line multiplexer coupled to each of-the plurality of digital subscriber lines; and

a data switch coupled to the digital subscriber line multiplexer via a communication link;

wherein the data communications system is configured such that the number of digital subscriber line users supported by the digital subscriber line multiplexer is determined based on an estimated maximum number of users, the estimated maximum number of users determined based on an average peak bandwidth per user value, a data communication capacity of the communication link, and a data transmission slowdown indicator, the data transmission slowdown indicator comprising a slowdown amount and a probability of experiencing a slowdown event.

11. A data communications system comprising:

a plurality of digital subscriber lines;

a remote terminal device coupled to each of the plurality of digital subscriber lines; and

a data switch coupled to the remote terminal device via a communication link;

wherein the data communications system is configured such that the number of digital subscriber line users supported by the remote terminal device is determined based on an estimated maximum number of users, the estimated maximum number of users determined based on an average peak bandwidth per user value, a data communication capacity of the communication link, and a data transmission slowdown indicator, the data transmission slowdown indicator comprising a slowdown amount and a probability of experiencing a slowdown event.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is further based on a probability of a random user downloading data at a given period of time.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is further based on an Erlang model calculation.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the communication link is one or more Digital Signal-level 3 (DS3) type communication links, an Optical Communication Level 3 (OC3) type communication link, or one or more T1 type communication links.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the estimated maximum number of users of digital subscriber lines is calculated with an assumption of a data transfer speed associated with a plurality of users.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the data transfer speed is about 1.5 Mbits/second.