Method and system of network management software architectures for mobile broadband wireless networks

• US 7,305,240 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2005
• Issued: 12/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Ovadia, Shlomo
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild; Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, MICHAEL T
• Application Number:
  US11/051,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20060172742A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,034 Days
• Field of Search: 455/450, 455/435, 455/422, 709/223, 709/226, 725/68, 370/401, 370/412, 370/428
• US Class Current: 455/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/12 between access points and access point controllers

Abstract

Method and system of network management and protocol software architectures for mobile broadband wireless networks. One embodiment of the software architecture employs a proxy Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent at a base station in the network. The proxy SNMP agent communicates with an SNMP manager at a network management system (NMS) using SNMP messages to send Management Information Base (MIB) objects between the NMS and the base station. The proxy SNMP agent communicates with a mobile subscriber station (MSS) using media access control (MAC) messages. The protocol software architecture further includes a management plane service access point (SAP) and a control plane SAP deployed in the MSS. The architecture enables specific parameters corresponding to dynamic service flows and Quality of Service to be retrieved from and written to an MSS using proxy SNMP agents at the base stations.

Claims

1. A software architecture for a broadband wireless access (BWA) network, comprising:

a network management system (NMS), including a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) manager;

a plurality of proxy SNMP agents, each proxy SNMP agent implemented at a respective base station (BS) in the BWA network, each SNMP proxy agent enabled to communicate with the SNMP manager via SNMP messages encapsulating Management Information Base (MIB) objects and enabled to communicate with a mobile subscriber station (MSS) via a management channel, an SNMP proxy agent further enabled to extract MIB objects encapsulated in SNMP messages received from the SNMP manager and to generate and send messages to an MSS via the management channel containing parameters corresponding to the MIB objects that are extracted; and

a service database, to store service flow and associated quality of service information pertaining to the MSS, wherein the SNMP manager generates the MIB objects in response to the service flow and associated quality of service information to reserve a network resource included in the MSS.

2. The software architecture of claim 1, further comprising:

a management plane service access point (SAP), implemented in an MSS, the management plane SAP supporting communication between management plane entities in the MSS and the proxy SNMP agent via management MAC (media access control) messages sent via the management channel.

3. The software architecture of claim 1, further comprising:

a control plane service access point (SAP), implemented in an MSS, the control plane SAP supporting communication between control and/or data plane components in the MSS and the proxy SNMP agent via control MAC (media access control) messages sent via the management channel.

4. The software architecture of claim 1, further comprising:

a network plane service access point (SAP), to support communication between the network management system and the base stations using an Internet protocol (IP) transport over which SNMP messages may be sent between a proxy SNMP agent and the SNMP manager.

5. The software architecture of claim 1, wherein the network management system comprises:

an element management system (EMS); and

a service database, linked to the EMS, to store service flow data pertaining to subscribers of services provided by an operator of the (BWA) network.

6. The software architecture of claim 1, wherein the proxy SNMP agent is further enabled to maintain an MIB instance containing dynamic service flow information pertaining to MSSs currently being served by the base station on which the proxy SNMP agent is implemented.

7. The software architecture of claim 1, wherein an MSS implements an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Std. 802.16-based protocol layering reference model including a data/control plane and a management plane, and the proxy SNMP agent is enabled to communicate with each of the data/control plane and the management plane via the management channel using TLV (Type/Length/Value) encoded messages.

8. A machine-readable medium to store a plurality of software modules, including:

a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) manager module, to be implemented in a network management system for a broadband wireless access (BWA) network;

a proxy SNMP agent module, to be implemented at a base station (BS) in the BWA network, the SNMP proxy agent enabled to communicate with the SNMP manager via SNMP messages encapsulating Management Information Base (MIB) objects and enabled to communicate with a mobile subscriber station (MSS) via a management channel, the SNMP proxy agent further enabled to extract MIB objects encapsulated in SNMP messages received from the SNMP manager and to generate and send messages to an MSS via the management channel containing parameters corresponding to the MIB objects that are extracted; and

a service database module, to store service flow and associated quality of service information pertaining to the MSS, wherein the SNMP manager module generates the MIB objects in response to the service flow and associated quality of service information to reserve a network resource included in the MSS.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the software components further include:

a management plane service access point (SAP) module, to be implemented in an MSS, the management plane SAP module to support communication between management plane entities in the MSS and the proxy SNMP agent module via management MAC (media access control) messages sent via the management channel.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the software components further include:

a control plane service access point (SAP) module, to be implemented in an MSS, the control plane SAP module to support communication between control/data plane entities in the MSS and the proxy SNMP agent module via control MAC (media access control) messages sent via the management channel.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the software components further include:

a network plane service access point (SAP) module, to support communication between the network management system and the base stations using an Internet protocol (IP) transport over which SNMP messages may be sent between a proxy SNMP agent module and the SNMP manager module.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the software components further include:

an element management system (EMS) module, including an interface to a service database, the EMS module to retrieve and store service flow data pertaining to subscribers of services provided by an operator of the (BWA) network from the service database.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the proxy SNMP agent module is further enabled to maintain an MIB instance containing dynamic service flow information pertaining to MSSs currently being served by the base station on which the proxy SNMP agent module is to be implemented.

14. A method comprising:

enabling a network management system (NMS) for a broadband wireless access (BWA) network to communicate with a mobile subscriber station (MSS) that accesses the BWA network via a serving base station (BS) by,

instantiating an Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) manager at the NMS,

instantiating an proxy SNMP agent at the serving BS;

instantiating a service database to store service flow and associated quality of service information pertaining to the MSS;

sending Management Information Base (MIB) objects pertaining to operation of the MSS via SNMP messages in which the MIB objects are encapsulated, wherein the SNMP manager generates the MIB objects encapsulated in the SNMP messages in response to the service flow and associated quality of service information to reserve a network resource included in the MSS; and

sending parameters corresponding to the MIB objects between the proxy SNMP agent and the MSS using a management channel.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising retrieving parameters from an MSS by performing operations including:

sending an SNMP GetRequest message from the SNMP manager to the proxy SNMP agent, the GetRequest message containing at least one MIB object identifying one or more parameters to be retrieved from the MSS;

extracting said at least one MIB object and the one or more parameters from the SNMP GetRequest message at the proxy SNMP agent;

generating a MAC (media access control) request message identifying the one or more parameters to be retrieved;

sending the MAC request message to the MSS

retrieving the one or more parameters identified by the MAC request message from the MSS;

generating a MAC reply message containing the one or more parameters that are retrieved;

sending the MAC reply message from the MSS to the proxy SNMP agent;

generating an SNMP Response message including an MIB object containing the one or more parameters that are retrieved;

sending the SNMP Response message from the SNMP agent to the SNMP manager; and

extracting the parameters from the MIB object contained in the SNMP Response message.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more parameters that are retrieved relate to parameters employed by a management plane entity of the MSS, and the method further comprises:

generating a management MAC request message identifying the one or more parameters to be retrieved;

sending the management MAC request message to be received by a management plane service access point (SAP) implemented on the MSS;

retrieving the one or more parameters identified by the management MAC request message from at least one management plane entity via the management plane SAP;

generating a management MAC reply message containing the one or more parameters that are retrieved;

sending the management MAC reply message from the management plane SAP to the proxy SNMP agent.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more parameters that are retrieved relate to parameters employed by a control or data plane component of the MSS, and the method further comprises:

generating a control MAC request message identifying the one or more parameters to be retrieved;

sending the control MAC request message to be received by a control plane service access point (SAP) implemented on the MSS;

retrieving the one or more parameters identified by the control MAC request message from at least one control or data plane component via the control plane SAP;

generating a control MAC reply message containing the one or more parameters that are retrieved; and

sending the control MAC reply message from the control plane SAP to the proxy SNMP agent.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

detecting entry of an MSS into the WBA network;

generating an SNMP trap to the SNMP manager identifying the MSS;

downloading service flow and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters that are pre-provisioned for the MSS from the NMS to the serving BS using one or more SNMP messages;

populating an MIB instance at the serving BS with the service flow and QoS parameters for the MSS; and

sending service flow and QoS parameters to the MSS via the management channel.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

populating base station MIB objects in the MIB instance with base station service flow and QoS parameters corresponding to current service flows provided by the serving BS to the MSS; and

populating subscriber station MIB objects in the MIB instance with subscriber station service flow and QoS parameters employed by the MSS corresponding to the current service flows provided by the serving BS.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that a hand-over of an air-interface for the MSS is to be handed over from the serving BS to a target BS;

sending an SNMP trap from the proxy SNMP agent at the serving BS to the SNMP manager; and

in response triggering thereof,

downloading service flow and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters that are pre-provisioned for the MSS from the NMS to a proxy SNMP agent implemented by the target BS using one or more SNMP messages;

populating an MIB instance at the target BS with the service flow and QoS parameters for the MSS; and

handing over the air-interface for the MSS to the target BS using the service flow and QoS parameters that are downloaded from the NMS.