Network service level agreement arrival-curve-based conformance checking
First Claim
1. A method of characterizing a content traffic flow at communication nodes of a communications network for communications network Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance assessment by a network management system (NMS) connected to said communication nodes, the method comprising:
- at least one of said communication nodes tracking cumulative content arrivals, in real time, for the content traffic flow to derive a time variation of cumulative content arrivals;
said at least one of said nodes adjusting characteristic arrival curve parameters, the arrival curve parameters comprising at least b, a degree of burst transmission, r, a sustainable content conveyance rate, M, a maximum packet size, and p, a peak content conveyance rate, in fitting an arrival curve to the variation of cumulative content arrivals for the content traffic flow; and
said at least one of said nodes reporting said adjusted arrival curve parameters to said NMS to enable said NMS to carry out said SLA compliance assessment with respect to the content traffic flow, thereby reducing reporting bandwidth overhead by minimizing an amount of content arrival information communicated to said NMS.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for assessing a communications'"'"' network adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) is presented. The apparatus includes a arrival curve parameter derivation and arrival curve parameter reporting means. A arrival curve parameter generator may be implemented either in hardware for a predefined response in fitting arrival curves to cumulative content arrival variations, or in software for flexibility in the content traffic considered for assessment. The arrival curve generator may be associated with a physical port, a line card, or a network node. Arrival curve parameters defining arrival curves are employed by a Network Management System (NMS) in conjunction with communications network node and communications network service curves in performing SLA conformance assessments. The advantages are derived from a distributed content traffic characterization in terms of arrival curves, a reduced resource overhead in conveying arrival curve parameters without sacrificing SLA assessment thoroughness.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method of characterizing a content traffic flow at communication nodes of a communications network for communications network Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance assessment by a network management system (NMS) connected to said communication nodes, the method comprising:
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at least one of said communication nodes tracking cumulative content arrivals, in real time, for the content traffic flow to derive a time variation of cumulative content arrivals; said at least one of said nodes adjusting characteristic arrival curve parameters, the arrival curve parameters comprising at least b, a degree of burst transmission, r, a sustainable content conveyance rate, M, a maximum packet size, and p, a peak content conveyance rate, in fitting an arrival curve to the variation of cumulative content arrivals for the content traffic flow; and said at least one of said nodes reporting said adjusted arrival curve parameters to said NMS to enable said NMS to carry out said SLA compliance assessment with respect to the content traffic flow, thereby reducing reporting bandwidth overhead by minimizing an amount of content arrival information communicated to said NMS. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 35)
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7. A method of assessing communications network conformance to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in respect of a content traffic flow at communication nodes of a communications network, the method comprising:
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receiving from at least one of said communication nodes an arrival curve parameter report in respect of a tracked content traffic flow in real time; computing a resource utilization related value based on the received arrival curve parameter report in respect of a content traffic flow pattern and at least one service curve; and providing a communications network SLA conformance assessment to a network management system (NMS) based on the computed resource utilization related value, wherein receiving arrival curve parameters, the arrival curve parameters comprising at least b, a degree of burst transmission, r, a sustainable content conveyance rate, M, a maximum packet size, and p, a peak content conveyance rate, only enables the provision of a real-time scalable communications network SLA conformance assessment solution while reducing reporting bandwidth overhead by minimizing an amount of content arrival information communicated by said at least one of said nodes. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 36)
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19. A method of centrally assessing communications network conformance to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in respect of a content traffic flow at least one of a plurality of communication nodes of a communications network, the method comprising:
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said at least one communication node tracking cumulative content arrivals for the content traffic flow, in real-time, to derive a time variation of cumulative content arrivals at a communications network node; said at least one of said nodes adjusting arrival curve parameters, the arrival curve parameters comprising at least b, a degree of burst transmission, r, a sustainable content conveyance rate, M, a maximum packet size, and p, a peak content conveyance rate, in fitting an arrival curve to the variation of cumulative content arrivals for the content traffic flow; said at least one node reporting, in real time, the arrival curve parameters to a network management system (NMS) assessing communications network SLA conformance with respect to the content traffic flow; said NMS receiving an arrival curve parameter report in respect of a tracked content traffic flow from said at least one network node in real-time; computing a resource utilization related value based on the received arrival curve parameter report in respect of a content traffic flow pattern and at least one service curve; providing a communications network SLA conformance assessment based on the computed resource utilization related value; and employing arrival curve parameter reporting reducing resource overheads in providing communications network SLA conformance assessments. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 37)
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Specification