System and method for load balancing network resources using a connection admission control engine

• US 8,144,587 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Issued: 03/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Embarq Holdings Company LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Heinz, John M., McNaughton, James L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yuen, Kan
• Application Number:
  US11/809,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20080049753A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,762 Days
• Field of Search: 370229-235, 370/252, 370/253, 370/401, 709/225, 709/226
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/247 using M:N active or standby paths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/726 Reserving resources in multiple paths to be used simultaneously by balancing the load H04L47/125
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/746 Reaction triggered by a failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

A system and method for load balancing network resources. Network performance information regarding data flow through a network is gathered using performance information packet data packets. The data flow is distributed through access points of the network using connection control admission control engines. The distributing includes routing the data flow to more efficiently use the network resources based on the PIP data packets.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing network resources, the method comprising:

gathering network performance information regarding data flow communicated with a client of a network over a plurality of Ethernet connections utilizing performance information packets; and

automatically balancing the data flow of the plurality of Ethernet connections between access points of the network that are available to the client using connection admission control (CAC) engines, wherein the CAC engines communicate commands with one another according to permissions to preform automatic network configurations utilizing one or more thresholds, wherein each of the CAC engines distribute an associated engine state to each of the other CAC engines, and wherein the automatic network configurations include at least balancing the data flow, authorizing new connections, and throttling bandwidth for the plurality of Ethernet connections utilizing the one or more thresholds, engine states, and the;

performance information packets.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering further comprises:

determining an application associated with packets in the data flow, wherein the balancing is performed based on a priority of the application.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the balancing further comprises:

limiting the data flow response to parameters, wherein the Ethernet connections are Ethernet virtual connections.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

determining the thresholds for real-time data and non real-time data utilizing the parameters within service level agreements, quality of service guarantees and a delivery policy; and

performing the automatic network configurations utilizing the thresholds.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein one of the parameters is packets associated with a program application.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data flow is rerouted around a node experiencing problems.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein automatically balancing further comprises:

communicating data to the client through a first CAC engine associated with a first access point and through a second CAC engine associated with a second access point; and

balancing the data communicated to the client so that approximately half of the data is passed through each of the first CAC engine and the second CAC engine.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

communicating all the data through the second CAC engine in response to determining the first access point is experiencing problems in response to the associated engine state.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the gathering comprises:

determining a status of the network by checking a status of each of the access points, the access points and corresponding CAC engines being distributed throughout the network.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining is performed using any of the network performance information, network pings, and network traces.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein automatically balancing further comprises:

determining an Ethernet connection for the client based on the network performance information that provides details about the plurality of Ethernet connections, wherein the Ethernet connection provides the best quality of service.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the determing comprises:

comparing ratings of the plurality of Ethernet connections to determine the best quality of service.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein balancing further comprises:

switching an Ethernet connection for one more of a plurality of customers from a first Ethernet connection to a second Ethernet connection in response to determining the second Ethernet connection offers better quality of service.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein determining further comprises:

isolating a root cause of performance problems for an access node across a plurality of Ethernet domains and a plurality of equipments; and

determining a corrective action for the access node.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

controlling the CAC engines in order to temporarily block traffic flow in response to determining the access node is experiencing failure.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein controlling further comprises:

rerouting packet traffic around the access point.

17. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

delivering instructions to a plurality of elements including a network control center indicating the access node is experiencing failure.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the instructions are alarms indicating the access node is experiencing failure.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the correction action is any of a manual or automatic rerouting around the access node or resetting a policy or rule in the access node.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the determining the corrective action is performed by a correlation engine that selects the corrective action by comparing the comparison against rule-based statistics.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein the thresholds are stored in a table.

22. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

managing a CAC engine in a different network to perform load balancing.

23. An access node for controlling network resources, the access node comprising:

a connection admission control (CAC) engine configured to;

communicate data with a client of a communications network, the CAC engine configured to evaluate network performance information of an Ethernet communications network to gather network performance information regarding a plurality of Ethernet connections over the Ethernet communications network utilizing performance information packets;

balance the data flow of the plurality of Ethernet connections between access points of the communications network, wherein the CAC engine communicates with a plurality of other CAC engines according to permissions to perform automatic network configurations utilizing one or more thresholds, wherein each of the CAC engines distribute an associated engine state to each of the other CAC engines, and wherein the automatic network configurations include at least balancing the data flow, authorizing new connections, and throttling bandwidth for the plurality of Ethernet connections utilizing the one or more thresholds, engine states, and the performance information packets; and

the correlation engine in communication with the CAC engine configured to compare the network performance information against values in a table to determine one or more of the automatic network configurations for the CAC engine to implement.

24. The access node of claim 23, wherein the one or more of the automatic network configurations is further compared against rule-based statistics to generate a status and performance for each access node in the communications network, and wherein the correlation engine sends an alert to a plurality of access nodes to correct a network problem.

25. The access node of claim 24, further comprising:

a role rule based engine configured to provide the automatic network configurations for an access node experiencing a performance problem.

26. The access node of claim 23, further comprising:

a network cache of for storing data and network performance information for reference and historical usage, wherein the CAC engines communicate commands with one another according to the permissions to perform the automatic network configurations.

27. The access node of claim 23, further comprising:

a performance information table configured to store the network performance information.

28. The access node of claim 23, wherein the CAC engine request traces information for a failing access node.

29. A server for handling network reservations, the server comprising:

a processor for processing a set of instructions; and

a memory for storing the set of instructions, wherein the sets of instructions;

gather network performance information regarding data flow through a network utilizing performance information packets, the data flow being associated with a plurality of Ethernet connections being utilized, and

automatically balance communication of the data flow with a client between access points of the network using connection admission control engines, wherein the connection admission control engines communicate commands with one another according to permissions to perform automatic network configurations utilizing one or more thresholds, wherein each of the connection admission control engines distribute and associated engine state to each if the other connection admission control engines, and wherein the automatic network configurations include at least balancing the data flow, authorizing new connections, and throttling bandwidth for the plurality of Ethernet connections utilizing the one or more thresholds, the engine states, and the network performance information.