System and method for using centralized network performance tables to manage network communications

• US 8,619,596 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2012
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wiley, William L., Bugenhagen, Michael K., Morrill, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elliott, IV, Benjamin H
• Application Number:
  US13/360,253
• Publication Number:
  US 20120127881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: 370229-237, 370/241, 370248-249, 370252-253, 709220-226, 709/231, 709/235, 709238-240
• US Class Current: 370/248
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/70 Routing based on monitoring results
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding

Abstract

A system for centrally controlling packet network communications may include an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets over a packet network with multiple network communications devices, a processing unit in communication with the I/O unit and configured to communicate with the network communications devices via respective node segments, and a memory in communication with the processing unit and configured to store a table. The processing unit may be configured to receive and store network performance information of node segments generated by the network communications devices. The network performance information may be stored in the table in association with indicia representative of the node segments, respectively. The processing unit may further be configured to control network communications by the network communications devices over the node segments based on the network performance information stored in the table.

Claims

1. A system for centrally controlling packet network communications, said system comprising:

an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets over a first packet network, the first packet network owned by a first communications carrier;

a processing unit in communication with said I/O unit and configured to execute instructions to communicate with network communications devices on the first packet network;

said processing unit configured to execute instructions to;

receive and store in memory network performance information associated with the first packet network;

initiate routines on network communications devices on a second packet network owned by a second communications carrier in which the data packets traverse for determining network performance information associated with the second packet network;

store the network performance information associated with the second packet network;

compare the network performance information to a plurality of operational status ranges for determining an operational status of a network node of at least one of the first packet network and second packet network, wherein a first operational status range indicates operation of the node segment is normal, a second operational status range indicates operation of the node segment as impaired, and a third operational status range indicates operation of the node segment as congested; and

control network communications of the data packets over node segments of the first packet network and the second packet network based on the network performance information stored in the memory;

said processing unit further configured to execute instructions to;

determine origination and destination end-points for a call in response to receiving a request for the call to be set up;

determine a first set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could to be communicated;

determine operational status of the first set of node segments by accessing the network performance information associated with the node segments in the first set of node segments; and

in response to a determination that the operation status of the first set of node segments are determined to be operational, initiate the call between the end-points over the first set of node segments, otherwise determine a second set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated that are operational and initiate the call between the origination and destination end-points and over the second set of node segments.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information is data generated by each of the network communications devices in response to receiving performance information data packets from other network communications devices.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein controlling network communications of the data packets over node segments of the first packet network and the second packet network based on the network performance information includes taking into account a monetary cost associated with transmitting the data packets over certain node segments.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the routines return limited result information to avoid sharing confidential information.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information represents bandwidth of data packets communicated over the respective node segments.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the bandwidth includes bandwidth of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments during a time period.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to:

determine whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment crosses a predetermined threshold value; and

generate a notification in response to determining that at least one network performance information value of a node segment crossed the predetermined threshold.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to:

determine, prior to initiating a communications session, whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment has crossed a predetermined threshold value; and

in response to determining that at least one network performance information value crossed a predetermined threshold value, initiate the communications session over a different node segment.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to store multiple tables of historical network performance information.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to compute statistics associated with network performance information.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to update the network performance information stored in the memory periodically.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the network performance information is stored in multiple, related tables in the memory and wherein the tables include line address information associated with end-users and physical locations of node segments.

13. A method for centrally controlling packet network communications, said method comprising:

communicating with at least one network communications device over a first packet network to collect network performance information associated with node segments on the first packet network, the first packet network owned by a first communications carrier;

communicating with at least one network communications device over a second packet network to collect network performance information associated with node segments on the second packet network, the second packet network owned by a second communications carrier;

storing the network performance information in memory;

determining an operation status for each of the node segments based in part on the network performance information of the respective node segments, wherein determining the operation status comprises comparing the network performance information to a plurality of operational status ranges, wherein a first operational status range indicates operation of the node segment is normal, a second operational status range indicates operation of the node segment as impaired, and a third operational status range indicates operation of the node segment as congested; and

controlling, using a processor, network communications over the node segments based on the operation status for each of the node segments, wherein

controlling network communications include;

determining origination and destination end-points for a call in response to receiving a request for the call to be set up;

determining a first set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could to be communicated;

determining operational status of the first set of node segments by accessing the operational status indicators of the node segments determined to be between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated; and

in response to a determination that the operation status of the first set of node segments determined to be between the origination and destination end-points are determined to be operational, initiating the call between the end-points over the first set of node segments, otherwise, determining a second set of node segments between the origination and destination end-points over which the call could be communicated that are operational and initiating the call between the origination and destination end-points and over the second set of node segments.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising automatically re-determining the operation status of each of the node segments in response to detecting a new network communications device on at least one of the first packet network and second packet network.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising receiving the network performance information from the network communications devices, the network communications devices generating the network performance information using performance information data packets being communicated over the node segments by the network communications devices.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the performance information data packets specify real-time thresholds, percentages, and parameters that are used to regulate the network communications devices.

17. The method according to claim 13, further comprising storing the network performance information arranged by network performance information of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the performance information packets includes instructions to a network communications device to refresh a locally stored routing table.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein storing the performance information representing bandwidth includes performance information representative of bandwidth of (i) data packets including real-time content and (ii) total data packets communicated over the respective node segments during a time period.

20. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

determining whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment crosses a predetermined threshold value; and

generating a notification in response to determining that at least one network performance information value of a node segment crossed the predetermined threshold.

21. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

determining, prior to initiating a communications session, whether at least one network performance information value of a node segment has crossed a predetermined threshold value; and

in response to determining that at least one network performance information value crossed a predetermined threshold value, initiating the communications session over a different node segment.

22. The method according to claim 13, further comprising storing multiple tables of historical network performance information.

23. The method according to claim 13, further comprising communicating a request to each network communications device located on the packet network requesting network performance information stored at the respective network communications devices.

24. The method according to claim 13, further comprising computing statistics associated with network performance information.

25. The method according to claim 13, further comprising updating the network performance information periodically.

26. The method according to claim 13, wherein storing network performance information includes storing network performance information in a table configured as multiple, related tables, and further comprising storing line address information associated with end-users and physical locations of node segments.