Access system and network architecture with access system

• US 9,363,100 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2008
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Goderis, Danny, Vanhastel, Stefaan
• Primary Examiner(s): Eskandarnia, Arvin
• Assistant Examiner(s): DESAI, MARGISHI V
• Application Number:
  US12/186,633
• Publication Number:
  US 20090043894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,862 Days
• Field of Search: 455/68, 709/226, 709/225, 709/215, 711/714
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1009 using page tables, e.g. page table structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2889 Multiservice, e.g. MSAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2896 Distributed processing, e.g. on line cards
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA

Abstract

The invention relates to an access system for establishing a connection between a plurality of subscribers and a plurality of service providers, wherein the access system comprises a plurality of partitions each having a number of resources, each partition being suitable for allocation to one of said plurality of service providers and each partition comprising at least one subscriber port, at least one uplink and a forwarding means between said at least one subscriber port and said at least one uplink, wherein the access system is arranged to communicate with a managing operator for managing said plurality of partitions.

Claims

1. An access node for establishing a connection between a plurality of subscribers and a plurality of service providers, wherein the access node comprises:

a plurality of partitions, each having a number of resources, each partition being suitable for allocation to one of said plurality of service providers, respectively, and each partition comprising at least one subscriber port, at least one uplink and at least one forwarder between said at least one subscriber port and said at least one uplink, wherein the access node is arranged to communicate with a managing operator for managing said plurality of partitions,

a plurality of common resources comprising media access control (MAC) addresses, backplane capacity, and system logging, wherein a partition manager creates and deletes partitions and assigns usage of the common resources to the partitions, the partition manager comprising a table indicating dedicated and common resources assigned to each of the plurality of partitions,

a common resource controller which controls access to the common resources as a function of the assigned usage, and

a management access controller configured to;

provide a management interface to the plurality of service providers to enable each of the plurality of service providers to manage their respective partition, and

authorize each requested action based on an association between each of the plurality of partitions and the respective at least one subscriber port, at least one uplink, and at least one forwarder in the table.

2. The access node according the claim 1, wherein the access node comprises the partition manager which communicates with the managing operator for creating and deleting partitions and for allocating resources to partitions.

3. The access node according to claim 2, wherein the table includes an overview of all the partitions, said table being configurable by the managing operator.

4. The access node according to claim 2, wherein there is provided a graphical user interface (GUI) for configuring the partitions, said GUI being arranged to communicate with the partition manager.

5. The access node according to claim 1, wherein the management access controller controls the management requests of each provider.

6. The access node according to claim 1, wherein the access node is arranged to communicate with the managing operator using at least one from among the following ways:

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), TL1 (Transaction Language 1), and CLI (Command Line Interface).

7. Network architecture comprising an access node according to claim 1, wherein the network architecture comprises a management system of the managing operator, said management system comprising a partition manager for creating and deleting partitions and for allocating resources to partitions, said partition manager being arranged to communicate with the access node.

8. Network architecture comprising the access node according to claim 1, wherein the network architecture comprises a management system of the managing operator, said management system comprising a management access controller providing an interface to the plurality of service providers and controlling the management requests of each provider.

9. Network architecture according to claim 8, the management system of the managing operator having a North-bound interface, wherein the North-bound interface is used for communication between the plurality of services providers and the management access controller.

10. The access node according to claim 1, wherein the access node is a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM).