User network control

• US 6,285,660 B1
• Filed: 07/15/1999
• Issued: 09/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ronen, Yzhak
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Wellington
• Assistant Examiner(s): JONES, PRENELL P
• Application Number:
  US09/353,762
• Time in Patent Office: 782 Days
• Field of Search: 370/259, 370/412, 370/429, 370/260, 370/264, 370/248, 370/389, 370/236, 370/252, 370/244, 375/221, 375/232, 379/265, 379/88.01, 709/221
• US Class Current: 370/259
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV

Abstract

A network control device and methods that incorporate user decisions into network management and controlling the network accordingly. The users are provided network information such as bandwidth and special services that are available due to current network conditions. The users may elect to communicate via one of the offered special services or choose to communicate using specific network parameters in the form of a request. The network control device either responds to the request by providing the selected service or if network parameters are specified, by assessing current network conditions and determining whether the network can support the requested communication. If the communication is supportable, then the network control device may indicate to the user that fact and may also provide a corresponding cost estimate and/or other pertinent information. If the network cannot support the requested communication due to lack of bandwidth, for example, then the network control device may generate and send alternatives to the user. If the user selects one of the alternatives, or accepts the cost estimate for the original request, the network control device may issue appropriate commands to various network elements to commence the requested communication.

Claims

1. A method for operating a network to provide communications between terminals, comprising:

receiving a request from an end user that includes network parameters for a variable bandwidth transmission from a terminal interface of an end-user terminal; and

controlling the network to support the received request from an end user that includes network parameters for a variable bandwidth transmission in a communication of the end-user terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving network performance data;

generating an assessment whether the network can support the received request from an end user that includes network parameters based on the network performance data; and

outputting results of the assessment to the terminal interface.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating a cost of the communication as the results if the assessment indicates that the network can support the network parameters; and

generating alternative network parameters that the network can support and corresponding costs as the results if the assessment indicates that the network cannot support the network parameters.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving an acceptance from the terminal interface of either the cost of the communication using the network parameters or one of the alternative network parameters.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating a list of network elements of the network that are relevant to the communication;

selecting performance data of the network elements; and

outputting selected performance data to the terminal interface.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing a user profile, the user profile including lists of network parameters related to possible user communications.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the network performance data includes percentage idle indexed according to time, error rate, and input-output delay.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the assessment includes evaluating possible routing strategies to achieve requirements of the network parameters.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the network parameters for a transmission include one or more of bandwidth, error rate, end-to-end delay, video communication, audio communication, encryption, cost and data communication.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the network includes one or more networks, each of the networks having a type which is one of a data packet network, an analog network, a switching network, a frame protocol network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the network parameters includes a network reservation request, the method further comprising:

maintaining record of committed network resources; and

updating the record of committed network resources to reflect commitment of network resources to the reservation request if uncommitted network resources is sufficient to support the reservation request.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring network performance data;

generating a list of special services based on network administration policies and the network performance data; and

outputting the network performance data and the list of special services to the terminal interface.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling of the network includes allocating bandwidth to support the requested network parameters.

14. A network control device interfacing with a network to provide communications between terminals, comprising:

a network controller;

a user agent coupled to the network controller, the user agent receiving a request from an end user that includes network parameters for a variable bandwidth transmission from a terminal interface of an end-user terminal and sending controls to the network to support the received request from an end user that includes network parameters for a variable bandwidth transmission in a communication of the end-user terminal.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the user agent retrieves network performance data, generates an assessment whether the network can support the received network parameters based on the network performance data, and outputs results of the assessment to the terminal interface.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the user agent generates a cost of the communication as the results if the assessment indicates that the network can support the network parameters, and generates alternative network parameters that the network can support and corresponding costs as the results if the assessment indicates that the network cannot support the network parameters.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the user agent receives an acceptance from the terminal interface of either the cost of the communication using the network parameters or one of the alternative network parameters.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the user agent generates a list of network elements of the network that are relevant to the communication, selects performance data of the network elements, and outputs selected performance data to the terminal interface.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein a user profile is provided that includes lists of network parameters related to possible user communications.

20. The device of claim 15, wherein the network performance data includes percentage idle indexed according tote, error rate, and input-output delay.

21. The device of claim 15, wherein the assessment includes evaluating possible routing strategies to achieve requirements of the network parameters.

22. The device of claim 14, wherein the network parameters for a transmission include one or more of bandwidth, error rate, end-to-end delay, video communication, audio communication, encryption, cost and data communication.

23. The device of claim 14, wherein the network includes one or more networks, each of the networks having a type which is one of a data packet network, an analog network, a switching network, a frame protocol network.

24. The device of claim 14, wherein the network parameters includes a network reservation request, the network controller:

maintaining record of committed network resources; and

updating the record of committed network resources to reflect commitment of network resources to the reservation request if uncommitted network resources is sufficient to support the reservation request.

25. The device of claim 14, wherein the network controller monitors network performance data, generates a list of special services based on network administration policies and the network performance data, and outputs the network performance data and the list of special services to the terminal interface.

26. The network control device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the network controller allocates bandwidth to support the received requested network parameters.

27. A method for operating a network to provide communications between terminals, comprising:

receiving network parameters from a terminal interface of an end-user terminal; and

controlling the network to support the received network parameters in a communication of the end-user terminal.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

retrieving network performance data;

generating an assessment whether the network can support the received network parameters based on the network performance data; and

outputting the results of the assessment to the terminal interface.

29. A network control device interfacing with a network to provide communications between terminals, comprising:

a network controller;

a user agent coupled to the network controller, the user agent receiving network

parameters from a terminal interface of an end-user terminal and sending controls to the network to support the received network parameters in a communication of the end-user terminal.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the user agent retrieves network performance data, generates an assessment whether the network can support the received network parameters based on the network performance data, and outputs results of the assessment to the terminal interface.