Dynamically provisioning subscribers to manage network traffic

• US 9,374,289 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Kotecha, Lalit R., Macias, John F., Chang, Patricia R., Chiang, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Baig, Adnan
• Application Number:
  US13/407,031
• Publication Number:
  US 20130223222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0268 using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12

Abstract

A system comprising: one or more server devices to: set a first network threshold level for determining network congestion in a network; set rate limiting criteria for determining when one or more subscribers will be rate limited; detect an increase in network congestion at a base station above the first network threshold level; identify one or more subscribers meeting one or more of the rate limiting criteria; rate limit network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers; detect a decrease in network congestion at the base station below a second network threshold level; and remove the rate limiting of the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

setting, by one or more servers, a first network threshold level for determining network congestion in a network;

detecting, by the one or more servers, an increase in network congestion at a base station above the first network threshold level;

selecting, by the one or more servers, one or more subscribers accessing the network via the base station,

wherein the one or more subscribers are selected based on usage categories associated with the one or more subscribers,

wherein the usage categories correspond to whether network usage, associated with each subscriber of the one or more subscribers, exceeds a subscriber threshold level,

wherein the subscriber threshold level is based on subscriber information and policy information associated with each subscriber,

wherein the subscriber information is determined by;

identifying a plurality of factors stored in one or more subscriber databases,

weighting each factor of the plurality of factors, and

determining the subscriber information based on the weighted factors, and

wherein the policy information is based on whether each subscriber has subscribed to a service that includes a quality of service guarantee and based on a minimum amount of bandwidth reserved for each subscriber during a previous period of network usage associated with each subscriber;

rate limiting, by the one or more servers, network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers, wherein the rate limiting includes sending a message to a packet data network gateway indicating that the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers is to be rate limited;

detecting, by the one or more servers, a decrease in network congestion at the base station below a second network threshold level; and

removing the rate limiting, by the one or more servers, on the one or more subscribers accessing the network via the base station.

2. The method of claim 1, where setting the first network threshold level comprises:

configuring policy information based on;

historic or current usage of the network by the one or more subscribers,

reserving bandwidth for one or more other subscribers during particular times of the day, or

reserving bandwidth for one or more other subscribers during times of particular levels of network congestion, and

compiling the policy information to set the first network threshold level.

3. The method of claim 1, where rate limiting network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers comprises:

changing a quality of service (QoS) classification identifier (QCI) for data associated with the one or more subscribers; and

instructing a network device to rate limit the network traffic based on the changed QCI.

4. The method of claim 1, where selecting the one or more subscribers comprises:

detecting the one or more subscribers when the one or more subscribers are associated with usage categories that correspond to network traffic that exceeds the subscriber threshold level.

5. The method of claim 4, where detecting the one or more subscribers comprises:

detecting historic usage data from a particular previous time period for the one or more subscribers; and

determining that the historic usage data exceeds the subscriber threshold level to detect the one or more subscribers.

6. The method of claim 4, where detecting the one or more subscribers comprises:

detecting current usage data from a particular current time period for the one or more subscribers; and

determining that the current usage data exceeds the subscriber threshold level to detect the one or more subscribers.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

detecting one or more other subscribers associated with network traffic that does not exceed the subscriber threshold level; and

rate increasing the network traffic associated with the one or more other subscribers.

8. A system comprising:

one or more server devices to;

set a first network threshold level for determining network congestion in a network;

set rate limiting criteria for determining when subscribers will be rate limited, wherein the rate limiting criteria is based on usage categories associated with the subscribers,

wherein the usage categories are based on whether network usage, associated with each of the subscribers, exceeds a subscriber threshold level associated with each of the subscribers,

wherein the subscriber threshold level is based on subscriber information and policy information associated with each of the subscribers,

wherein the subscriber information is determined based on weighting a plurality of factors, associated with each of the subscribers, identified from one or more subscriber databases, and

wherein the policy information is based on whether each of the subscribers has subscribed to a service that includes a quality of service guarantee and based on a minimum amount of bandwidth reserved for each of the subscribers during a previous period of network usage associated with each subscriber;

detect an increase in network congestion at a base station above the first network threshold level;

identify one or more subscribers, of the subscribers, meeting one or more of the rate limiting criteria;

rate limit network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers by sending a message to a packet data network gateway indicating that the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers it to be rate limited;

detect a decrease in network congestion at the base station below a second network threshold level; and

remove the rate limiting of the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers.

9. The system of claim 8, where the one or more server devices set the first network threshold level by:

configuring policy information based on;

historic or current usage of the network by the one or more subscribers,

reserving bandwidth for one or more other subscribers during particular times of the day, or

reserving bandwidth for one or more other subscribers during times of particular levels of network congestion, and

compiling the policy information to set the first network threshold level.

10. The system of claim 8, where, when rate limiting the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers, the one or more server devices are to rate limit the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers by:

changing a quality of service (QoS) classification identifier (QCI) for data associated with the one or more subscribers, and

instructing a network device to rate limit the network traffic based on the changed QCI.

11. The system of claim 8, where, when identifying the one or more subscribers meeting one or more of the rate limiting criteria, the one or more server devices are to:

detect historic usage data from a particular previous time period for the one or more subscribers; and

compare the historic usage data to the rate limiting criteria, where the rate limiting criteria includes a threshold amount of data for the particular previous time period for the one or more subscribers, and where the one or more subscribers meet the one or more rate limiting criteria when the historic usage data exceeds the threshold amount of data.

12. The system of claim 8, where, when identifying the one or more subscribers meeting one or more of the rate limiting criteria, the one or more server devices are to:

detect current usage data from a particular current time period for the one or more subscribers; and

compare the current usage data to the rate limiting criteria, where the rate limiting criteria includes a threshold amount of data for the particular current time period for the one or more subscribers, and where the one or more subscribers meet the one or more rate limiting criteria when the current usage data exceeds the threshold amount of data.

13. The system of claim 8, where the one or more server devices comprise:

a policy charging and rules function (PCRF) server to;

receive load information to detect the increase in network congestion;

change a quality of service (QoS) classification identifier (QCI), for the one or more subscribers, from a first value to a second value to rate limit the one or more subscribers;

receive load information to detect the decrease in network congestion; and

return the QCI from the second value to the first value to remove the rate limit.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

set a first network threshold level for determining network congestion in a network;

set rate limiting criteria for determining when subscribers will be rate limited, wherein the rate limiting criteria is based on usage categories associated with the subscribers,

wherein the usage categories correspond to whether network usage, associated with each of the subscribers, exceeds a subscriber threshold level,

wherein the subscriber threshold level is based on subscriber information and policy information associated with each of the subscribers,

wherein the subscriber information is determined based on weighting a plurality of factors, associated with each of the subscribers, identified from one or more subscriber databases, and

wherein the policy information is based on whether each of the subscribers has subscribed to a service that includes a quality of service guarantee and based on a minimum amount of bandwidth reserved for each subscriber during a historic time of network usage associated with each subscriber;

detect an increase in network congestion at a base station above the first network threshold level;

identify one or more subscribers, of the subscribers, meeting one or more of the rate limiting criteria;

rate limit network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers by sending a message to a packet data network gateway indicating that the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers is to be rate limited;

detect a decrease in network congestion at the base station below a second network threshold level; and

remove the rate limiting of the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising:

one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

configure policy information based on;

historic or current usage of the network by the one or more subscribers,

reserving bandwidth for one or more other subscribers during particular times of the day, or

reserving bandwidth for one or more other subscribers during times of particular levels of network congestion, and

compile the policy information to set the first network threshold level.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising:

one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

rate limit the one or more subscribers by;

changing a quality of service (QoS) classification identifier (QCI) for data associated with the one or more subscribers; and

instructing a network device to rate limit the network traffic based on the changed QCI.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to rate limit the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers by:

detecting one or more subscribers using amounts of data above the subscriber threshold level; and

rate limiting the network traffic associated with the one or more subscribers using amounts of data above the subscriber threshold level.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

detect historic usage data from a particular previous time period for the one or more subscribers; and

compare the historic usage data to the rate limiting criteria, where the rate limiting criteria includes a threshold amount of data for the particular previous time period for the one or more subscribers, and where the one or more subscribers meet the one or more rate limiting criteria when the historic usage data exceeds the threshold amount of data.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

detect current usage data from a particular current time period for the one or more subscribers; and

compare the current usage data to the rate limiting criteria, where the rate limiting criteria includes a threshold amount of data for the particular current time period for the one or more subscribers, and where the one or more subscribers meet the one or more rate limiting criteria when the current usage data exceeds the threshold amount of data.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising:

one or more instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

receive load information to detect the increase in network congestion;

change a quality of service (QoS) classification identifier (QCI), for the one or more subscribers, from a first value to a second value to rate limit the one or more subscribers;

receive load information to detect the decrease in network congestion; and

return the QCI from the second value to the first value to remove the rate limit.