Managing effects of a scheduled outage of mains power

A method, in a network node, for managing effects on a communications network of a scheduled outage of mains power, the method comprising:

• receiving a message identifying mains powered devices registered on the communication network and to be, affected by the scheduled outage;
• performing a calculation to determine an impact upon network resources of the scheduled outage;
• and
• based on the calculation, applying at least one of a Quality of Service or Bandwidth or Charging policy, wherein
• the message comprises identifiers of the devices to be affected by the scheduled outage and a time period during which the scheduled outage is scheduled.

A communication network node configured for managing effects of a scheduled outage of mains power, the communication network node comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor whereby the communication network node is operative to:

• receive a notification of the scheduled outage of mains power, the notification comprising a location to be affected by the scheduled outage and a time period during which the scheduled outage is scheduled;
• identify mains powered devices registered on the communication network and situated in the notified location;
• discover an entity to be affected by an outage of at least one of the identified devices;
• and
• inform the discovered entity that the identified devices are scheduled to be without power during the notified time period.

A communication network node configured for managing effects on a communications network of a scheduled outage of mains power, the communication network node comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor whereby the communication network node is operative to:

• receive a message identifying mains powered devices registered on the communication network and to be affected by the scheduled outage;
• perform a calculation to determine an impact upon network resources of the scheduled outage;
• and
• based on the calculation, apply at least one of a Quality of Service or Bandwidth or Charging policy, wherein
• the message comprises identifiers of the devices to be affected by the scheduled outage and a time period during which the scheduled outage is scheduled.