Real Time Monitoring, Onset Detection And Control Of Congestive Phase-Transitions in Communication Networks

A method of routing a packet in a network, the network including a plurality of network nodes, each node having one or more neighboring nodes and including a buffer for queuing packets to be transmitted and packets received from other network nodes, the method comprising:

• measuring queue length at a first node and one or more neighboring nodes within a predetermined, or dynamically tuned, hop range of the first node;
• processing the measured queue length to determine patterns of queue length fluctuations;
• determining whether one or more of the measured nodes are in a transition status towards a phase transition point based on the determined fluctuations, the phase transition point corresponding to a change from a non-congestive phase of one or more of the monitored nodes to a congestive phase of one or more of the monitored nodes;
• and
• selecting a routing path based on the determination.

A method of detecting network congestion, comprising:

• monitoring at a first network node queue length data associated with one or more other network nodes in communication with the first network node;
• determining at the first network node changes in queue lengths of the one or more other network nodes and the first network node;
• correlating the changes in the queue lengths based on a time metric and a distance metric;
• and
• determining that a network congestion condition exists if the correlated changes in queue length size exceed a predetermined threshold.

A communication apparatus in a communication network, the communication network including a plurality of network nodes, wherein each respective one of the plurality of network nodes has one or more neighboring nodes and each respective node has a buffer for queuing packets, the communication apparatus is coupled to a first network node, the first network node being one of the plurality of network nodes, the communication apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor and containing instructions executable by the processor;
• the instructions being executable to:
• measure queue length at the first node and respective queue length at the first node's neighboring nodes;
• process the measured queue lengths to obtain patterns of fluctuations for one or more of the measured queue lengths;
• determine whether one or more of the measured nodes are transitioning towards a phase transition point based on the one or more obtained patterns of fluctuations, the phase transition point corresponding to a change from a non-congestive condition to a congestive condition of the measured nodes;
• and
• generate one or more congestion control signals based on the determination.