Determining Feasibility Of A Network Service Using A Ring Analysis
AssigneeLevel 3 Communications, LLC
InventorWilliam Thomas Sella
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mesh network (such as a mesh Ethernet network) is subdivided into rings. For each ring, a network utilization is assessed in both the clockwise and counter-clockwise directions around the ring. A user requests a particular network service. The network rings that would be utilized by the network service are determined. A maximum utilization of all the network rings utilized by the network service in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions is determined. The determined maximum utilization is used to determine the feasibility of provisioning the requested network service.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for determining feasibility of establishing a connection in a mesh network including a plurality of bidirectional links with different capacities, and a plurality of switching devices, comprising:
- (a) monitoring, on a computing device, utilization of bidirectional links connecting the plurality of switching devices;
- (b) for both directions of each of the links, determining, on the computing device, a predicted utilization of the link in the direction based on the utilization of the link monitored in (a);
- for each of a plurality of rings in the mesh network:
- (c) determining, on the computing device, a clockwise bottleneck link in the ring;
- (d) determining, on the computing device, a counterclockwise bottleneck link in the ring;
- (e) determining, on the computing device, an available bandwidth of the ring based on the clockwise bottleneck link and the counterclockwise bottleneck link;
- (f) identifying a set of rings from the plurality of rings to be utilized to provide a requested dedicated network connection between at least two locations;
- and
- (g) determining whether the requested dedicated network connection is feasible based on the available bandwidth determined in (e).
A program storage device tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by at least one machine to perform a method for evaluating utilization of a mesh network including a plurality of switching devices, the method comprising:
- (a) monitoring, on a computing device, utilization of bidirectional links connecting the plurality of switching devices;
- (b) for both directions of each of the links, determining, on the computing device, a predicted utilization of the link in the direction based on the utilization of the link monitored in (a);
- for each of a plurality of rings in the mesh network:
- (c) determining, on the computing device, a clockwise bottleneck link in the ring;
- (d) determining, on the computing device, a counterclockwise bottleneck link in the ring;
- (e) determining, on the computing device, an available bandwidth of the ring based on the clockwise bottleneck link and the counterclockwise bottleneck link;
- (f) identifying a set of rings from the plurality of rings to be utilized to provide a requested dedicated network connection between at least two locations;
- and
- (g) determining whether the requested dedicated network connection is feasible based on the available bandwidth determined in (e).
A system for determining feasibility of establishing a connection in a mesh network including a plurality of bidirectional links with different capacities and a plurality of switching devices comprising:
- a computing device;
- a monitor module, implemented on the computing device, that monitors the utilization of bidirectional links connecting the plurality of switching devices;
- a link predictor module, implemented on the computing device, that, for both directions of each of the links, determines a predicted utilization of the link in the direction based on the monitored utilization of the link;
- and
- a ring evaluator module, implemented on the computing device, that for each of a plurality of rings in the mesh network, (i) determines a clockwise bottleneck link in the ring, (ii) determines a counterclockwise bottleneck link in the ring, and (iii) determines an available bandwidth of the ring based on the clockwise bottleneck link and the counterclockwise bottleneck link.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.