Method and apparatus for performing an automatic bandwidth management in a communication network

A communication network comprising:

• an optical transport domain network having optical transport nodes connected to each other via physical optical links, p1 packet switched networks each having a boundary router connected to an optical transport node of said optical transport domain network via at least one access link;
• and
• a network management apparatus adapted to perform an automatic bandwidth management of said communication network,
• wherein said network management apparatus is adapted to activate or deactivate virtual links, tributary ports and cross-connections between virtual and access links in the optical transport domain in response to data traffic statistics of data transmitted on said access links,
• wherein said network management apparatus comprises a sensor engine adapted to evaluate a current bandwidth utilization in the optical transport domain based on data collected by the sensor agent in the packet domain and to predict a future bandwidth utilization on the basis of monitored current bandwidth utilization dynamics, and
• wherein if the sensor engine of the network management apparatus detects that the available bandwidth capacity within the optical network domain is not sufficient for the monitored current and/or predicted bandwidth utilization, additional virtual links, tributary ports and cross-connections between virtual and access links are automatically activated by said sensor engine to increase the available bandwidth capacity in the optical transport domain.

A method for performing an automatic bandwidth management in a communication network comprising the steps of:

• monitoring data traffic transmitted on access links between boundary routers of packet domains and optical transport nodes of an optical transport domain connected to said boundary routers via the access links to collect data traffic statistics of data transmitted on said access links;
• and
• performing corrective actions in the optical transport domain in response to the collected data traffic statistics by activating or deactivating virtual links in the optical transport domain,
• wherein current bandwidth utilization in the optical transport domain is evaluated based on data collected by a sensor agent in the packet domain and a future bandwidth utilization is predicted on the basis of monitored current bandwidth utilization dynamics, and
• wherein if it is detected that the available bandwidth capacity within the optical network domain is not sufficient for the monitored current and/or predicted bandwidth utilization, additional virtual links, tributary ports and cross-connections between virtual and access links are automatically activated to increase the available bandwidth capacity in the optical transport domain.