Systems and methods for predictive congestion management using application signals

A network element comprising processing electronics and a communication interface and configured, in support of managing network traffic passing through the network element, to:

• for each interval of a plurality of future time intervals:
• receive one or more signaling packets, each signaling packet comprising an indication that a packet flow of a given size is to be provided to the network element after a given time ΔT;
• process the one or more signaling packets to determine a future traffic indicator which is generally increasing with a total number of the one or more signaling packets;
• and
• prior to a beginning of the interval, perform one or more actions over a given time period (l), to mitigate a packet load at the network element during the interval.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium, having stored thereon statements and instructions which, when executed by a computer processor of a network element, cause the network element to implement a method for managing network traffic passing through a network element, the method comprising:

• for each interval of a plurality of future time intervals:
• processing the one or more signaling packets to determine a future traffic indicator which is generally increasing with a total number of the one or more signaling packets;
• and
• prior to a beginning of the interval, performing one or more actions over a given time period (l), to mitigate a packet load at the network element during the interval.