US 8,477,730 B2Granted

Distributed load management on network devices

AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.

InventorsRamakumar Rajagopalan, Hassan Khani Sidhiq, Lakshuman Kumar Narayanan, Sridhar Bhaskaran, Aditya Prakash, Mohan Rangan

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Abstract

This disclosure relates to a system and method for dynamically managing load on network devices in a distributed manner. As the proliferation of data rich content and increasingly more capable mobile devices has continued, the amount of data communicated over mobile operator's networks has exponentially increased. Upgrading the existing network to accommodate increased data traffic is neither desirable nor practical. One way to accommodate increased data traffic is by utilizing network resources more efficiently. This disclosure provides systems and methods for efficiently utilizing network resources by dynamically configuring the network in a distributed manner based on real-time load information.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A network device comprising:

one or more interfaces configured to provide communication with at least one other network device of the same type and with mobile stations;
and
a processor, in communication with the one or more interfaces, configured to run a module stored in memory that is configured to:
send a message to the at least one other network device to request information on real-time load information of the at least one other network device;
receive the real-time load information from the at least one other network device;
determine an amount of load to be re-routed to the at least one other network device based on the real-time load information of the at least one other network device;
upon determining the amount of load to be re-routed to the at least one other network device, send a message to the at least one other network device to request setting aside data transfer capacity;
select mobile stations to be re-routed to the at least one other network device;
and
cause the selected mobile stations to be re-routed to the at least one other network device, which includes modifying a serving network device identifier in a mobile station identifier associated with the selected mobile stations, so that data is communicated between the selected mobile stations and the at least one other network device.

7 more elements

A method comprising:

sending a message from a first network device to a second network device to request real-time load information of the second network device, wherein the first network device and the second network device are of the same type, and wherein the first network device and the second network device are configured to communicate data to and from first and second sets of mobile stations, respectively;
receiving, at the first network device, the real-time load information from the second network device;
determining, at the first network device, an amount of load to be re-routed from the first network device to the second network device based on the real-time load information of the second network device;
in response to determining the amount of load to be re-routed to the second network device, sending a message from the first network device to the second network device to request setting aside data transfer capacity for the first network device;
selecting, by the first network device, mobile stations to be re-routed from the first network device to the second network device;
and
causing the selected mobile stations to be re-routed to the second network device so that data is communicated between the selected mobile stations and the second network device, wherein causing the selected mobile stations to be re-routed to the second network device includes modifying a serving network device identifier in a mobile station identifier associated with the selected mobile stations, and providing the mobile station identifier to the selected mobile stations.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/984,335Filed 4 Jan 2011
Published: US 2012/0170548 A15 Jul 2012
Granted: 2 Jul 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H04W 28/088
Load balancing or load distribution: among core entities
H04W 28/10
Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control: flow control between communication endpoints
H04W 36/22
Performing reselection for specific purposes: for handling the traffic
H04W 28/02
Network traffic management; Network resource management: traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control