# US 9,438,469 B2 · Auto-configuration server and management method of customer premises equipments

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- Number: US 9,438,469 B2
- Document ID: US9438469B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/073,285
- Filed: 2013-11-06
- Published: 2014-07-03
- Granted: 2016-09-06
- Earliest claimed: 2013-01-02
- Assignees: Industrial Technology Research Institute
- Applicants: Industrial Technology Research Institute
- Inventors: Kuen-Min Lee; Jenn-Lien Chu; Yu-Tse Lin; Chin-Yuan Hsiao
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9438469B2

## CPC

- H04L 41/044: comprising hierarchical management structures
- H04L 41/0886: {Fully automatic configuration}
- H04L 41/32: {Specific management aspects for broadband networks}
- H04L 43/0817: by checking functioning
- H04L 41/0213: Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

An auto-configuration server (ACS) and a management method of customer premises equipments (CPEs) thereof are provided, and the ACS includes a sub server communication module and a group management module. When an online message is received from a new CPE, the management method includes performing an extension procedure including the following steps. A health value of the ACS is calculated. When the health value of the ACS is less than or equal to a health threshold, a new group and a sub server corresponding to the new group are added and the new CPE is managed by the sub server corresponding to the new group.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A management method of customer premises equipment (CPEs), adapted to manage a plurality of online CPEs via an auto-configuration server (ACS), and comprising steps of:
performing an extension procedure when the ACS receives an online message from a new CPE, wherein the extension procedure comprises:
calculating a health value of the ACS; and
performing the following steps when the health value of the ACS is less than or equal to a health threshold:
adding a new group of CPEs and a sub server which corresponds to the new group of CPEs; and
managing the new CPE via the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The management method according to claim 1, further comprising the following step of managing the new CPE via the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs:
transmitting a management command to the sub server, and transferring the management command from the sub server to the new CPE in the new group of CPEs corresponding to the sub server.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The management method according to claim 1, wherein the online CPEs are grouped into a plurality of management groups according to a data model of each of the online CPEs by the ACS, each of the management groups comprises at least one of the online CPEs, and when a quantity of the at least one online CPE in one of the management groups is two, one of the online CPEs in the one of the management groups is set as a sub server which manages the other one of the online CPEs in the one of the management groups.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The management method according to claim 3, wherein the ACS maintains an ACS management list which records the management groups and parent nodes which correspond to the online CPEs, each of the parent nodes is either the ACS or one sub server, each of the sub server maintains a sub management list which records the online CPE managed by the sub server.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The management method according to claim 4, wherein the ACS management list records a fitness value of each of the online CPEs, the ACS maintains a candidate list which according to the management groups, respectively records whether each of the management groups corresponds to at least one candidate CPE which is one of the online CPEs, and the extension procedure further comprises:
calculating the health value of the ACS; and
performing the following steps when the health value of the ACS is less than or equal to the health threshold and the management group that the new CPE belongs to corresponds to the at least one candidate CPE:
selecting an adjacent CPE from the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE;
adding the new group of CPEs and setting the adjacent CPE to be the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs when the adjacent CPE is not a sub server; and
recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and into the sub management list maintained by the adjacent CPE, and managing the new CPE via the adjacent CPE.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, wherein before the step of selecting the adjacent CPE from the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE, the extension procedure further comprises:
calculating the fitness value of the new CPE; and
recording the new CPE into the candidate list when the fitness value of the new CPE is greater than a fitness threshold.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, wherein the step of selecting the adjacent CPE from the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE comprises:
randomly selecting one of the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE; and
setting the selected candidate CPE to be the adjacent CPE when a distance between the selected candidate CPE and the new CPE is less than a distance threshold.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, wherein after the step of recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and into the sub management list maintained by the adjacent CPE, and of managing the new CPE via the adjacent CPE, the extension procedure further comprises:
calculating the fitness value of the adjacent CPE; and
deleting the adjacent CPE from the candidate list when the fitness value of the adjacent CPE is less than or equal to the fitness threshold.

### Claim 9 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, wherein the extension procedure further comprises:
performing the following steps when the management group of the new CPE does not correspond to any candidate CPE:
recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and directly managing the new CPE via the ACS when a current connection quantity of the ACS is less than a connection threshold; and
storing the online message of the new CPE into a waiting queue when the current connection quantity of the ACS is greater than or equal to the connection threshold.

### Claim 10 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, wherein the extension procedure further comprises:
recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and directly managing the new CPE via the ACS when the health value of the ACS is greater than the health threshold.

### Claim 11 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, wherein the health value is calculated according to a memory usage, a central processing unit (CPU) usage, a bandwidth usage by the ACS, and calculates the fitness value of the new CPE or each of the online CPEs according to an online time rank value.

### Claim 12 (depends on 5)

The management method according to claim 5, further comprising:
performing an altering procedure to change the parent node of an overload server and the parent node of the at least one online CPE which is managed by the overload server, when an alarm message is received from the overload server which is one of the sub servers.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The management method according to claim 12, wherein the ACS management list records a fitness value of each of the online CPEs, and the altering procedure comprises:
pausing the transmission of the management command to the overload server;
deleting one of the online CPE from the sub management list of the overload server;
calculating and updating the fitness value of the overload server;
performing an extension procedure on the deleted online CPE when the fitness value of the overload server is greater than a fitness threshold; and
deleting the overload server from the candidate list and returning to the step of deleting the one of the at least one online CPE from the sub management list of the overload server when the fitness value of the overload server is still less than or equal to the fitness threshold.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The management method according to claim 13, wherein the fitness value is calculated according to a memory usage, a CPU usage, a bandwidth usage and an online time rank value by the ACS.

### Claim 15 (depends on 4)

The management method according to claim 4, further comprising:
performing a deleting procedure to delete the one of the online CPEs, which is set as an off-line CPE, from the ACS management list when no cycle message is received from the one of the online CPEs in an interval time.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The management method according to claim 15, wherein the ACS maintains a candidate list for recording whether each of the management groups corresponds to at least one candidate CPE which is one of the at least one online CPE in the corresponding management group, and the deleting procedure comprises:
deleting the off-line CPE from the candidate list while the off-line CPE is recorded into the candidate list;
deleting the off-line CPE from the ACS management list;
deleting the off-line CPE from one of the sub management lists while the off-line CPE has been recorded into the one of the sub management lists; and
performing an extension procedure on each of the online CPEs managed by the off-line CPE when the off-line CPE is the sub server.

### Claim 17 (depends on 4)

The management method according to claim 4, wherein the step of managing the new CPE via the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs comprises:
installing a sub server agent module into the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs;
establishing the sub management list of the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs according to the ACS management list; and
setting the parent node of the new CPE as the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The management method according to claim 1, wherein the health value is calculated according to a memory usage, a CPU usage and a bandwidth usage.

### Claim 19 (depends on 1)

The management method according to claim 1, wherein the ACS receives the online message through a CPE wide area network management protocol (CWMP) or a TR-069 standard protocol.

### Claim 20

An auto-configuration server (ACS) for managing a plurality of online customer premises equipments (CPEs), comprising:
A hardware processor functioning as a group management module, configured to perform an extension procedure when the ACS receives an online message from a new CPE, and to perform the following steps in the extension procedure:
calculating a health value of the ACS; and
performing the following steps when the health value of the ACS is less than or equal to a health threshold:
adding a new group of CPEs and a sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs; and
managing the new CPE via the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs.

### Claim 21 (depends on 20)

The ACS according to claim 20,
wherein the hardware processor also functions as a sub server communication module, configured to communicate with the sub server, and
wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module sends a management command to the sub server, corresponding to the new group of CPEs, via the hardware processor functioning as the sub server communication module, and then the sub server, corresponding to the new group of CPEs, transfers the management command to the CPE in the new group of CPEs.

### Claim 22 (depends on 20)

The ACS according to claim 20, wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module groups the online CPEs into a plurality of management groups according to a data model of each online CPE, each of the management groups comprises at least one of the online CPEs, at least one online CPE of at least one of the management groups is set as a sub server which manages the rest of the online CPE in the management group corresponding to the sub server.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The ACS according to claim 22, further comprising:
a CPE database, configured to store an ACS management list, and
wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module maintains the ACS management list which records all the management groups and a parent node corresponding to each of the online CPEs and being either the ACS or one of the sub servers; and
each of the sub servers maintains a sub management list which records the at least one online CPE managed by the sub server corresponding to the sub management list.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The ACS according to claim 23, wherein the ACS management list records a fitness value of each of the online CPEs, the CPE database stores a candidate list, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module maintains the candidate list which respectively records whether each of the management groups corresponds to at least one sub server and any candidate CPE which is one of the online CPEs, and the hardware processor functioning as the group management module further performs the following steps in the extension procedure:
calculating the health value of the ACS; and
performing the following steps when the health value of the ACS is less than or equal to the health threshold and the management group of the new CPE corresponds to at least one candidate CPE:
selecting an adjacent CPE from the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE;
adding the new group of CPEs and setting the adjacent CPE as the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs when the adjacent CPE is not one sub server; and
recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and into the sub management list maintained by the adjacent CPE, and managing the new CPE via the adjacent CPE.

### Claim 25 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein before the step of selecting the adjacent CPE from the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module further performs the following steps in the extension procedure:
calculating the fitness value of the new CPE; and
recording the new CPE into the candidate list when the fitness value of the new CPE is greater than a fitness threshold.

### Claim 26 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein in the step of selecting the adjacent CPE from the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module performs the following steps:
randomly selecting one of the at least one candidate CPE corresponding to the new CPE; and
setting the selected candidate CPE as the adjacent CPE when a distance between the selected candidate CPE and the new CPE is less than a distance threshold.

### Claim 27 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein after the step of recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and the sub management list which is maintained by the adjacent CPE, and of managing the new CPE via the adjacent CPE, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module further performs the following steps in the extension procedure:
calculating the fitness value of the adjacent CPE; and
deleting the adjacent CPE from the candidate list when the fitness value of the adjacent CPE is less than or equal to the fitness threshold.

### Claim 28 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module further performs the following steps in the extension procedure:
performing the following steps when the management group of the new CPE does not correspond to any candidate CPE:
recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and directly managing the new CPE via the ACS when a current connection quantity of the ACS is less than a connection threshold; and
storing the online message of the new CPE into a waiting queue when the current connection quantity of the ACS is greater than or equal to the connection threshold.

### Claim 29 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module further performs the following step in the extension procedure:
recording the new CPE into the ACS management list and directly managing the new CPE via the ACS when the health value of the ACS is greater than the health threshold.

### Claim 30 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module calculates the health value according to a memory usage, a CPU usage, a bandwidth usage, and calculates the fitness value of the new CPE or each of the online CPEs according to an online time rank value.

### Claim 31 (depends on 24)

The ACS according to claim 24, wherein when receiving an alarm message from an overload server which is one of the sub servers, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module performs an altering procedure to change the parent node of the overload server and the parent node of the at least one online CPE managed by the overload server.

### Claim 32 (depends on 31)

The ACS according to claim 31, wherein the ACS management list records a fitness value of each of the online CPEs, and the hardware processor functioning as the group management module performs the following steps in the altering procedure:
pausing the transmission of the management command to the overload server;
deleting one of the at least one online CPE from the sub management list of the overload server;
calculating and updating the fitness value of the overload server;
performing an extension procedure on the deleted online CPE when the fitness value of the overload server is greater than a fitness threshold; and
deleting the overload server from the candidate list and returning to the step of deleting the one of the at least one online CPE from the sub management list of the overload server when the fitness value of the overload server is still less than or equal to the fitness threshold.

### Claim 33 (depends on 32)

The ACS according to claim 32, wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module calculates the fitness value according to a memory usage, a CPU usage, a bandwidth usage and an online time rank value.

### Claim 34 (depends on 23)

The ACS according to claim 23, wherein when the ACS does not receive any cycle message from one of the online CPEs in an interval time, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module sets the one of the online CPEs to be an off-line CPE and performs a deleting procedure to delete the off-line CPE from the ACS management list.

### Claim 35 (depends on 34)

The ACS according to claim 34, wherein the ACS maintains a candidate list which records whether each of the management groups corresponds to at least one sub server and any candidate CPE which is one of the at least one online CPE in the corresponding management group, and the hardware processor functioning as the group management module performs the following steps in the deleting procedure:
deleting the off-line CPE from the candidate list while the off-line CPE has been recorded in the candidate list;
deleting the off-line CPE from the ACS management list;
deleting the off-line CPE from one of the sub management lists when the off-line CPE has been recorded in the one of the sub management lists; and
performing an extension procedure on each of the online CPEs managed by the off-line CPE when the off-line CPE is the sub server.

### Claim 36 (depends on 23)

The ACS according to claim 23, wherein in the step of managing the new CPE via the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs, the hardware processor functioning as the group management module performs the following steps:
installing a function of a sub server agent module into the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs;
establishing the sub management list of the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs, according to the ACS management list; and
setting the parent node of the new CPE as the sub server corresponding to the new group of CPEs.

### Claim 37 (depends on 20)

The ACS according to claim 20, wherein the ACS calculates the health value according to a memory usage, a CPU usage and a bandwidth usage.

### Claim 38 (depends on 20)

The ACS according to claim 20, wherein the hardware processor functioning as the group management module receives the online message from the new CPE through a CWMP or a TR-069 standard protocol.