Huawei Technologies Co., Limited

British Telecommunications Corporation

Huawei Technologies Canada Co., Ltd.

British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

Francis Patrick Kelly

William Carson McCormick

Peter Bernard Key

Richard John Gibbens

Peter J Ashwood-Smith

Thomas Rhodri Griffiths

Martin J Whitehead

Roger R Stacey

Paul A Turton

A method and apparatus for configuring a communication network based on a distance metric. Information indicative of current status of communication network nodes, links between the nodes, or a combination thereof is obtained and processed to determine a network configuration. The network configuration is implementable in the communication network by adjusting one or more nodes or links. The processing includes evaluating network configurations based on a distance metric, which is indicative of lengths of shortest paths which interconnect nodes of the network. Instructions directing underlying resources to implement the network configuration can be provided. An apparatus can be a supervisory device including a network interface and a computer processor.

Method and apparatus for configuring a communication network using a distance metric

A system and method for fair resource allocation includes a method. The method includes determining demand for a plurality of communications features of a network. The method further includes determining resource allocations for virtual computing instances hosted by a plurality of servers. The virtual computing instances serve the communications features. The method further includes adjusting the resource allocations for the virtual computing instances according to the demand for the communications features and a fairness algorithm.

System and method for fair resource allocation

Embodiments are provided for path flow scheduling of multicast traffic through a network. The paths for traffic flow are determined to optimize link utilization in terms of bandwidth and link capacity, and limit link cost. In an embodiment, a method is implemented for network flow scheduling. The method includes establishing, by a controller of a network, a multicast tree which includes a plurality of links for sending multicast traffic from a source to multiple destinations. The tree is established based on minimizing a number of links in the multicast tree. The tree is then adjusted by replacing one or more of the plurality of links to reduce the link utilization. The tree adjustment is repeated by further replacing one or more links in the multicast tree to further reduce the link utilization.

Apparatus and method for network flow scheduling

A time domain multiplexed (TDM) routing schedule for a wireless mesh network can be generated using a Markov chain process. In particular, synchronized paths between access nodes and gateways in the mesh network can be added to, and removed from, the TDM routing schedule in an iterative fashion according to each individual state in a state progression of a Markov chain, with each state of the Markov chain mapping a different combination of synchronized paths to the TDM routing schedule. In some embodiments, transitioning between states of a Markov chain is performed according to a proportionally fair transition rate.

Randomized mesh network routing

Traffic engineering vector operations that are capable of being independently solved can provide near-linear scalability through the exploitation of massively parallel processing. Optimization can be performed simultaneously on different paths in a data plane, as well as on different links within the same path (or within the same set of paths). In some embodiments, the traffic engineering vector operations include an adjustable alpha-fairness variable that allows managers to achieve different levels of fairness/throughput. Hence, embodiment alpha fairness techniques provide flexible policy execution, while maintaining excellent scalability for large network implementations.

Systems and methods for traffic engineering in software defined networks

A communication network includes a number of network nodes linked together by transmission paths. A network manager controls acceptance of calls onto transmission paths by classifying an incoming call and selecting from the database an appropriate mean to peak bit rate distribution. This selected distribution is then used with the monitored transmission path load to determine a posterior distribution which reflects the load. The decision to accept or reject the call is made on the basis of the posterior distribution by a call acceptance algorithm considering the effective bandwidth for example.

Communication network control method and apparatus

A communication network (1) comprises a number of network nodes (2, 3, 4 and 5) linked together by transmission paths (6, 7 and 8). A network manager (9) controls acceptance of calls onto transmission paths by classifying an incoming call and selecting from the database (14) an appropriate mean to peak bit rate distribution. This selected distribution is then used with the monitored transmission path load to determine a posterior distribution which reflects the load. The decision to accept or reject the call is made on the basis of the posterior distribution by a call acceptance algorithm considering the effective bandwidth for example.

Communication network control method

A method and apparatus for routing traffic in a circuit switched network. A call between two nodes interconnected by a direct link is first offered to the direct route, and if that is blocked it is offered to a currently nominated two-link alternative route between the two nodes. If that route is busy, the call is lost, and a randomly chosen two-link route is assigned to be the new current nominated alternative route. The strategy is particularly effective because it is simple, available routes are quickly located and once one available route is found, that same route is used for rerouting further calls until it is full. Trunk reservation protection is applied on alternative routes.

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Francis Patrick Kelly