Alcatel Lucent

Alcatel Canada Inc.

Alcatel

Alcatel-lucent Canada Inc.

Satvinder Singh Bawa

Mike Holloway

Bruce Brown

Hamdy Farid

Susan Patricia Callow

Robert Alexander Mann

Lui Chu Yeung

Fan Mo

Ivaylo Tanouchev

Felix M Landry

Lay Been Tan

Justin Newcomb

Aaron Ferguson

Khaled F Refai

Syed Farhan Shahid

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) for processing a Diameter message, the DRA including: a rule storage configured to store a plurality of sets of rules and plugins; a Diameter stack configured to receive a Diameter message; a message handler configured to: determine whether there is a destination selection associated with the Diameter message; when the destination selection is associated with the Diameter message, routing the Diameter message according to a plugin by determining by the plugin, whether there is a routing configuration match by evaluating a set of filters in the plugin; and transmitting a message based on the evaluation of the plugin.

Extensions to standard diameter routing

An integrated data network management and data service provisioning environment is provided. The integrated environment includes legacy software application code and current software application code each augmented with code portions enabling exchange of information therebetween via an interworking layer. A facility for participation in and interacting with the integrated environment is also provided. A man-machine interface is integrated across different applications which themselves may be executed on different computers to provide a seamless exchange of information. The advantages are derived from enhanced usage efficiencies in providing data network management and service provisioning solutions. The interworking layer also provides for security enforcement across applications participating in the integrated environment.

Application level integration in support of a distributed network management and service provisioning solution

A method and apparatus are provided for allowing a single platform to recognize and process both Diameter messages and Radius messages. A gateway is provided for translating Radius messages received from a wireline device into NASReq messages. A Diameter Proxy Agent receives both Diameter messages from a wireless device and the NASReq messages from the gateway. The Diameter Proxy Agent selects a PCRF to which to pass a NASReq message, and upon receipt of a NASReq message the PCRF either creates or updates a NASReq session object. By recognizing and processing Radius messages, wireline services can be offered at the same time as wireless services without requiring the use of a second platform. In addition, use of the PCRF server to support wireline services offers much better scalability than that offered by traditional AAA servers.

Radius gateway on policy charging and rules function (PCRF) for wireline/wireless converged solution

A method for testing connectivity of virtual private networks, the virtual private networks including customer edge routers and provider edge routers, the provider edge routers belonging to a network managed by a service provider, the method comprising: displaying a list of the virtual private networks on a display screen of a network management system for the network; receiving a signal from a user to select a virtual private network from the list of the virtual private networks, the virtual private network having a topology, an import route target, and an export route target associated therewith; generating a list of operations to test connectivity of the virtual private network from the topology, the import route target, and the export route target; displaying the list of operations to the user on the display screen; receiving a signal from the user to select an operation from the list of operations, the operation having a source provider edge router and a destination provider edge network associated therewith; and, transmitting a message from the network management system to the source provider edge router to perform the operation.

Method and system for virtual private network connectivity verification

An integrated data network management and data service provisioning environment is provided. The integrated environment includes legacy software application code and current software application code each augmented with code portions enabling exchange of information therebetween via an interworking layer as well as support for limited application code load-up and execution. A facility for participation in and interacting with the integrated environment is also provided. A man-machine interface is integrated across different applications which themselves may be executed on different computers to provide a seamless exchange of information. Feature componetized application code is loaded and executed on a need-to-use basis, and unloaded when not used. Advantages are derived from enhanced resource utilization efficiencies in providing network management and service provisioning solutions. The interworking layer also provides for security enforcement across applications participating in the integrated environment.

Limited plugin load-up in support of distributed network management and service provisioning solutions

A method for generating a route distinguisher for a virtual private network, the virtual private network managed by a service provider through a network management system, the method comprising: receiving a signal from a user through a graphical user interface displayed on a display screen of the network management system to select a format for the route distinguisher; receiving a signal from the user through the graphical user interface to select a policy for determining the route distinguisher; displaying an available value for the route distinguisher on the display screen, the available value determined from the policy and the format, the available value including an administrator subfield value portion and a next assigned number subfield value portion; receiving an administrator subfield value and a next assigned number subfield value from the user through the graphical user interface; and, combining the administrator subfield value and the next assigned number subfield value to generate the route distinguisher, whereby the administrator subfield value portion and the next assigned number subfield value portion of the available value suggest the administrator subfield value and the next assigned number subfield value to the user, respectively.

Method and system for generating route distinguishers and targets for a virtual private network

A programmable configuration management infrastructure is provided. The programmable configuration management infrastructure employs Programmable Configuration Requests (PCRs) to perform configuration management over a definable target list of field-installed managed communication equipment subject to a definable schedule and configuration management policies. The programmable configuration management infrastructure provides for monitoring of configuration command execution and traps errors. In the event of detecting configuration command execution errors, the programmable configuration management infrastructure provides for restoring the configuration either for all targets processed or for the targets experiencing errors only as specified in the PCR definition. Recourse may be made to the validation of configuration change or configuration restoration commands as specified in the PCR definition. Configuration management policies may be employed to limit configuration management to specific time frames as well the rate at which configuration commands are issued may be tailored to prevent overuse of resources. Benefits are derived from programmable configuration management functionality based on which programmable configuration applications can be built with ease while ensuring reduced configuration management overheads and error contingency processing.

Network management programmable configuration management framework

Methods of considering bandwidth load or load balancing in the selection of an optimal path for routing calls through a switched digital network are described. The described methods are applicable to both new calls and existing connected calls. Algorithms that take into consideration selection criteria such as route cost, number of link hops in the route in addition to bandwidth load are presented.

Bandwidth load consideration in network route selection

A method of assigning effective bandwidth to a physical or logical link for propagating multiple virtual paths through a switched digital communications network is described. Switching nodes within the network have more than one interconnecting link in order to provide redundancy in the event of link failure. The effective bandwidth is assigned to each link according to dual multipliers or booking factors. The first booking factor is used for provisioning the link on set up and the second booking factor is for re-routing in the event of link failure.

Use of booking factors to redefine available bandwidth

A method of determining whether a requested parameter reconfiguration of a connected call in a switched digital communication network complies with system constraints is described. Bandwidth related parameters, in particular, are subject to reconfiguration after a call is provisioned in order to optimize utilization of network resources. The implementation of a bandwidth reconfiguration involves an assessment of bandwidth utilization by the logical or physical links routing the connected call so that the reconfigured bandwidth does not negatively impact on the connected call. Once the reconfigured parameter is determined to be acceptable the reconfiguration data is propagated to the relevant network elements.

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Ottawa, Canada

Satvinder Singh Bawa