Method and system for burst congestion control in an internet protocol network

Abstract

A method and system for controlling congestion in an IP network comprises the steps of preallocating, for a predetermined interval of time, a set of burst access parameters to a set of predetermined routes between a set of source node and destination node pairs in the IP network, and controlling, at the burst level, the traffic at each source node based on the preallocated set of burst access parameters and without communicating with other nodes in the IP network. Specifically, a network controller, for a predetermined interval of time, determines a set of routes between each source-destination node pair in the network, preallocates a set of maximum permitted rates to the predetermined set of routes, respectively, and pre-assigns a set of burst access thresholds to a set of service classes, respectively, in the predetermined routes, where the pre-assigned burst access thresholds are less than or equal to the corresponding preallocated maximum permitted rates. Based on the maximum permitted rates and the burst access thresholds, each source node in the network then controls, at the burst level, the traffic accessing the network and reserves for each admitted burst the burst peak packet rate on a predetermined route, without communicating with other nodes in the network. A source node admits an arrived burst onto a predetermined route when a total reserved peak packet rate for all bursts on the predetermined route that are in progress at the source node plus a peak packet rate of the burst is less than the identified burst access threshold. Otherwise, the source node prevents the burst from accessing the network.