Patent Application
20080285559
The present disclosure relates to the field of communication and to implementing multicast connection admission control.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The multicast Connection Admission Control (CAC) function can decide whether to admit establishment of a new connection or enabling of a customized service in view of connection resources of a functional unit, for example, a restriction on a service bandwidth of a physical port, the number of programs that a multicast user of the physical port can watch, the number of users within a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), a multicast bandwidth for a designated group of users, etc. The functional unit may be a port, a VLAN or a domain. The port may be a user-side port or a network-side port.
In an open network, a Network Service Provider (NSP) provides only network hardware resources but no service resource for an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Management and allocation of service resources is accomplished by the ISP. The NSP has to manage both user-side bandwidth resources and the bandwidth customized by the ISP.
An existing technical solution implements multicast CAC based on an uplink physical port.
1. A content provider can not be provided with a function of wholesale.
For example, an uplink physical port is in concurrent connection with a plurality of ISPs and it is impossible to customize a multicast bandwidth for each ISP.
2. It is complex to implement:
Various embodiments solve the technical problem by providing a method, device and system for implementing multicast connection admission control to manage a network-side multicast bandwidth.
According to various embodiments, a method for implementing multicast connection admission control includes:
calculating a currently remaining multicast support capability of a network-side functional unit upon receiving a program request initiated from a user; and
admitting an access of the user when a support capability required for a program as requested by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit.
Various embodiments further provide a device for implementing multicast connection admission control including:
a configuration module adapted to set the maximum multicast support capability of a network-side functional unit;
a comparing module adapted to derive a currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit from comparison with the maximum support capability; and
a control module adapted to admit an access of a user when a support capability required for a program as requested by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit.
Various embodiments further provide a digital subscriber line access multiplexer including:
a configuration module adapted to set the maximum multicast support capability of a network side, which is a multicast bandwidth threshold or the maximum number of multicast programs that can be admitted, based upon a virtual local area network;
a comparing module adapted to derive a currently remaining multicast support capability of the network side from comparison with the maximum support capability; and
a control module adapted to admit an access of a user when a support capability required for a program as requested by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network side.
Various embodiments further provide a Broadband Remote Access Server including:
a configuration module adapted to set the maximum multicast support capability of a network side, which is a multicast bandwidth threshold or the maximum number of multicast programs that can be admitted, based upon a user domain or a multicast bandwidth threshold or the maximum number of multicast programs that can be admitted, based upon a virtual local area network;
a comparing module adapted to derive a currently remaining multicast support capability of the network side from comparison with the maximum support capability; and
a control module adapted to admit an access of a user when a support capability required for a program as requested by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network side.
Various embodiments further provide a system for implementing multicast connection admission control including an access node and a network-side device, wherein the network-side device includes:
a configuration module adapted to set the maximum multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit;
a comparing module adapted to derive a currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit from comparison with the maximum support capability; and
a control module adapted to admit an access of a user when a support capability required for a program as requested by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit.
Various embodiments determine whether the currently remaining support capability of the network-side functional unit is sufficient to support the program as requested by the user to implement network-side multicast bandwidth management with the following advantageous effects: (1) the network-side multicast bandwidth can be managed by a technical means to provide an NSP with wholesale; and (2) the multicast VLAN based CAC can be deployed conveniently in various networks at a low cost.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.
The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.
Referring to
101: Set a maximum multicast support capability of a network-side functional unit.
The maximum multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit includes a threshold of its bandwidth and the maximum number of admitted programs.
103: Receive a program request from a user and calculate remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit from the maximum multicast support capability.
A required support capability is specified for each program when the program is configured at the network side, and therefore in the case that a program request initiated from a user is received, firstly an overall support capability for programs already activated at the network side at that time can be calculated and then compared with the maximum support capability set in the 101 to derive a remaining support capability, i.e. how many further programs can be supported.
105: Admit an access of the user when the support capability required for a program requested for by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit.
Various embodiments implement a multicast CAC function based on a logic object (functional unit) and are illustrated below.
1. VLAN based bandwidth restriction:
2. Restriction on the number of VLAN based programs:
According to various embodiments, the maximum multicast bandwidth or the maximum number of multicast programs for the functional element VLAN is set, then the bandwidth required for the ordered program or the new program to get activated is compared with the remaining bandwidth of the VLAN and the program is admitted of being ordered or getting activated if the remaining bandwidth can accommodate the bandwidth for the program, or the number of programs already activated within the VLAN is compared with the total number and the program is admitted of being ordered or getting activated if the difference is above or equal to one; or the user will be rejected otherwise.
The BRAS can define a user domain by a user VLAN, a user IP address or a combination thereof.
2. The CAC is implemented on the basis of a network-side VLAN. Similarly to the implementation in the second embodiment over the DSLAM. In other words, the maximum multicast bandwidth or the maximum number of multicast programs for the VLAN is set, then a bandwidth required for an ordered program or a new program to get activated is compared with a remaining bandwidth of the VLAN and the program is admitted of being ordered or getting activated if the remaining bandwidth can accommodate the bandwidth for the program; or the number of programs already activated within the VLAN is compared with the total number and the program is admitted of being ordered or getting activated if the difference is above or equal to 1, or the user will be rejected otherwise.
The dual-homing scenario refers to that the AN is connected respectively with two devices via two physical ports of which the backup port is not provided with CAC data over the primary port and does not relay any multicast flow. Upon switching between the ports, the backup port becomes the primary port, and the existing CAC data over the original primary port shall be transferred to the new primary port; otherwise, a multicast request from a new user may be influenced.
Normally, one of the uplink ports for the AN stays in a backup status while only the other port stays in an operating status, and the primary and backup ports are located in the same VLAN. The port in the backup status is switched to the operating status when a multicast relay path for a higher-level device is switched or the current uplink port is down to ensure ceaseless relaying of a multicast flow. Steps for implementing CAC in the above scenario are analogous to those in the second embodiment over the DSLAM. Since this embodiment implements CAC based upon a VLAN, a complex bandwidth control transfer is not necessary here.
The principle of implementing CAC based upon a VLAN over an MSTP ring network operates similarly to the various embodiments described above and requires no complex bandwidth control transfer.
Various embodiments provide a device for implementing multicast connection admission control including: a configuration module adapted to set the maximum multicast support capability of a network-side functional unit; a comparing module adapted to derive a currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit from comparison with the maximum support capability; and a control module adapted to admit an access of a user when a support capability required for a program as requested by the user is below or equal to the currently remaining multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit.
The maximum multicast support capability of the network-side functional unit which is set by the configuration module includes a multicast bandwidth threshold of the network-side functional unit or the maximum number of multicast programs that the network-side functional unit admits.
The comparing module includes a statistic sub-module adapted to make statistics of an overall support capability obtained for currently activated programs and a calculating sub-module adapted to calculate the difference between the current overall support capability and the maximum support capability to derive the remaining support capability.
The network-side functional unit in various embodiments is a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN).
The device for implementing multicast connection admission control according to various embodiments can be a DSLAM or BRAS, and a specific process thereof for implementing multicast CAC has been described in details previously and will not be detailed again.
Various embodiments further provide a system for implementing multicast connection admission control including an access node and a network-side device, the network-side device can be the above device for implementing multicast connection admission control.
The various embodiments determine whether the currently remaining support capability of the network-side functional unit is sufficient to support the program as requested by the user to implement network-side multicast bandwidth management. A VLAN is a logical control granularity and the multicast VLAN based CAC can be deployed conveniently in various networks at a low cost; and a finer control granularity can be provided by the VLAN over a physical port to provide wholesale for an ISP.
The above descriptions are merely illustrative of various embodiments but not limitative to the scope of the teachings. Any modifications, alternatives and adaptations made without departing from the spirit of the teachings fall within the scope of the teachings as defined in the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200710074453.9 | May 2007 | CN | national |
| PCT/CN2008/070612 | Mar 2008 | CN | national |
This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 200710074453.9, entitled “Method and device for implementing multicast connection admission control” and filed on May 15, 2007, and International Patent Application PCT/CN2008/070612, entitled “Method, Device and System for Implementing Multicast Connection Admission Control” and filed on Mar. 28, 2008, which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
