Adaptive load balancing in residential hybrid gateways

1. A method of operating a residential gateway for controlling load balancing, the residential gateway having a first, wired data connection and a second, wireless data connection, wherein at least the second data connection connects to a network node which at least temporarily maintains simultaneous connections to at least one residential gateway and at least one mobile station and data is communicated over the second data connection only in case a specified data rate on the first data connection is lower than a required data rate, the residential gateway being communicatively connected to a load balancing controller, the method comprising, at the residential gateway:

sending a registration request to the load balancing controller, the registration request comprising an identification of the residential gateway and an identification of the network node to which the residential gateway is communicatively connected;

receiving a listening address from the load balancing controller from which it receives load balancing control messages;

receiving load balancing control messages from the load balancing controller under the listening address; and

in response to a corresponding load balancing control message, adjusting a maximum allowed data traffic on its second data connection.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein reducing the maximum allowed data traffic comprises disabling load balancing involving the second data connection, and wherein increasing the maximum allowed data traffic comprises enabling load balancing involving the second data connection.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specified data rate is a bandwidth capacity of the first data connection, and wherein as long as the network load on the residential gateway does not exceed the bandwidth capacity of the first data connection, the residential gateway routes all traffic over the first data connection; and

if the network load on the first data connection exceeds a threshold, a load balancing agent controls a router section so that new data traffic requests are routed to the second data connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the residential gateway receives load balancing control messages over the second data connection.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wired data connection is a DSL data connection and the wireless data connection is a UMTS, LTE or a data connection of any other wireless network.

6. A residential gateway comprising a microprocessor, a first, wired data connection, a second, wireless data connection, a router section, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory, a load balancing agent and at least one data bus, wherein at least the second data connection connects to a network node which at least temporarily maintains simultaneous connections to at least one residential gateway and at least one mobile station and data is communicated over the second data connection only in case a specified data rate on the first data connection is lower than a required data rate, the residential gateway being communicatively connected to a load balancing controller, wherein the non-volatile memory stores instructions that, when executed by microprocessor in cooperation with random access memory, cause the residential gateway to execute:

sending a registration request to the load balancing controller, the registration request comprising an identification of the residential gateway and

an identification of the network node to which the residential gateway is communicatively connected;

receiving a listening address from the load balancing controller from which it receives load balancing control messages;

receiving load balancing control messages from the load balancing controller under the listening address; and

in response to a corresponding load balancing control message, adjusting a maximum allowed data traffic on its second data connection.

7. A method of operating a load balancing controller for controlling load balancing in residential gateways, the residential gateways having a first, wired data connection and a second, wireless data connection, wherein at least the second data connection connects to a network node which at least temporarily maintains simultaneous connections to at least one residential gateway and at least one mobile station, the method comprising at the load balancing controller:

receiving a registration request from at least one residential gateway, the registration request comprising an identification of the at least one residential gateway and an identification of a network node to which the at least one residential gateway is communicatively connected;

in response to the registration request, providing a listening address to the at least one residential gateway, wherein one listening address is provided to multiple residential gateways communicatively connected to the same network node;

receiving data indicative of a network load from at least one network node identified in a registration request;

in case the received data indicates that the network load in a network node exceeds a first threshold value, the method comprises sending a control message to the at least one residential gateway communicatively connected to that network node, wherein the control message is sent using the listening address provided to the residential gateways communicatively connected to that network node, and wherein the control message instructs the at least one residential gateway to reduce the maximum allowed data traffic over its second data connection; and

in case the received data indicates that the network load in a network node is below the first threshold value, the method comprises sending a control message to the at least one residential gateway communicatively connected to that network node instructing the at least one residential gateway to increase the maximum allowed data traffic over its second data connection.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein instructing the at least one residential gateway to reduce the maximum allowed data traffic comprises instructing to disable load balancing involving the second data connection, and wherein instructing the at least one residential gateway to increase the maximum allowed data traffic comprises instructing to enable load balancing involving the second data connection.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the load balancing controller communicates with the at least one residential gateway over the at least one residential gateway's second data connection.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the wired data connection is a DSL data connection and the wireless data connection is a UMTS or LTE data connection, or a data connection of any other wireless network.

11. A load balancing controller for controlling load balancing in residential gateways, the residential gateways having a first, wired data connection and a second, wireless data connection, wherein at least the second data connection connects to a network node which at least temporarily maintains simultaneous connections to at least one residential gateway and at least one mobile station, the load balancing controller comprising a microprocessor, a data connection, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory and at least one data bus, wherein the non-volatile memory stores instructions that, when executed by a microprocessor in cooperation with a random access memory, cause the load balancing controller to execute:

receiving a registration request from at least one residential gateway, the registration request comprising an identification of the at least one residential gateway and an identification of a network node to which the at least one residential gateway is communicatively connected;

in response to the registration request, providing a listening address to the at least one residential gateway, wherein one listening address is provided to multiple residential gateways communicatively connected to the same network node;

receiving data indicative of a network load from at least one network node identified in a registration request;

in case the received data indicates that the network load in a network node exceeds a first threshold value, the method comprises sending a control message to the at least one residential gateway communicatively connected to that network node, wherein the control message is sent using the listening address provided to the residential gateways communicatively connected to that network node, and wherein the control message instructs the at least one residential gateway to reduce the maximum allowed data traffic over its second data connection; and

in case the received data indicates that the network load in a network node is below the first threshold value, the method comprises sending a control message to the at least one residential gateway communicatively connected to that network node instructing the at least one residential gateway to increase the maximum allowed data traffic over it second data connection.

12. A communication system comprising:

a load balancing controller comprising a microprocessor, a data connection, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory and at least one data bus; and

at least one residential gateway comprising a microprocessor, a first data connection, a second data connection, a router section, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory, a load balancing agent and at least one data bus, wherein at least the second data connection connects to a network node which at least temporarily maintains simultaneous connections to at least one residential gateway and at least one mobile station;

wherein the residential gateway is configured to execute the method of claim 1 .

13. A communication system comprising:

a load balancing controller comprising a microprocessor, a data connection, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory and at least one data bus; and

at least one residential gateway comprising a microprocessor, a first data connection, a second data connection, a router section, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory, a load balancing agent and at least one data bus, wherein at least the second data connection connects to a network node which at least temporarily maintains simultaneous connections to at least one residential gateway and at least one mobile station;

wherein the residential gateway is configured to:

send a registration request to the load balancing controller, the registration request comprising an identification of the residential gateway and an identification of the network node to which the residential gateway is communicatively connected;

receive a listening address from the load balancing controller from which it receives load balancing control messages;

receive load balancing control messages from the load balancing controller under the listening address; and

in response to a corresponding load balancing control message, adjust a maximum allowed data traffic on its second data connection, and wherein the load balancing controller is configured to execute the method of claim 7 .