Method and apparatus for load sharing and overload control for packet media gateways under control of a single media gateway controller
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus for load balancing and overload control of packet media gateways under control of a single media gateway controller is provided. More particularly, the invention is directed to a technique for load balancing and overload control by defining an interface between the media gateway (MG) and the media gateway controller (MGC) to handle both load balancing as well as general congestion and resource congestion. In addition, a new event strategy is defined that reports resource utilization so that the media gateway controller (MGC) can take appropriate action to maximize call completion. Such action may include evenly distributing traffic among available media gateways, smart routing around a congested media gateway or intelligent throttling of traffic based on knowledge of specific resources that are congested.
1. A method for load balancing and overload control of traffic flowing through a media gateway, the media gateway having resources of interest for load balancing and overload control of traffic and being controlled by a media gateway controller, an interface being defined therebetween, the method comprising steps of:
setting a reporting interval;
setting, for each resource of interest, a first threshold level associated with a first level of the traffic;
setting, for each resource of interest, a second threshold level associated with a second level of the traffic;
querying the media gateway by the media gateway controller through the interface to determine a current resource usage of the media gateway;
determining the current resource usage of the media gateway by the media gateway wherein determining the resource usage comprises determining usage levels of a digital signal processor in the media gateway;
reporting the current resource usage of the media gateway to the media gateway controller through the interface upon at least one of expiration of the reporting interval or the occurrence of a traffic level crossing the first or second threshold; and,
controlling the media gateway based on the reporting.
2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the reporting interval is tunable in a range of 1 through 10 seconds.
3. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the first level of traffic is a high level.
4. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the second level of traffic is an overload level.
5. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein determining the resource usage comprises determining general usage levels of the media gateway.
6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the reporting comprises reporting using a recommendation H.248 interface control structure.
7. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein determining the resource usage comprises determining bandwidth usage levels of the media gateway.
8. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein determining the resource usage comprises determining at least one of: available asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) bandwidth, internet protocol (IP) bandwidth, central processing unit (CPU) availability, memory availability regarding the media gateway.
9. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the controlling comprises evenly balancing the new traffic across the media gateways.
10. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the controlling comprises selectively rejecting new traffic to be processed by the media gateway.
11. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the controlling comprises selectively avoiding the media gateway.
12. A system for load balancing and overload control of traffic flowing through a media gateway, the media gateway having resources of interest for load balancing and overload control of traffic and being controlled by a media gateway controller, an interface being defined therebetween, the system comprising:
means for setting a reporting interval;
means for setting, for each resource of interest, a first threshold level associated with a first level of traffic;
means for setting, for each resource of interest, a second threshold level associated with a second level of traffic;
means for querying the media gateway by the media gateway controller through the interface to determine resource usage of the media gateway, where the resource usage reflects resources available regarding at least one resource of interest;
means for determining the resource usage of the media gateway by the media gateway wherein determining the resource usage comprises determining usage levels of a digital signal processor in the media gateway;
means for reporting the resource usage of the media gateway to the media gateway controller through the interface upon at least one of expiration of the reporting interval or the occurrence of a traffic level crossing the first or second threshold; and,
means for controlling the media gateway based on the reporting.
13. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the reporting interval is tunable in the range of 1 through 10 seconds.
14. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the first level of traffic is a high level.
15. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the second level of traffic is an overload level.
16. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the resource usage comprises general usage levels of the media gateway.
17. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the means for reporting comprises means for reporting using a recommendation H.248 interface control structure.
18. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the resource usage comprises bandwidth usage levels of the media gateway.
19. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the resource usage comprises usage levels regarding at least one of: asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) bandwidth, internet protocol (IP) bandwidth, a central processing unit (CPU), and memory of the media gateway.
20. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the controlling means comprises means for evenly balancing the new traffic across the media gateways.
21. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the controlling means comprises means for selectively rejecting new traffic to be processed by the media gateway.
22. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the controlling means comprises means for selectively avoiding the media gateway.