3G Radio Access Congestion Notification via Receiver Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current 3G radio access networks lack effective mechanisms for notifying senders of data about congestion in Iub and Iur interfaces, leading to increased network delays and reduced throughput due to unmanaged resource re-transmissions and lack of awareness about congestion at the sender end.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for congestion notification that includes determining network congestion and inserting an indication into data packets, allowing the source node to be informed of congestion through headers or control frames, enabling proactive measures to mitigate congestion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If congestion control is implemented partially in routers/switches and partially in transport protocol, then congestion management is distributed across multiple levels, but the sender remains unaware of congestion conditions and cannot react proactively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by having the receiver detect congestion conditions and send congestion notifications back to the sender through acknowledgment packets. This closes the information loop, allowing the sender to become aware of congestion and adjust its transmission rate accordingly, resolving the contradiction between distributed congestion management and sender awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The receiver acts as an intermediary that detects congestion conditions at the network level and translates this information into notifications that can be understood and acted upon by the sender's transport protocol, bridging the gap between network-layer congestion and transport-layer response.
2Stability of the object's composition
If strict resource reservation is implemented to avoid overload, then network stability is improved, but transport network deployment cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables preliminary action by allowing the sender to receive congestion notifications and reduce its transmission rate before the network becomes overloaded. This proactive approach prevents congestion rather than merely reacting to it, achieving network stability without requiring strict resource reservation or pre-allocation of buffers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service congestion control where the sender autonomously adjusts its own transmission rate based on congestion notifications from the receiver, eliminating the need for external resource reservation mechanisms and reducing deployment costs while maintaining network stability.
3Reliability
If RLC re-transmission requests are generated in response to TNL losses, then data integrity is maintained, but transport network congestion worsens due to continuous overload
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by having the sender reduce its transmission rate in advance upon receiving congestion notifications, before TNL losses occur. This prevents the generation of re-transmission requests in the first place, maintaining data integrity while avoiding the congestion-worsening effect of continuous re-transmissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potentially harmful effect of congestion into a beneficial signal by using congestion notifications as early warning indicators that enable the sender to adjust its rate proactively. This transforms what would otherwise be a negative condition (congestion) into a useful control mechanism that prevents further degradation of network throughput.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, apparatus and system of network congestion notification is disclosed. A source node sends a destination node a data packet. Upon receipt of the data packet if network congestion is detected, the destination node introduces a congestion indication into a data packet. The data packet, including the congestion indication, is sent to the source node.