Historical Cell Load Profiles For Targeted Congestion Shaping

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cellular network traffic management systems struggle to effectively manage congestion, particularly for multimedia content like video, teleconferencing, and AR/VR, due to inefficiencies in identifying and addressing congested cells and applying congestion shaping procedures.

Innovation Solution

A system that utilizes historical load data and real-time cell mapping to identify congested cells, allowing for targeted congestion shaping (CS) procedures based on subscriber plans, cell capacity, and bandwidth, using a performance-enhancing proxy (PEP) and real-time collector (RTC) to dynamically adjust throughput rates for video content flows.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If traditional traffic management systems are used to manage congestion, then network traffic can be controlled, but the accuracy of identifying congested cells is insufficient leading to false positives

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecongestion detection accuracyVSAvoidfalse positive rate

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by collecting historical load data for each cell over time and generating comprehensive cell profiles before actual congestion detection occurs. This pre-processing of data enables more accurate real-time congestion identification by comparing current traffic patterns against established historical baselines, thereby reducing false positives.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms by continuously monitoring cell load data and comparing it against historical records. The congestion detection process uses feedback from historical performance data to dynamically adjust identification thresholds, ensuring that only genuine congestion events are flagged while filtering out normal traffic variations that would otherwise be misidentified as congestion.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If congestion shaping procedures are applied to all cells, then network performance can be maintained, but system complexity and resource consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenetwork performance stabilityVSAvoidtraffic management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies local quality by implementing congestion shaping procedures only in specific cells that are genuinely congested, rather than uniformly across the entire network. By using historical load data to identify which cells require intervention, the system tailors traffic management actions to local conditions, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining network performance stability in affected areas.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the network into individual cell units with distinct traffic management policies. Each cell is evaluated independently using its own historical load profile, allowing congestion shaping to be applied selectively to specific segments (cells) rather than the entire network. This segmentation reduces the complexity of global traffic management while ensuring reliable performance where needed.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If real-time monitoring of all cells is implemented, then congestion can be detected accurately, but data processing requirements and computational load increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecongestion detection accuracyVSAvoiddata processing energy consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary data processing by collecting and organizing historical load data for each cell in advance, creating ready-to-use cell profiles before real-time monitoring begins. This pre-processing reduces the computational burden during real-time operation, as the system only needs to compare current traffic data against pre-established historical baselines rather than performing complex analysis on raw data streams.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system extracts only the essential features from historical load data that are relevant for congestion detection, storing compressed cell profiles rather than complete historical datasets. This extraction of key characteristics reduces the amount of data that needs to be processed in real-time while maintaining detection accuracy, thereby lowering energy consumption during operational monitoring.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS12452181B2Congestion-aware traffic management using historical load data and real-time cell mapping

Publication Date: 2025.10.21 AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I L P

AI summary

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method in which a processing system obtains information from a network element of a communication network that includes cells each associated with user equipment devices (UEs); the information includes mapping data for each of the cells and the UEs associated with the respective cells, and the network element is in communication with the processing system via the communication network. The method also includes generating a historical record of cell load data representing content distributed to the cells from the processing system; determining that a cell is congested, based on the historical record; and performing a congestion shaping (CS) procedure for each of the UEs associated with the congested cell. Other embodiments are disclosed.