Service Admission Control Element for SLA Compliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network service providers face difficulties in ensuring Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance due to the complexity of analyzing network capacity and traffic flow, leading to potential SLA violations despite prioritization efforts, as existing methods fail to accurately calculate all possible network conditions and often result in costly and inefficient capacity additions.
Innovation Solution
A Service Admission Control (SAC) element is introduced, which communicates with network nodes to discover configuration and capacity, stores SLA performance requirements, and automatically determines if the network can support new services without violating existing SLAs, providing pinpointed information on capacity or configuration issues and suggesting reconfiguration options to ensure compliance without adding unnecessary equipment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a technician manually analyzes network configuration to determine capacity for new SLA services, then network provisioning can be performed, but the analysis complexity increases exponentially as the network grows making precise calculation of all possible flows under all conditions cost prohibitive and extremely difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a network simulator as an intermediary component that automatically models network behavior and calculates traffic flows under various conditions. This simulator acts as a mediator between the technician and the complex network system, handling the exponential calculation complexity while providing clear capacity assessment results for SLA compliance determination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical analysis methods with automated computational simulation. Instead of technicians manually calculating network flows and capacity, the system uses computer-based network simulation to automatically evaluate all possible traffic scenarios, eliminating the exponential complexity burden from human analysts.
2Reliability
If network prioritization is implemented to handle congestion, then SLA violations may be reduced for valued customers, but prioritization does not address underlying capacity-related problems and cannot prevent at least some SLA violations when congestion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by using the network simulator to evaluate capacity and predict congestion scenarios before new services are actually provisioned. This advance simulation allows the system to identify potential SLA violations and capacity issues beforehand, enabling proactive network configuration adjustments rather than reactive prioritization during congestion events.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the network simulator continuously monitors network performance and compares actual behavior against simulated predictions. This feedback loop allows the system to adjust network configuration and capacity planning based on real-world performance data, improving SLA compliance through iterative optimization rather than static prioritization rules.
3Reliability
If network capacity is added to alleviate performance problems, then SLA compliance may be improved, but the task of analyzing the network to discover whether reconfiguration would be a better solution is so daunting or complex that the technician may not realize a better solution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual network analysis with automated simulation-based analysis. The network simulator quickly evaluates multiple reconfiguration scenarios and capacity options, providing technicians with data-driven recommendations within minutes rather than requiring days or weeks of manual analysis. This substitution dramatically reduces the time loss while improving the quality of decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary simulation analysis to evaluate whether reconfiguration or capacity addition would better resolve performance issues before any actual network changes are made. This advance evaluation prevents unnecessary capacity additions by identifying opportunities for more efficient reconfiguration solutions that maintain service performance.
4Productivity
If manual network configuration modification is performed to improve capacity utilization, then network efficiency may be enhanced, but the complexity of ensuring SLA compliance under all possible network conditions makes it impossible for technicians to truly ensure all SLAs will be satisfied
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by using the network simulator to evaluate network configuration under multiple dynamic scenarios and traffic patterns. Rather than relying on static analysis, the simulator models how the network behaves under varying conditions, allowing technicians to configure networks that maintain SLA compliance across dynamic real-world operating conditions rather than just theoretical scenarios.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods for providing service admission control in telecommunication networks. In one exemplary embodiment, a system comprises a network access control (SAC) element that is coupled to at least one node of a network segment. The SAC element communicates with each network node within the network segment to discover its configuration and capacity. The SAC element also stores information indicative of performance requirements, such as terms of SLAs pertaining to traffic that passes through the network segment. When a new service is to be added, the SAC element receives information indicative of the new service and its requirements, such as the SLA terms for the new service. The SAC element then automatically determines whether the network segment has sufficient capacity to add the new service without violating the SLAs of any of the services using the network segment. The SAC element then provides an output indicating whether the new service can be so added. Accordingly, the SAC element can be used to ensure SLA compliance.