AU2003255114B2

AU2003255114B2 - Network management method based on quality of the service

Info

Publication number: AU2003255114B2
Application number: AU2003255114A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Erping Kou; Qiao Li; Nian Wang; Anyuan Xiong; Bo Xu
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2002-09-23
Filing date: 2003-08-13
Publication date: 2007-11-01
Anticipated expiration: 2023-08-13
Also published as: CN1486019A; BR0314671A; BRPI0314671B1; WO2004028082A1; CN1270476C; AU2003255114A1

Description

-1- NETWORK MANAGEMENT METHOD BASED ON QUALITY OF SERVICE Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network management method, particularly to a network management method based on Quality of Service (QoS).

Background of the Invention In today's broadband metropolitan area network, usually the entire network comprises a device on the access layer, a device on the convergence layer, a device on the backbone layer, and a network management platform. When traffic is provided through the network, an IDC (Internet Data Center, which provides network content service) is also required to provide specific service features. To manage the users, usually a user management platform radius server (authentication and accounting server) or another similar device) is also necessary; Unified management and accounting for the network users is carried out through a special authentication and accounting protocol (radius protocol: Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service, RFC2865 and RFC2866) between the platform and the network devices and between the platform and the IDC.

In the traditional Internet Protocol (IP) network, all messages are treated identically; each router treats all messages with FIFO policy, it exerts its best-effort to send the messages to the destinations, but doesn't provide any guarantee for the message transmission performance reliability, delay, etc.). As new applications over IP network emerge increasingly, such as VoIP (Voice over IP), 004859673v3 -2videoconference, Virtual Private Network (VPN), (crucial data traffic), all have new requirements for the QoS of IP network.

The best-effort services of traditional IP network can't meet the demand of these applications. For instance, users are intolerant to overlong time delay of massage transmission for VoIP service. Comparatively speaking, common access services such as electrical mail (email) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) are insensitive to time delay. QoS means different QoS levels to different demands, for example, decreasing message loss rate, avoiding and managing network congestion, flow shaping, setting message priority, and other network application requirements.

Usually, different user types have different requirements for QoS. To reach the mutual agreement on the requirements of the user and actual implementation of QoS in the network, a service level agreement (SLA) has to be signed between the user and the Internet Service Provider (ISP), which covering bandwidth allocation, time delay range, and message priority, etc. In a policy-based network, to control network devices on different layers effectively so as to set parameters related with QoS as specified in the SLA, a special platform called policy server (PS) is necessary, which cooperates with the device on network backbone layer and convergence layer through a special protocol (Common Open Policy Service (COPS), RFC2748) to apply for and issue QoS policies.

Since the user management, traffic management, and network QoS management are distributed on different devices, the incorporation between the existing network QoS technology and the actual applications is not so tight. Due to this design drawback, means for uniform mutual interaction between service 004859673v3 -3control devices and network control devices is unavailable, resulting in difficulty in unified management and control of network QoS and users and thus hindering further development of the broadband network. In addition, the complexity of the policy server and its protocol and processing flow not only aggravates network load but also makes it impossible to manage under-layer devices L2 switch); therefore, in some degree, the policy server is still unable to ensure satisfactory end-to-end QoS.

Summary of the Invention An aspect of the present invention provides a network management method based on QoS, which can incorporate network QoS management with user management and traffic management organically to improve network QoS and efficiency.

The network management method based on QoS according to an aspect of the present invention comprises the following steps: providing an authentication and accounting server and a radius server capable of customizing a corresponding QoS policy for a specific network application; allowing a user to apply for a required priority level of QoS from an Internet Data Center (IDC) and to provide traffic selection information; the IDC storing the information and forwarding the information to the radius server; authenticating the user at the radius server and determining a QoS policy for the user according to the user's attribute and the applied traffic type, and, during exchanging user authentication information with the device on the convergence layer, sending the specific QoS policy to the device on the 004859673v3 -4convergence layer, and configuring the device on the convergence layer with the QoS policy, while the device on the convergence layer configuring the device on the access layer with the QoS policy; cooperating the radius server with a device on the access layer, the convergence layer and the backbone layer to provide service for the user according to the user traffic type with the pre-customized QoS policy.

The user application for required priority level of QoS from the IDC in step 2 is accomplished through the portal page layout provided by the IDC.

Said step 3 of authenticating the user further comprises the following steps: the radius server determining the QoS policy for the user according to the traffic selection information from user and the pre-customized QoS policy for the traffic type, sending the policy and the corresponding port information of the device to the device on the convergence layer, and configuring the user with the accounting policy according to the user's private information and the applied service; after receiving the policy and the corresponding port information of the device, the device on the convergence layer configuring the corresponding QoS processing mode on the corresponding device port, and sending the QoS policy for configuring the user's corresponding port and priority sign to the L2 device; the device on the convergence layer and the device on the access layer returning an acknowledgement message to the device on upper layer respectively to indicate the QOS policy is 004859673v3 configured successfully; the device on the backbone layer performing queue dispatching directly according to the priority sign assigned for the IP packets by the device on the convergence layer, and then, after all of the devices are configured successfully, carrying out the specific service; at the same time, the radius server beginning to perform accounting for the user according to the configured accounting policy.

Said first step of authenticating the user further comprises: if the service for the user is a bi-directional one, sending the QoS policy provided for the user to the device on the convergence layer at the location of the called party.

Configuring the corresponding QoS processing mode on the corresponding device port in the second receiving step comprises: configuring a traffic stream classifying rule used to distinguish the traffic of the specific user, and configuring the QoS policy for the traffic.

In said second receiving step, if the user terminal sets the priority of theQoSpolicybyitself, the corresponding user port will be configured to trust the user traffic as high priority.

The present invention utilizes the radius server in the traditional network to customize corresponding QoS policy for a specific network application, which comprises: determining a QoS policy for the user according to the user's attribute and the traffic type applied during authentication of the user, and sending the specific QoS policy to the device on the convergence layer and the access layer, and finally, according to the user traffic, cooperates with the device on the access layer, the convergence layer, and the backbone layer to provide the service 004859673v3 -6for the user utilizing the pre-customized QoS policy; said solution can not only take full advantage of existing network devices and simplify the policy configuration process but also incorporates traffic management with network management. In the actual implementation, to achieve close incorporation between network QoS policy configuration and network QoS, only trivial modification to the software is required instead of adding special and expensive policy servers; in addition, the solution supports management down to the access layer; therefore, it overcomes the disadvantage of traditional policy server only supports management on the convergence layer and the backbone layer), improves utilization rate of network devices, and protects networking investment of the operator on a certain degree, so that the operator can seek for new business opportunities for the network and therefore promotes network development; it can be seen that the present invention can incorporate network QoS management with user management and traffic management organically and improve network QoS and efficiency.

Brief Description of the Drawings Fig.l is the flow diagram of an embodiment of the method according to the present invention; Fig.2 is the structural diagram of a network implemented with an embodiment of the method of the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Embodiments The present invention in its nature is to utilize the existing devices radius server and broadband access 004859673v3 -7server (BAS)) in the network to incorporate network QoS management with user and traffic management organically through an interaction flow for QoS policy-related information, in order to avoid the complex control mode of policy server, decrease network complexity, and solve the problems resulted from separation between service and control.

Hereunder the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.

Fig.2 is the structural diagram of a network implemented with the method of the present invention. As shown in Fig.2, the backbone layer is usually implemented with a Gigabits switch router (GSR) by mesh connections, and the network shall have high-capacity, high-speed, high-efficiency, and powerful routing capability; the access layer shall employ low-cost devices as far as possible, such as L2 switch, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop) access devices, etc., which shall be easy to manage and highly adaptive to the environment; the convergence layer, as the demarcation between L2 and L3 in the MAN, shall have intelligent feature and user management capability, and is the key to implement network management feature based on QoS. The IDC provide specific services for the entire network, including e-mail server, Video On Demand server, etc.

Fig.l is the flow diagram of an embodiment of the method of the present invention; Implementing the present invention according to Fig.l requires the following steps: step i: expanding the radius server as a traffic management platform, and then customizing a corresponding QoS policy for a specific network application; during the policy customization process, 004859673v3 -8a QoS level shall be determined first according to the user's attribute and the traffic type, then, a corresponding QoS policy shall be determined according to the QoS level, with reference to various factors including the user traffic type, the applied bandwidth, the upper and lower limits of bandwidth, the jitter, the service priority, the traffic monitoring parameters, the service available duration, whether the service is bidirectional, and the corresponding accounting policy, etc.; usually, different services require specific accounting policies; even the same service may require different accounting policies if there are different service levels or service hours configured for it.

When a user accesses the network, the broadband access server (BAS) on the convergence layer performs fundamental Network access authentication for the user and then assigns a network address for the user, so that the user obtains the basic authority for network access; at the same time, the user's fundamental network access information is logged on the traffic management platform. With the default access control rules configured on the BAS, any user traffic is treated on the "best-effort" principle. If the user requires QoS guarantee from the service provider IDC), the user applies for a service authority from IDC through the portal page layout provided by IDC in step 2. From the page layout, the user chooses an expected QoS service mode, QoS level, and inputs the corresponding user name and password, and then provides the requested service; BAS forwards the obtained user's private information, the traffic selection information, and the device port connecting the user to the IDC. The IDC stores above 004859673v3 -9information, and forwards the information to the radius server.

In step 3, the radius server authenticates the user, determines the QoS policy for the user according to the user's attribute and the applied traffic type, and sends the QoS policy to the BAS device on the convergence layer when exchanging the user's authentication information with the device on the convergence layer, and configures the BAS device on the convergence layer with the QoS policy accordingly; the BAS configures the device on the access layer with the QoS policy, corresponding to the service, customized for it, configures priority of the corresponding user access port, priority of the corresponding user traffic, etc.; finally, in step 4, the radius server cooperates the devices on the access layer, the convergence layer and the backbone layer to provide the service for the user utilizing the pre-customized QoS policy.

In above process, it is necessary to determine whether the user applying for QoS is a legal one in either of the following two ways: 1) the IDC determines whether the user is a legal one according to the user subscription information; if so, the IDC sends the user authentication message, along with the information about the chosen traffic type and the device port connecting the user, to the radius server via the interface between the IDCandtheradius server; 2) the IDCdoesn'tperform authentication for the user, instead, it sends all of the user information to the radius server directly, which compares the received information with the recorded subscription user information to determine whether the user is a legal one.

If the user has passed the authentication successfully at the IDC or the radius server, the radius server determines a 004859673v3 QoS policy for the user according to the traffic selection information obtained from IDC, with reference to the QoS policy the bandwidth required for VoD service, the time delay, and the priority parameters) for the traffic type pre-customized on the traffic management platform, and sends the policy and the corresponding device port information to the BAS, along with the radius message for authentication acknowledgement. If the service requires bidirectional traffic streams video-conference), the traffic management platform will also send a similar policy to the BAS device for the called party. At the same time, the radius server will set an accounting policy for the user according to the user's private information and the applied service.

When receiving above policy, the BAS on the convergence layer may configure a corresponding QoS processing mode on the corresponding device port, set down traffic classifying rules to distinguish traffic from a specific user and set down the QoS policy the bandwidth limitation, the mode for modifying priority sign, the mode for processing breaching traffic, etc.) for the traffic.

The BAS on the convergence layer sends the QoS policy for setting the port and priority sign set high priority for the traffic from/to the port) to the device on L2 access layer); if the user terminal sets the priority of the QoS policy by itself, the traffic of the trusted user from the corresponding port may be set as a high priority.

If the QoS policy is sent and configured successfully, the Sdevice on the convergence layer BAS) and the device on the access layer returns an acknowledgement message to the 004859673v3 11 device on upper layer respectively to indicate the QOS policy has be configured successfully; the device on the backbone layer doesn't perform any specific configuration for the user, instead, it performs queue dispatching directly according to the priority sign set for the IP packets by the device on the convergence layer; then, when all of the devices are configured successfully, the service will be provided, and the radius server will carry out accounting for the user according to the established accounting policy.

When the service is over the user disconnects, the user is short of deposit, or the service terminates automatically the movie demanded by the user terminates) or the service time limit has been reached), the radius server informs the device on the convergence layer to delete the QoS policy related with the user, and, at the same time, terminates the QoS treatment for the user traffic stream. In addition, the device on the convergence layer informs the L2 switch to delete the relevant QoS policy at the port. If the QoS policy is deleted successfully, the devices on the layers will return an acknowledgement for QOS policy deletion to the devices on upper layers, respectively. The traffic management platform will perform accounting for the user according to the user type, the traffic type (bandwidth, priority, etc.), and the corresponding accounting policy. If the accounting is to be performed by the BAS, the traffic management platform will also inform the BAS of terminating the accounting, besides sending the message to delete the QoS policy.

004859673v3 -11A- Any discussion of documents, publications, acts, devices, substances, articles, materials or the like which is included in the present specification has been done so for the sole purpose so as to provide a contextual basis for the present invention. Any such discussions are not to be understood as admission of subject matter which forms the prior art base, or any part of the common general knowledge of the relevant technical field in relation to the technical field of the present invention to which it extended at the priority date or dates of the present invention.

Throughout the specification the term "comprise" and variations on this term including "comprising" and "comprises" are to be understood to imply the inclusion of a feature, integer, step or element, and not exclude other features, integers, steps or elements. It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text or the drawings.

All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention. The foregoing describe embodiments of the present invention and modifications obvious to those skilled in the art can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention.

004859673v3

Claims

2. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 1, wherein the user application for the required priority level of QoS from the IDC is accomplished through the portal page layout provided by the IDC.
3. The network management method based on QoS according to 004859673v3 13 claim 2, wherein the step of authenticating the user, determining a QoS policy, sending the specific QoS policy, configuring the device on the convergence layer and configuring the device on the access layer further comprises the following the radius server determining the QoS policy for the user according to the traffic selection information from user and the pre-customized QoS policy for the traffic type, sending the policy and the corresponding device port information to the device on the convergence layer, and configuring an accounting policy for the user according to the user's private information and the applied service; after receiving the policy and the corresponding device port information, the device on the convergence layer configuring the corresponding QoS processing mode on the corresponding device port, and sending the QoS policy for configuring the user's corresponding port and priority sign to the device on the access layer; the device on the convergence layer and the device on the access layer returning an acknowledgement message to the device on upper layer respectively to indicate the QOS policy is configured successfully; the device on the backbone layer performing queue dispatching directly according to the priority sign assigned for the IP packets by the device on the convergence layer, and then, after all of the devices are configured successfully, carrying out the specific service; at the same time, the radius server beginning to perform accounting for the user according to the configured accounting policy.
4. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 3, wherein the step of determining the QoS policy, sending -14- the policy and information and configuring an accounting policy further comprises: if the service for the user is a bi-directional one, sending the QoS policy provided for the user to the device on the convergence layer at the location of the called party. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 3, wherein the step of configuring the corresponding QoS processing mode and sending the QoS policy comprises: configuring a traffic stream classifying rule used to distinguish the traffic of the specific user, and configuring the QoS policy for the traffic.
6. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 3, wherein the step of configuring the corresponding QoS processing mode and sending the QoS policy comprises: if the user terminal sets the priority of the QoS policy by itself, configuring the priority of the traffic of the trusted user from the corresponding port as a high priority.
7. The network management method based on QoS according to any one of claim 3, 4, 5 or 6, also comprising: when the service is over, the radius server informing the device on the convergence layer to delete the QoS policy related with the user, and terminating the QoS treatment for the user traffic stream.
8. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 7, also comprising: when the service is over, the device on the convergence layer informing the device on the access layer to delete the QoS policy related with the service.
9. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 8, wherein if the accounting is performed by a Broadband Access Server (BAS), the radius server also informs the BAS to terminate the accounting when sending a message for QoS policy deletion to the BAS. The network management method based on QoS according to claim 9, wherein said device on the convergence layer is a broadband access server; and wherein said device on the access layer is a L2 network switch.
11. A network management method based on quality of service substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying figures.