Patent attributes
A technique for load balancing in resilient packet ring (“RPR”) networks, including wavelength division multiplex RPR (“WDMRPR”) networks is described. In one embodiment, the present technique comprises implementing on every node a QoS/BB monitor, which is common to all rings in the RPR and has knowledge of traffic performance for each class on each ring of the RPR, which information is obtained through periodic measurements or in response to failure events. This allows the monitor to vary the QoS parameters on a node, for a particular traffic class, to achieve load balancing. Likewise, the QoS/BB monitor can signal to the BB entity at higher layers to vary the BB parameters on a node for a particular class to achieve load balancing. The QoS/BB monitor enables QoS and BB parameter changes to be coordinated with one another.
