Abstract: A technique for traffic monitoring in a network comprising monitoring components and a management center (MC) is described. A method implementation comprises the steps of selecting a first set of local identifiers from a larger second set of local identifiers, wherein the local identifiers are capable of providing a unique identification of a network connection at the first monitoring component, filtering network connections, allocating a local identifier of the first set of local identifiers to a network connection in case a filter condition applies during the filtering, checking associations of network traffic with local identifiers, and selectively monitoring network traffic associated with a local identifier from the first set of local identifiers.

Abstract: A method for determining the capacity that is needed on an lub link to fulfill Grade of Service (GoS) requirements in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) for both Dedicated Channel (DCH) traffic and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) traffic. The method includes determining the bandwidth demand of the HSDPA traffic (ElasticDim); calculating an average bandwidth of the DCH traffic on the lub interface (BW use,avg); setting an initial capacity (Capacity) to the capacity need of the DCH traffic (Capacity DCH), wherein at least the initial capacity will be provided for the DCH traffic in the dimensioned system; and, increasing the value of Capacity until a quality requirement of the HSDPA traffic is fulfilled, the maximum value of Capacity reached being the capacity that is needed for DCH and HSDPA traffic for the lub interface.

Abstract: A system and method of handling poll-based alarms. The method begins by detecting a high-priority problem in a network. Next, network elements in the network related to the high-priority problem are mapped. The mapping step includes grouping network elements into focus groups wherein each focus group includes network elements having the same alarm. The mapped network elements are then polled for alarms. The polled alarms of the network elements are then correlated and processed.

Abstract: A system for determining a Home Zone service availability within a cell in a cellular communications network, wherein users of said cell comprise Home Zone users for whom services are provided at special Home Zone subscription rates when the user is in the cell, and non-Home Zone users. The system comprises measuring means for measuring total usage within the cell, and determining means for determining from said measurements and one or more Home Zone user usage profiles whether a further Home Zone user can be added to the cell.

Abstract: In a circuit switched mobile telecommunications network a performance analysis is provided. In accordance with the invention a method is implemented, which can be carried out both OFF-LINE and ON-LINE, wherein transport channels carrying the circuit switched traffic of a service are found, then bit-streams of the circuit switched traffic are demultiplexed. A traffic database is built and a set of Key Performance Indicators and usage measures characterizing the service are defined and calculated. A passive traffic monitor is also disclosed, which is attached to a standardized interface of the circuit switched mobile telecommunications network consisting of mobile terminals, radio access network and core network. The passive traffic monitor comprises a trace analyzer connected to a signaling analyzer, to a user plane protocol analyzer and to a traffic database writer.

Abstract: A method, network, and device for measuring and analyzing packet-switched traffic in a packet-switched radio telecommunication network. When cell-level location information for a mobile station (1) changes due to a handover, the location information is transmitted toward a packet core network (9) by adding the information to userplane packet headers such as a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header (26). The measurement device measures the cell-level location information at a level (15b) in the network where the information from a plurality of mobile stations (1) is aggregated, together with PDP context information prior to analyzing information for the entire network.

Abstract: A method, a device and a system are provided for monitoring Location-based Service of a mobile telecommunications network. A passive monitoring method is applied processing both positioning and Location-based Service information of different interfaces. In the system, a monitoring device is attached at the standard interfaces of the network calculating Key Performance indicators and/or measures of network usage from the combined information. In a preferred embodiment, traffic of Le and Gi interfaces (106, 107) of a 3GPP GPRS network (102) are monitored, however the invention can be applied to both circuit-switched and packet-switched telecommunications network supporting positioning.

Abstract: In a circuit switched mobile telecommunications network a performance analysis is provided. In accordance with the invention a method is implemented, which can be carried out both OFF-LINE and ON-LINE, wherein transport channels carrying the circuit switched traffic of a service are found, then bit-streams of the circuit switched traffic are demultiplexed. A traffic database is built and a set of Key Performance Indicators and usage measures characterizing the service are defined and calculated. A passive traffic monitor is also disclosed, which is attached to a standardized interface of the circuit switched mobile telecommunications network consisting of mobile terminals, radio access network and core network. The passive traffic monitor comprises a trace analyzer connected to a signaling analyzer, to a user plane protocol analyzer and to a traffic database writer.

Abstract: A method for determining the capacity that is needed on an lub link to fulfill Grade of Service (GoS) requirements in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) for both Dedicated Channel (DCH) traffic and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) traffic, the method comprising the steps of determining the bandwidth demand of the HSDPA traffic (ElasticDim); calculating an average bandwidth of the DCH traffic on the lub interface (BW use,avg) setting an initial capacity (Capacity) to the capacity need of the DCH traffic (Capacity DCH), wherein at least the initial capacity will be provided for the DCH traffic in the dimensioned system; and, increasing the value of Capacity until a quality requirement of the HSDPA traffic is fulfilled, the maximum value of Capacity reached being the capacity that is needed for DCH and HSDPA traffic for the lub interface.

Abstract: To provide a solution for efficient and large-scale characterization of push-to-talk service performance in a mobile communication environment there is described a method and apparatus for passive evaluation of push-to-talk traffic in a communication network. After capturing (S10) data transactions in the communication network there follows a step of extracting (S12) interpretations of data transactions being relevant for push-to-talk, traffic classes, and users, from captured data transactions. Then a correlation of extracted interpretations of data transactions being relevant for push-to-talk, traffic classes, and users is stored (S14) in a traffic data base. This allows to calculate (S16) at least one performance indicator with respect to at least one selected push-to-talk session as a function of information stored in the traffic database.

Abstract: In a telecommunications network, for establishing or modifying a radio connection a node (N1) prepares and sends an AAL2 signaling message (110) for use by a connection admission control function (106) of another node (N2) of the telecommunications network. In accordance with the present invention, the AAL2 signaling message includes a timescale value (112) which represents a timescale over which at least one bit rate value characterizing the radio connection is defined. Including the timescale value (112) in the AAL2 signaling message (110) facilitates more efficient connection admission control by enabling, e.g., bandwidth requirements of radio connections to take into consideration delay requirements. In an illustrated example embodiment, the timescale value (112) is a burst inter-arrival time (BIT) bit value which is a time which elapses between a beginning of two subsequent bursts of AAL2 CPS (Common Part Sublayer) packets.

Abstract: A traffic concentrator (40) aggregates traffic in a radio access network. The traffic concentrator comprises an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch (42) and a control node (44) associated with the ATM switch. The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch which performs a switching operation for switching unspecified bit rate (UBR) virtual channels (VCs) carrying user traffic between plural virtual paths (VPs). The user traffic is transported as ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL2) connections over the unspecified bit rate (UBR) virtual channels (VCs). The control node is arranged to process AAL2 signaling messages which concern the AAL2 connections included in the VCs for which the ATM switch performs the switching operation. The AAL2 signaling messages are carried in virtual channels which do not carry the user traffic and which are either originated or terminated at the control node. In one example implementation, the traffic concentrator aggregates traffic of plural base stations of the radio access network.

Abstract: A method, network, and device for measuring and analyzing packet-switched traffic in a packet-switched radio telecommunication network. When cell-level location information for a mobile station (1) changes due to a handover, the location information is transmitted toward a packet core network (9) by adding the information to userplane packet headers such as a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header (26). The measurement device measures the cell-level location information at a level (15b) in the network where the information from a plurality of mobile stations (1) is aggregated, together with PDP context information prior to analyzing information for the entire network.

Abstract: A method in a cellular mobile packet data network is provided composed of four main steps. These are capturing raw traffic traces over standardized interfaces of an operational cellular mobile data network, parsing through the traces in order to extract and correlate all the information, which is needed to build a traffic and session database, defining a set of appropriate key performance indicators, and calculating the above defined key performance indicators. A system in a mobile data network is also provided, the key element of which is a traffic and session database, which correlates traffic and mobility information extracted from passively captured traces collected from standardized interfaces. A set of key performance indicators describing the true, user perceived end-to-end quality of the most commonly used applications is also listed.

Abstract: Example embodiments of protocol multiplexing systems comprise a multiplexer which receives multiplexed packet(s) and which uses contents of the multiplexed packets to form carrying packets which are stored in an output buffer. Some of the multiplexed packets belong to differing ones of plural virtual channels, but the multiplexer uses multiplexed packet(s) belonging to only one virtual channel to form a given carrying packet. The multiplexing systems accommodate transmission on a same virtual path of numerous connections belonging to differing virtual channels, balancing both payload efficiency and delay considerations.

Abstract: The radio link control (RLC) entity uses availability of Internet Protocol (IP) packets for a given TCP connection to control separately for the given TCP connection in-sequence delivery to an Internet Protocol layer of Internet Protocol (IP) packets without regard to availability of Internet Protocol (IP) packets of another of the plural TCP connections. The radio link control (RLC) entity has both a sending side (which sends RLC PDUs to the lower level medium access control (MAC) layer) and a receiving side (which receives RLC PDUs from the lower level medium access control (MAC) layer). To control in-sequence delivery of the Internet Protocol (IP) packets for the given TCP connection, the radio link control (RLC) entity inserts and uses port-specific sequence numbers in the RLC protocol data units which carry the Internet Protocol (IP) packets for the given TCP connection.

Abstract: The present invention is generally based on the recognition that the true admissible regions for a multi-service traffic mix can be well approximated by a construction of a non-linear admissible region and one or more linear admissible regions. This makes it possible to accurately control admission of a new connection onto a transport link by checking whether the multi-service traffic mix defined by previously admitted connections together with the new connection is contained within an intersection on a non-linear admissible region and at least one linear admissible region, and admitting the connection if the traffic mix is contained within the intersecton of regions.

Abstract: A traffic concentrator (40) aggregates traffic in a radio access network. The traffic concentrator comprises an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch (42) and a control node (44) associated with the ATM switch. The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch which performs a switching operation for switching unspecified bit rate (UBR) virtual channels (VCs) carrying user traffic between plural virtual paths (VPs). The user traffic is transported as ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL2) connections over the unspecified bit rate (UBR) virtual channels (VCs). The control node is arranged to process AAL2 signaling messages which concern the AAL2 connections included in the VCs for which the ATM switch performs the switching operation. The AAL2 signaling messages are carried in virtual channels which do not carry the user traffic and which are either originated or terminated at the control node. In one example implementation, the traffic concentrator aggregates traffic of plural base stations of the radio access network.

Abstract: Example embodiments of protocol multiplexing systems comprise a multiplexer which receives multiplexed packet(s) and which uses contents of the multiplexed packets to form carrying packets which are stored in an output buffer. Some of the multiplexed packets belong to differing ones of plural virtual channels, but the multiplexer uses multiplexed packet(s) belonging to only one virtual channel to form a given carrying packet. The multiplexing systems accommodate transmission on a same virtual path of numerous connections belonging to differing virtual channels, balancing both payload efficiency and delay considerations.

Abstract: Methods and arrangements are provided that can be used in selecting a transcoding processor and/or transcoding data in a packet-switched transport network portion of a communications system. The packet-switched transport network is configured to provide timely processing and communication of data between a time-critical node, such as, for example, a radio interfaced node, and an externally located switching and/or store-and-forward node that is required to provide transcoding of data. An initial alignment unit is provided to receive information about the time-critical node and information regarding the availability of suitable transcoding processors to perform the requisite transcoding tasks associated with the data being communicated. The initial alignment unit assigns a transcoding processor to handle the transcoding task substantially in accordance with an optimal departure time determined for the transcoded data.