Disclosed herein is a connection bandwidth management process and system for use in a high speed packet switching network. The network comprises a plurality of switching nodes interconnected through a plurality of communication links. Each of the switching nodes comprises means for switching packets from at least one input link to at least one output link. Each of the output links are coupled to at least one buffer in the switching node for queuing packets before they are transmitted over the output link. Each of the communication links supports the traffic of a plurality of user connections statistically multiplexed over the link. Each user connection is allocated an initial agreed-upon bandwidth through the network, with each of the communication links being possibly oversubscribed.
The connection bandwidth management process according to the invention comprises the steps of:
Link monitoring data on the communication links are periodically received in a network monitoring center, and stored in a computer memory in the network monitoring center. Then, one monitored link is selected and the corresponding link monitoring data are retrieved from the computer memory. The link monitored data retrieved for the selected link is analyzed, and it is determined whether the selected link is oversubscribed or not. If it is determined that the selected link is oversubscribed and that the link monitoring data for the selected link satisfies at least one predetermined condition the bandwidth initially allocated to each of the connections boarded on the selected link is reallocated, such that, the sum of the reallocated bandwidth of the connections boarded on the selected link is less or equal to the total bandwidth capacity of the selected link.
The process recycles until all the monitored links have been selected.