Patent ID: 8428609

Claim:
A method for capacity management in a communication system, the method comprising: determining if a predetermined number of first network nodes are listening within a cell; if it is determined that said predetermined number of first network nodes are listening within said cell, then initiating capacity management operations including periodically communicating a plurality of congestion reports from a plurality of first network nodes within a communication cell of the communication system to a second network node in said communication cell, each of said plurality of congestion reports comprising information specifying a user communication activity, estimating, by the second network node, a current level of overall congestion within the communication cell of the communication system based on a content of said plurality of congestion reports, predicting, by the second network node, a future level of overall congestion within the communication cell of the communication system based on a content of said plurality of congestion reports, and adjusting communication links within the communication cell based on said estimated current level of overall congestion and said predicted future level of overall congestion; if it is determined that said predetermined number of first network nodes are not listening within said cell, then ceasing performance of at least one of said capacity management operations; wherein said information specifies at least one of a number of failed or delayed connection attempts, a time for each of said failed or delayed connection attempts, a duration of each of a plurality of communications, and a time between communications.