Patent ID: 6920107

Claim:
A method of reconfiguring pipeline sizes in order to relieve congestion in a packet-based network, said network comprising a plurality of gateway nodes having data to be transferred therebetween, and utilizing a concept of virtual pipelines between nodes of said network, said pipelines comprising one or more channels, said method comprising the steps of: (1) identifying a first set of virtual pipelines for which traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold; (2) for each virtual pipeline in said first set, determining pipeline size that would cause said traffic through said pipeline to not exceed said predetermined threshold; and (3) for each pipeline in said first set that can be increased in size, increasing its size to said size determined in step (2); wherein step (2) comprises determining a number of channels M by; B M ⁡ ( λ i / μ ) = ( λ i / μ ) M / M ⁢ i _ ! ∑ n = 0 M ⁢ ⁢ ( λ i / μ ) n / n ! wherein ρ( t )=λ(( t )/μ( t ) or ρ′( t )=λ( t )−ρ( t )/μ( t ): and wherein B m =number of blocked calls; λ i =call arrival rate at virtual pipeline i; 1/μ=average holding time per call; t=time; and ρ(t)=non-stationary offered load at time t; and wherein ρ(t)=λ((t)/μ(t) is used when call rate through said pipeline has been historically increasing and ρ′(t)=λ(t)−ρ(t)μ(t) is used when call rate through said pipeline has been historically decreasing.