Patent ID: 8693500

Claim:
A system for unified bandwidth management in a communications network supporting a plurality of services, the communication network having a plurality of network conditions and including connections with a plurality of service-specific bandwidth managers, each service-specific bandwidth manager comprising an associated resource controller, the system comprising: a unified bandwidth manager including at least one processing unit, at least one network communication interface and a memory, the unified bandwidth manager further including a control system, the control system comprising at least a policy control system and a goal control system, and an interface for providing at least one of policy information and goal information to the control system; a control interface to each of the service-specific bandwidth managers, each control interface providing an ability for the bandwidth manager to control at least one aspect of the associated service-specific bandwidth managers, each service-specific bandwidth manager affecting at least one associated network condition of an associated network resource; at least one observation element associated with each of the service-specific bandwidth managers, each observation reporting element providing associated ongoing observation information to the bandwidth manager, associated ongoing observation information responsive to at least one network condition of the associated network resource; wherein the control system is provided with a plurality of feedback inputs that are responsive to associated ongoing observation information from each of the associated observation reporting elements; wherein the control system uses the plurality of feedback inputs, together with the at least one policy information and goal information, to produce outgoing control information, wherein the outgoing control information is conveyed to at least one of the service-specific bandwidth managers using the associated control interface, and wherein the conveyed outgoing control information is used by the resource controller associated with the at least one service-specific bandwidth manager.