Patent ID: 8730804

Claim:
An adaptive overload control method for controlling the amount of traffic offered by a plurality of network access points to a network access controller for processing, the plurality of network access points being arranged under control of said network access controller to provide said traffic with access to a communications network, the method enabling said network access controller to externally control the amount of traffic which it processes by regulating the rate of offered traffic, the method comprising: (a) at the network access controller using at least one programmed processor to: determine if an overload condition exists, and if so, (i) generate at least one global constraint to restrict the rate at which a network access point admits said traffic to the communications network, the global constraint including a global gap interval; and (ii) communicate said at least one global traffic constraint to one or more of said plurality of network access points; and (b) at each respective network access point receiving said at least one global traffic constraint, using at least one programmed processor to: (i) process the received global traffic constraint to determine a plurality of local gap interval constraint conditions for the respective network access point by: determining a local gap interval (Δt) to be imposed on traffic received by said respective network access point, the local gap interval being determined by scaling the global gap interval in dependence on the capacity of said respective network access point; and determining an initial local gap interval (Δt0) which differs from the determined local gap interval (Δt), wherein each initial local gap interval (Δt0) is determined independently by each respective ones of said plurality of network access points to be between zero and the local gap interval (Δt) for said respective network access point; and (ii) impose said local initial gap interval (Δt0) at each of said plurality of network access points directly responsive to receipt of a global gap condition and before further traffic is received at the respective network access point for admittance to said communications network.