Patent ID: 8634299

Claim:
A method of managing a traffic load of a network node for receiving a packet traffic aggregated from a multitude of application streams in a packet switched network, comprising: a) estimating a granularity of the packet traffic as a maximum number of the application streams which fit into a transmission capacity B of the network node; b) calculating a drop probability P d based on the estimated granularity and the traffic load of the network node; and c) providing the calculated drop probability P d for a congestion control, wherein the step a) comprises, determining a capacity utilisation ratio x as a time-averaged ratio of the traffic load of the network node to the transmission capacity B, whereby 0≦x≦1 and the time averaging is on a first time scale; determining a time-averaged value m 1 of the capacity utilisation ratio x and a time-averaged value m 2 of the square x 2 of the capacity utilisation ratio x, whereby the time averaging is on a second time scale which is longer than the first time scale; and calculating N=m 1 /(m 2 −(m 1 ) 2 ) as the said estimated maximum number of the application streams which fit into the transmission capacity B of the network node, wherein m 1 , m 2 , N and x are real numbers.