188宝金博页面版

EP 1 753 191 A12510152025303540455055DescriptionField of the Invention?[0001] The present invention relates to a performance management method in a broadband network, and in particular,to a performance management system, an apparatus and a method between a Residential Gateway (RG) and a Broad-band Remote Access Server (BRAS).Background of the Invention?[0002] The broadband networks have taken shape currently. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the networkarchitecture of a broadband network in the prior art: the broadband network includes an RG 11, a Digital SubscriberLine Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) 12, a BRAS13, a core network and a network management unit 14, which are inter-connected successively. The broadband network may be divided into three domains: a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)domain between the RG11 and the DSLAM12; an Ethernet domain between the DSLAM12 and BRAS13; a managementdomain between the BRAS13 and the network management unit14. There may be an Ethernet Switch performing theservice switching function in the Ethernet domain, i.e., between the DSLAM12 and the BRAS13.?[0003] Herein, the DSLAM12 is a device with perfect asynchronous transmission mode (ATM) architecture, i.e. theATM-?based DSLAM. As the existing metropolitan area ATM core network is not extended any more currently, while theInternet Protocol (IP) broadband metropolitan area core network is new founded, the ATM-?based DSLAM will be moreand more difficult to suit the requirement of actual networking, along with the available resources of metropolitan areaATM core network decrease day by day. As a result, the DSLAM12 has gradually been evolving from an ATM-?basedDSLAM into an IP-?based DSLAM, thereby enabling the use of a broadband IP network which can provide services, suchas, Broadcast Television (BTV), Video On Demand (VOD), voice, high-?speed internet access, Virtual Private Network(VPN). Along with the development of various services in broadband IP networks, the management of Service LevelAgreement (SLA) will be desired, that is, the serving with different levels are provided to the service with different levelsin broadband IP networks.?[0004] One main aspect of the performance management between the RG11 and the BRAS 13 is to perform SLAtests. In addition, another aspect of the performance management between the RG11 and the BRAS13 is to collect thestatistical parameters information of a traffic flow and provide it to an Operation Support System (OSS) for performanceanalysis and accounting.?[0005] In a broadband IP network with an IP-?based DSLAM, Ethernet protocols are used in the Ethernet domainbetween a DSLAM and a BRAS, and ATM or point-?to-?point Ethernet protocols are used in the DSL domain between anRG and a DSLAM. If the end-?to-?end performance management is performed between an RG and a BRAS, which requiresthe RG to support the service layer Ethernet Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM) protocol. It is difficult tosupport the service layer Ethernet OAM protocol for the RG in the initial creating phase of a broadband IP network, atpresent, the service layer Ethernet OAM protocol is only implemented on the DSLAM and the BRAS.?[0006] In order to implement the performance management between an RG and a BRAS, currently the statisticalparameters information of a traffic flow is mainly extracted by a network management, namely, the network managementenquires the statistical parameters information of a traffic flow of every device, for example, the RG, the DSLAM andthe BRAS; in order to implement the SLA test, the indexes can be fragmentally measured, such as delay, jittering orpacket-?loss.?[0007] The performance management between an RG and a BRAS implemented by the above methods, however,has the following drawbacks: the network management performs the flow statistics to every device respectively, and theresults are inaccurate, for example, in order to perform the statistics of the traffic flow between an RG and a BRAS, andthe statistics of the traffic flow is respectively performed to the RG, to the DSLAM and to the BRAS. The statistical resultof the traffic flow in each device can not represent the real flow, which leads to an inaccurate result in the statistics ofthe traffic flow. And the statistics of the traffic flow need to be manually performed in every device, which is very boringand trivial; in the SLA test, since the SLA test is fragmentally performed, the indexes measured fragmentally, i.e. delay,jittering or packet-?loss, can not form the exact end-?to-?end SLA indexes between the RG and the BRAS, and the resultsmeasured fragmentally can not really reflect the situation of end-?to-?end service operation between the RG and the BRAS,which leads to an inaccurate result in the SLA test, and performing the SLA test fragmentally is very boring and trivial.Summary of the Invention?[0008] In view of the above, the primary objective of this invention is to provide a performance management systembetween an RG and a BRAS, the system can not only enhance the accuracy of the statistics of the traffic flow, but alsoenhance the accuracy of the SLA test.