Congestion control in a communications network

摘要

This invention relates to a communication network 300 using an unacknowledged transport layer data protocol (UTDP). A network element 305 of the communication network 300 has a receiver 311 for receiving data packets from other network elements in accordance with UDTP, e.g. using the User Datagram Protocol. It furthermore has a congestion processor 315 determining a congestion level for the network element 305 for UTDP data packets and means 317 for generating a transport layer congestion feedback message in response to the congestion level. The network element has a transmitter 319 for sending the transport layer congestion feedback message to network elements 301, 303 transmitting packets to the first network element 305. The message is transmitted using a higher layer signalling protocol, such as the GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP) or Radio Access Network Application Protocol (RANAP). The invention is particularly applicable to cellular communication systems such as UMTS.