| 摘要 |
<p>A method and apparatus for monitoring the load on a communications link (28) in a common channel signalling system connecting an exchange (10) in a telephone network to regional equipment such as a remote subscriber switch (12) or a remote cellular base station (64). The length indicator field (54) of each signal unit (36, 38, 40) transmitted over the reserved channel of the communications link is monitored (82) by the exchange to determine the number of bytes of message data being transmitted over the link during a predetermined time period. The load on the communications link is identified by taking the ratio (92) of the determined number of bytes (88) to the number of full value bytes (90) capable of transmission over the communications link during an identical time period. The determined load ratio is compared (98) to a predetermined threshold level to identify an overload condition in response to which the exchange relieves the overload (100) by spreading the messages to other links, discarding low priority ones of the messages, or controlling message flow over the link as necessary.</p> |
