A network approach to signalling network congestion control

Congestion control in Signaling System #7 faces new challenges as mobile communication systems and Intelligent Networks grow rapidly. New services change traffic patterns, add to signalling network load, and raise demands on shorter service completion times. To handle new demands, the congestion control mechanisms must foresee an overload situation, and respond to it so that the net- work can maintain high probability for successful service completion. By measur- ing the time consumption for the initial Message Signalling Units of a service session it is possible to predict the duration of the service session and to detect an emerging congestion. If the predicted duration of the service session is too long, the service session is annihilated. This is the foundation of a congestion control mechanism that reacts fast and on information supplied by the congested part of the network. The congestion control mechanism increases the ratio of successfully completed services during congestion by several hundred percent.