On overload control of intelligent peripherals in intelligent networks

The intelligent peripheral (IP) is one of the key central resources in the intelligent network concept, allowing user to network interaction for services such as credit card calling. User access to IPs is controlled by service control points (SCPs) and is typically gained via voice trunk groups from service switching points (SSPs), with many services sharing common SSP-IP trunk group facilities. This paper proposes and analyses a distributed overload control scheme for the fair allocation of these facilities. The algorithm is shown to be effective in protecting services from the detrimental effects of focused overloads (to one or more other services) while minimising the information passed from the SSPs/IPs to the SCPs.