Load Balancing that Indirectly Accounts for Self-Managed Devices in Capillary Networks

摘要

The present disclosure relates to balancing load amongst different capillary-cellular gateways (24) to indirectly account for load attributable to self-managed devices (27) that are not directly managed by a management node (28). Embodiments include a method implemented by a management node (28) that directly manages managed device(s) (26) in capillary network(s) (16). The method comprises determining, for each of the managed device(s) (26), a weight metric that describes a collective load attributable to not only the managed device (26) but also to any self-managed devices (27) that connect to the cellular network (15) via the managed device (26). The method also comprises balancing load amongst the capillary-cellular gateways (24) based on the weight metrics, by requesting that at least one managed device (26) move its entire collective load to a different capillary-cellular gateway (24) or reduce its weight metric by shedding load.