Interface shaping for virtual interfaces

• US 10,064,097 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2016
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Wolf, Andreas, Kurian, Lawrie, Balasubramaniyan, Saravanan, Haque, Tashbeeb
• Primary Examiner(s): Jung, Min
• Application Number:
  US15/173,426
• Publication Number:
  US 20160360446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 816 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/522 Dynamic queue service slot or variable bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/082 among bearers or channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/10 between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for allocating bandwidth on a physical wireless interface. The method includes configuring a first virtual interface and a second virtual interface on the physical wireless interface. A requirement associated with the first virtual interface is monitored and one or more time slots are allocated to the first virtual interface in accordance with the requirement.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring a first virtual interface and a second virtual interface on a physical wireless interface, each virtual interface having an initial allocation of a plurality of time slots in a period;

balancing a physical wireless interface bandwidth between the first virtual interface and the second virtual interface based on a first requirement for a first application using the first virtual interface and a second requirement for a second application using the second virtual interface; and

adjusting, responsive to the balancing, the initial allocation of the plurality of time slots, wherein;

one or more additional time slots from the plurality of time slots on the physical wireless interface are allocated to the first virtual interface based on meeting minimum requirements for the first application using the first virtual interface, and

the first application using the first virtual interface is prioritized over the second application using the second virtual interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first requirement comprises at least one of a number of data packets in a transmission buffer or a number of bytes in the transmission buffer, the data packets or bytes being generated by the first application for transmission via the first virtual interface.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that the first application is using the first virtual interface, wherein the first requirement is provided by the first application and specifies a minimum number of contiguous time slots required for reception of beacon frames to maintain connectivity via the first virtual interface with an infrastructure access point.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring one or more data packets for the first application using the first virtual interface; and

determining the first requirement based on a quality of service tag associated with at least one of the one or more data packets, the quality of service tag comprising information about a minimum data rate required by the first application and a maximum amount of time allowed to transport the at least one of the one or more data packets.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the balancing further comprises monitoring i) a first buffer length, ii) a first traffic minimum data rate, and/or iii) a first traffic burstiness, wherein the first buffer length, the first traffic minimum data rate, and the first traffic burstiness are associated with the first virtual interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first virtual interface corresponds to an infrastructure Wi-Fi network interface and the second virtual interface corresponds to a peer-to-peer connection.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the adjusting further comprises switching between a first frequency band used for communication via the second virtual interface and a second frequency band used for communication via the first virtual interface.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the switching includes shortening a time slot used for the peer-to-peer connection to accommodate transition from the first frequency band to the second frequency band before time slots used for communication via the infrastructure Wi-Fi network interface.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

allocate a first set of time slots from a plurality of time slots to a first virtual interface and a second set of time slots from the plurality of time slots to a second virtual interface, wherein the plurality of time slots correspond to transmission and reception opportunities using a physical wireless interface;

obtain a first requirement for a first application using the first virtual interface; and

allocate, based on the first requirement, one or more remaining time slots from the plurality of time slots on the physical wireless interface to the first set of time slots allocated to the first virtual interface,

wherein the first requirement comprises a minimum data rate for the first application using the first virtual interface.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the first requirement comprises a class of service requirement that includes at least one of video, audio, best effort, and background.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein first requirement further comprises a number of data packets in a transmission buffer or a number of bytes in the transmission buffer, the data packets or bytes being generated for the first application for transmission via the first virtual interface.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 having stored thereon additional instructions which cause the processor to:

after the allocation of the one or more remaining slots, detect a change in the first requirement corresponding to a decrease in demand by the first application for the plurality of time slots; and

in response, allocate at least a portion of the first set of time slots to the second virtual interface for use by a second application.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the first virtual interface corresponds to an infrastructure Wi-Fi network interface and the second virtual interface corresponds to a peer-to-peer connection.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 having stored thereon additional instructions which cause the processor to:

switch between a first frequency band used for communication via the second virtual interface and a second frequency band used for communication via the first virtual interface, and

shorten a time slot used for the peer-to-peer connection to accommodate transition from the first frequency band to the second frequency band before time slots used for communication via the infrastructure Wi-Fi network interface.

15. A client device comprising:

a processor;

a physical wireless interface; and

a computer readable medium, having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that when executed cause the processor to;

configure a first virtual interface and a second virtual interface on the physical wireless interface having a plurality of time slots;

determine first and second shares of a physical wireless interface bandwidth based on i) a first requirement for a first application using the first virtual interface, and ii) a second requirement for a second application using the second virtual interface, wherein the first share comprises two or more time slots based on meeting minimum requirements for the first application using the first virtual interface; and

allocate the first share to the first virtual interface and the second share to the second virtual interface,

wherein the first application using the first virtual interface is prioritized over the second application using the second virtual interface.

16. The client device of claim 15, wherein the physical wireless interface is configured to communicate on a first channel and a second channel, and the plurality of time slots are distributed across the first channel and the second channel, and

wherein at least one of the two or more time slots allocated to the first virtual interface is for the first channel.

17. The client device of claim 15, wherein the first virtual interface corresponds to an infrastructure Wi-Fi network interface and the second virtual interface corresponds to a peer-to-peer connection.

18. The client device of claim 15, wherein the first requirement comprises at least one of a number of data packets in a transmission buffer or a number of bytes in the transmission buffer, the data packets or bytes being generated by the first application for transmission via the first virtual interface.

19. The client device of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

estimate a trend with time of a queue length of a transmission buffer to produce an estimated trend, wherein the first transmission buffer is associated with the first virtual interface; and

update the first share based on the estimated trend.

20. The client device of claim 15, wherein i) the first requirement is based on a quality of service tag and ii) the quality of service tag corresponds to at least one of a video application or an audio application.