Transport of time sensitive information using the internet
First Claim
1. A method of characterizing the delay through an overlay network comprising:
- transmitting a specially marked packet from a sending node to a receiving node through the overlay network, comprising a plurality of overlay nodes connecting by a plurality of links, wherein the packet is marked as a retransmission probe;
receiving the specially marked packet at a second overlay node from a first overlay node in the overlay network;
forwarding the specially marked packet from the second overlay node to a third node and requesting retransmission of the specially marked packet to the second overlay node from the first overlay node;
receiving the retransmitted packet sent from the first overlay node at the second overlay node;
forwarding the retransmitted packet to the third node;
receiving the specially marked packet and the retransmitted packet at the receiving node;
determining, at the receiving node, a difference between a smoothed time in network and a time in network of the retransmitted packet, wherein the smoothed time in network is a measure of an average time in network; and
calculating the delay associated with retransmission of packets between the first overlay node and the second overlay node.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system, which uses the internet to deliver time sensitive information, includes an overlay node, having a plurality of overlay nodes, which are used to deliver the time sensitive information. To better characterize the connection between a sending node and a receiving node, the sending node periodically requests each overlay node in the path between the sending node and the receiving node to force a retransmission of a packet, while also forwarding that same packet to the next overlay node. In this way, the delay associated with each link in the path can be quantified and recorded by the receiving node. Based on the observed transmission delays, the receiving node may determine an optimal buffer time. This buffer time is the amount of buffering performed at the receiving node prior to outputting the time sensitive information.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of characterizing the delay through an overlay network comprising:
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transmitting a specially marked packet from a sending node to a receiving node through the overlay network, comprising a plurality of overlay nodes connecting by a plurality of links, wherein the packet is marked as a retransmission probe; receiving the specially marked packet at a second overlay node from a first overlay node in the overlay network; forwarding the specially marked packet from the second overlay node to a third node and requesting retransmission of the specially marked packet to the second overlay node from the first overlay node; receiving the retransmitted packet sent from the first overlay node at the second overlay node; forwarding the retransmitted packet to the third node; receiving the specially marked packet and the retransmitted packet at the receiving node; determining, at the receiving node, a difference between a smoothed time in network and a time in network of the retransmitted packet, wherein the smoothed time in network is a measure of an average time in network; and calculating the delay associated with retransmission of packets between the first overlay node and the second overlay node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification