Method and apparatus for continuous access network monitoring and packet loss estimation

• US 10,230,610 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Assia Spe LLC
• Original Assignee: Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment, Incorporated
• Inventors: Hwang, Chan Soo, Noh, Jeonghun, Parag, Parimal
• Primary Examiner(s): Oh, Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US14/907,655
• Publication Number:
  US 20160191362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,050 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0841 Round trip packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/103 with adaptive polling, i.e. dynamically adapting the polling rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/115 using a dedicated packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/196 Integration of transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP and UDP
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/34 ensuring sequence integrity, e.g. using sequence numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/007 Access interface units for simultaneous transmission of speech and data, e.g. digital subscriber line [DSL] access interface units DSL access multiplexers H04Q11/0478, and H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0236 radio quality, e.g. interference, losses or delay
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Described is a method for estimating throughput between first and second communication devices, the method comprising: determining maximum bottleneck throughput of a communication link between the first communication device and a third communication device, wherein the communication link between the first and third communication devices applies a common access network as between a communication link between the first and second communication devices; determining Round Trip Time (RTT) between the first and second communication devices; transmitting packet by applying User Datagram Protocol (UDP) from the third communication device to the first communication device; measuring packet loss rate associated with the transmitted packet by monitoring sequence number of the packet; and translating measured packet loss rate to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) throughput according to maximum bottleneck throughput and RTT.

Claims

1. A method for estimating throughput between communication devices, the method comprising:

determining a maximum bottleneck throughput of a communication link between a first communication device and a third communication device, wherein the communication link between the first and third communication devices applies a common access network;

determining a Round Trip Time (RTT) between the first and second communication devices;

transmitting a packet by applying User Datagram Protocol (UDP) from the third communication device to the first communication device;

measuring a packet loss rate associated with the transmitted packet by monitoring sequence number of the packet; and

translating a measured a packet loss rate to a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) throughput according to the maximum bottleneck throughput and the RTT.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises measuring a packet arrival jitter associated with the transmitted packet by monitoring arrival time stamps.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet loss rate is associated with packets in a transport layer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication link includes one of a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) link and a Wi-Fi link.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising attributing a low throughput event to problems in the Wi-Fi link when both a packet loss and the packet arrival jitter are detected.

6. The method of claim 3 further comprises:

attributing a low throughput event to a packet loss associated with the DSL link when packets are lost consecutively for more than a predetermined time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring the packet loss rate further comprises:

monitoring one or more of a network load, an access network layer error count, or a physical layer noise counter; and

providing a confidence of the measured packet loss rate according to results of the monitoring.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein translating the measured packet loss rate to TCP throughput further comprises:

reading the confidence of the measured packet loss rate;

outputting possible range of TCP throughput corresponding to the confidence; and

outputting measurement failure message if the confidence is lower than a predetermined threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring the packet loss rate further comprises:

comparing upstream and downstream packet loss rates to determine the packet loss rate associated with packets in the common access network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the RTT comprises executing a ping command.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the RTT comprises:

identifying a list of servers frequented by a user of the first communication device; and

measuring the RTT for each of the identified list of servers.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link is a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) link.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third communication devices comprise at least one of:

an access point (AP);

a base station;

a wireless smartphone device;

a wireless LAN device;

an access gateway;

a router,

a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) performance enhancement device;

a DSL Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) modem;

a cable CPE modem;

an in-home powerline device;

a Home Phoneline Network Alliance (HPNA) based device;

an in-home coax distribution device;

a G.hn (Global Home Networking Standard) compatible device;

an in-home metering communication device;

an in-home appliance communicatively interfaced with the LAN;

a wireless femtocell base station;

a wireless Wi-Fi compatible base station;

a wireless mobile device repeater;

a wireless mobile device base station;

nodes within an ad-hoc/mesh network;

a set-top box (STB)/set-top unit (STU) customer electronics device;

an Internet Protocol (IP) enabled television;

an IP enabled media player;

an IP enabled gaming console;

an Ethernet gateway;

a computing device connected to the LAN;

an Ethernet connected computer peripheral device;

an Ethernet connected router;

an Ethernet connected wireless bridge;

an Ethernet connected network bridge;

an Ethernet connected network switch;

or

a server.

14. A machine executable storage medium having machine executable instructions that when executed cause a machine to perform a method for estimating throughput between communication devices, the method comprising:

determining a maximum bottleneck throughput of a communication link between a first communication device and a third communication device, wherein the communication link between the first and third communication devices applies a common access network;

determining a Round Trip Time (RTT) between the first and second communication devices;

transmitting a packet by applying User Datagram Protocol (UDP) from the third communication device to the first communication device;

measuring packet loss rate associated with the transmitted packet by monitoring sequence number of the packet; and

translating a measured packet loss rate to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) throughput according to the maximum bottleneck throughput and the RTT.

15. The machine executable storage medium of claim 14, having machine executable instructions that when executed cause the machine to perform a method which comprises measuring a packet arrival jitter associated with the transmitted packet by monitoring the arrival time stamps.