Dynamic optimal path selection in multiple communications networks

• US 20030156543A1
• Filed: 02/20/2002
• Published: 08/21/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Vetro, Anthony, Sahinoglu, Zafer
• Granted Patent: US 7,099,277 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5692 Selection among different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system connects a first terminal via multiple networks to a second terminal. An environment description is acquired and parsed by a description parser into cost parameters using a set of rules. An objective function evaluates the cost parameters to determine an optimal path to connect the first terminal to the second terminal through the multiple networks using a switch. The selection of the optimal path can be done periodically during a particular application session.

Claims

1. A method for connecting a first terminal via a plurality of networks to a second terminal, comprising:

acquiring an environment description;

parsing the environment description into cost parameters using a set of rules;

evaluating an objective function using the cost parameters; and

selecting an optimal path through the plurality of networks based on a minimum cost to connect the first terminal to the second terminal.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment description includes a network description for each of the networks.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein each of the networks includes a plurality of links, and each network description includes connection cost, bandwidth, utilization, and capacity of each link.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein each network description includes end-to-end delay, delay variation, error characteristics, and packet loss rate for each network.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment description includes a terminal description for each terminal.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each terminal description includes hardware and sofware descriptions for each terminal.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment description includes a delivery description.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the delivery description specifies transport protocols.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment description includes a user preference description.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the user preference description includes filtering, search, browsing, and display preferences.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the user preference description includes user demographic information.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment description includes a natural environment description.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the natural environment description specifies a location and a type of location of each terminal.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment description includes a service description.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the service description specifies service capabilities.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the acquiring, parsing, evaluating, and selecting is performed periodically to dynamically select the optimal path for a particular time interval.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the optimal path passes through a subset of the plurality of networks.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluating considers content bandwidth requirements.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

acquiring a content description;

parsing the content into cost parameters of the content; and

evaluating the objective function using the cost parameters of the content; and

delivering the adapted content over the selected optimal path.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

adapting the content according to the content description.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

adapting the content according to the environment description.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

adapting the content according to the content description and the environment description.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the cost parameters are known.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the cost parameters are predicted.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

modeling the objective function as a lattice; and

solving for the minimum cost using a Viterbi decoder.

26. The method of claim 4 wherein the objective function is:

27. The method of claim 1 wherein the cost parameters include a time dependent path cost parameter, and a traffic dependent quality of service parameter.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the networks have different capacity and different available bandwidth.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein each network is defined by time-variant and time-independent cost parameters.

30. The method of claim 1 wherein the first terminal is a content server configured to transmit a video and the second terminal is a client terminal configured to receive the video.

31. A system for connecting a first terminal via a plurality of networks to a second terminal, comprising:

an environment parser periodically acquiring and parsing an environment description of the plurality of networks into cost parameters;

an evaluator determining an optimal path through the plurality of networks using an objective function and the cost parameters; and

a switch connecting the first terminal to the second terminal via the optimal path for a predetermined time period.