Method and apparatus for enhancing the quality of service of a wireless communication

• US 20030231594A1
• Filed: 06/13/2002
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Xu, Hua, Harris, John M., Ali, Irfan
• Granted Patent: US 6,885,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/236
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1877 for semi-reliable protocols, e.g. for less sensitive applications like streaming video buffer level management for video bitstream control arrangements H04N21/44004
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2466 using signalling traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A communication system and method assigns, such as by marking headers of wireless communication packets, packet classification data to packets to define at least one of the following classes: a control signaling class, such as in-band signaling and control packets, a voice class, a data retransmission class, OAMP class and a data class and wherein each class represents a different transmission priority over a backhaul link. For wireless communication packets associated with the control signaling class and the voice class, the method and apparatus assigns each of the wireless communication packets with additional drop precedent data wherein the drop precedence data defines a further packet drop priority within the control signaling class and the voice class. The apparatus and method drops a queued classified wireless communication packet based on a priority level of assigned drop precedent data and based on the packet classification data.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing a quality of service of a wireless communication comprising:

assigning a plurality of wireless communication packets with packet classification data wherein packet classification data defines at least one of the following classes;

a control signaling class, a voice class, a data retransmission class and a data class and wherein each class represents a different transmission priority;

for at least wireless communication packets associated with the control signaling class and the voice class, assigning each of the wireless communication packets with drop precedent data wherein the drop precedence data defines a further packet drop priority within the control signaling class and the voice class;

queuing the plurality of wireless communication packets based on the packet classification data; and

dropping a queued classified wireless communication packet based on a priority level of assigned drop precedent data and based on the packet classification data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning the plurality of wireless communication packets with packet classification data includes further assigning each of the classes a different transmission priority such that the order of transmission priority among the classes includes the control signaling class having a higher priority than the voice class which has a higher priority than the data retransmission class which has a higher priority than the data class.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of assigning the plurality of wireless communication packets with packet classification data includes marking each of the plurality of packets by inserting the packet classification data in a packet header.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of assigning each of the wireless communication packets with drop precedent data includes marking each of the plurality of packets by inserting the drop precedent data in a packet header.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of queuing the plurality of wireless communication packets based on the packet classification data includes storing wireless communication packets with a same assigned class to a same queue.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of dropping the queued classified wireless communication packet based on a priority level of assigned drop precedent data and based on the packet classification data includes using at least one of:

a priority queuing process, a weighted fair queuing process and a weighted round robin process to determine which wireless communication packet to selectively drop from transmission.

7. The method of claim 6 including the step configuring a queue threshold for each queue based on a priority level of each class.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning the drop precedence data to the wireless communication packet in the voice class includes assigning a higher drop precedence for half rate encoded speech packets than for full rate encoded speech packets.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning the drop precedence data to the wireless communication packet in the voice class includes assigning a drop precedence based on both speech rate data and packet quality data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the classes include an operation and maintenance class and has a lower transmission priority than the data class.

11. The method of claim 1 including assigning wireless communication packets determined to be NACKS in the data retransmission class and within the data retransmission class, assigning a higher drop precedence data to retransmission packets that are determined to be a first retransmission such that first retransmission packets are assigned a higher drop precedence than subsequently retransmitted packets.

12. A method for enhancing a quality of service of a wireless communication comprising:

assigning a plurality of communication packets with packet classification data;

detecting from the plurality of communication packets whether at least one of the communication packets is an in-band signaling packet;

assigning a detected in-band signaling packet with drop precedent data;

queuing the plurality of communication packets based on the packet classification data; and

dropping a communication packet other than the in-band signaling packet based on the drop precedent data.

13. The method of claim 12 including sending the in-band signaling packet over a backhaul link and not sending the dropped communication packet over the backhaul link.

14. An apparatus for enhancing a quality of service of a wireless communication comprising:

a selective packet dropping circuit operative to;

assign a plurality of wireless communication packets with packet classification data wherein packet classification data defines at least one of the following classes;

a control signaling class, a voice class, a data retransmission class and a data class and wherein each class represents a different transmission priority;

for at least wireless communication packets associated with the control signaling class and the voice class, assign each of the wireless communication packets with drop precedent data wherein the drop precedence data defines a further packet drop priority within the control signaling class and the voice class;

queue the plurality of wireless communication packets based on the packet classification data; and

drop a queued classified wireless communication packet based on a priority level of assigned drop precedent data and based on the packet classification data to selectively discard wireless communication packets from being transmitted over the backhaul link.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein selective packet dropping circuit assigns each of the classes a different transmission priority such that the order of transmission priority among the classes includes the control signaling class having a higher priority than the voice class which has a higher priority than the data retransmission class which has a higher priority than the data class.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the selective packet dropping circuit stores wireless communication packets with a same assigned class to a same queue.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the selective packet dropping circuit configures a queue threshold for each queue based on a priority level of each class.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the selective packet dropping circuit assigns a higher drop precedence for half rate encoded speech packets than for full rate encoded speech packets.

19. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the selective packet dropping circuit assigns the drop precedence data to the wireless communication packet in the voice class by assigning a drop precedence priority based on both speech rate data and packet quality data.

20. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the selective packet dropping circuit assigns wireless communication packets determined to be NACKS in the data retransmission class and within the data retransmission class, assigns a higher drop precedence data to retransmission packets that are determined to be a first retransmission such that first retransmission packets are assigned a higher drop precedence than subsequently retransmitted packets.

21. A wireless communication system comprising:

a first network element operatively coupled for communication with a wireless device and including a wireless communication selective packet dropping circuit;

a second network element in operative communication with the first network element via at least one backhaul link;

wherein in a reverse link, the wireless communication selective packet dropping circuit;

assigns a plurality of wireless communication packets with packet classification data wherein packet classification data defines at least one of the following classes;

a control signaling class, a voice class, a data retransmission class and a data class and wherein each class represents a different transmission priority;

for at least wireless communication packets associated with the control signaling class and the voice class, the selective packet dropping circuit assigns each of the wireless communication packets with drop precedent data wherein the drop precedence data defines a further packet drop priority within the control signaling class and the voice class;

queues the plurality of wireless communication packets based on the packet classification data; and

drops a queued classified wireless communication packet based on a priority level of assigned drop precedent data and based on the packet classification data to selectively discard wireless communication packets from being transmitted over the backhaul link.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the second network element includes a selective packet dropping circuit wherein in a forward link, the wireless communication selective packet dropping circuit:

assigns a plurality of wireless communication packets with packet classification data wherein packet classification data defines at least one of the following classes;

a control signaling class, a voice class, a data retransmission class and a data class and wherein each class represents a different transmission priority;

for at least wireless communication packets associated with the control signaling class and the voice class, the selective packet dropping circuit assigns each of the wireless communication packets with drop precedent data wherein the drop precedence data defines a further packet drop priority within the control signaling class and the voice class;

queues the plurality of wireless communication packets based on the packet classification data; and

drops a queued classified wireless communication packet based on a priority level of assigned drop precedent data and based on the packet classification data to selectively discard wireless communication packets from being transmitted over the backhaul link.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the wireless communication selective packet dropping circuit is employed in a base transceiver station and wherein the selective packet dropping circuit is comprised of a packet classification circuit and a router with multipacket classification queues.