Dynamic bandwidth reallocation
First Claim
1. A method for the reallocation of bandwidth between different traffic classes that comprise a path in a packet network in order to admit a service request for the bandwidth of one or more of said traffic classes, said method comprising the steps of:
- storing for each traffic class an available bandwidth indicator that indicates the amount of bandwidth available within that traffic class;
determining if the available bandwidth for a specific traffic class is sufficient to meet the bandwidth requested for said specific traffic class;
if the available bandwidth for said specific traffic class is insufficient to meet the corresponding requested bandwidth, determining if there is excess available bandwidth in one or more other traffic classes sufficient to meet the insufficiency;
if there is sufficient excess available bandwidth in one or more other traffic classes to meet the insufficiency, reallocating bandwidth from these one or more other traffic classes to said specific traffic class in an amount equal to the insufficiency by decrementing the available bandwidth indicator for the one or more other traffic classes in the amount reallocated from these traffic classes; and
admitting the new service request to the network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Bandwidth allocated between the traffic classes of a network path is dynamically reallocated when one or more traffic classes have insufficient available bandwidth to support a service request for the traffic classes, wherein the reallocation occurs without modifying the traffic class bandwidth allocations enforced by router mechanisms. A provisioning system maintains an available bandwidth indication for each traffic class, which indications are decremented as a service request is admitted to the path. If a requested traffic class has insufficient available bandwidth to support a request, one or more other traffic classes can loan bandwidth to the requested traffic class by decrementing the available bandwidth indicators for the one or more other traffic classes in the amount of the insufficiency, thereby indicating that less bandwidth is available in these classes for future requests. The provisioning system also maintains an indication of the amount of bandwidth each traffic class loans to the other traffic classes.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for the reallocation of bandwidth between different traffic classes that comprise a path in a packet network in order to admit a service request for the bandwidth of one or more of said traffic classes, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing for each traffic class an available bandwidth indicator that indicates the amount of bandwidth available within that traffic class;
determining if the available bandwidth for a specific traffic class is sufficient to meet the bandwidth requested for said specific traffic class;
if the available bandwidth for said specific traffic class is insufficient to meet the corresponding requested bandwidth, determining if there is excess available bandwidth in one or more other traffic classes sufficient to meet the insufficiency;
if there is sufficient excess available bandwidth in one or more other traffic classes to meet the insufficiency, reallocating bandwidth from these one or more other traffic classes to said specific traffic class in an amount equal to the insufficiency by decrementing the available bandwidth indicator for the one or more other traffic classes in the amount reallocated from these traffic classes; and
admitting the new service request to the network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. The method of claim I wherein the packet network comprises a plurality of routers configured with weighted fair queuing or dynamic round robin in order to provide the traffic classes.
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10. A system for reallocating bandwidth between different traffic classes that comprise a path in a packet network in order to admit a service request for the bandwidth of one or more of said traffic classes, said system comprising:
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a database for storing an available bandwidth indicator for each traffic class;
means for determining if the available bandwidth for any traffic class, as specified by the corresponding available bandwidth indicator, is deficient in that there is not sufficient bandwidth in said any traffic class to meet the bandwidth requested for said any traffic class;
means for determining if there is excess available bandwidth in one or more other traffic classes sufficient to meet any bandwidth deficiencies;
means for reallocating bandwidth, sufficient to meet any bandwidth deficiencies, from said one or more other traffic classes with excess available bandwidth to traffic classes with deficient bandwidth, said means for reallocating comprising means for decrementing the available bandwidth indicators for the traffic classes with excess available bandwidth in an amount equal to the bandwidth deficiencies; and
a configuration interface comprising means for configuring the network for the new service request. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for reallocating bandwidth between a plurality of traffic classes that comprise a label switched path (LSP) within a multi-protocol label switching and differentiated services based network, wherein the reallocation occurs in response to receiving a bandwidth request for one or more traffic classes of the LSP, said method comprising the steps of:
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determining whether a requested traffic class has sufficient available bandwidth to support the bandwidth request for that traffic class by examining an available bandwidth indicator for that traffic class;
if a requested traffic class has insufficient bandwidth to support the bandwidth request for that traffic class, determining whether one or more other traffic classes can loan the insufficient bandwidth to the requested traffic class, said determination being made by examining the available bandwidth indicators for the one or more other traffic classes;
if the one or more other traffic classes have insufficient bandwidth to loan to the requested traffic class, denying the bandwidth request; and
if the one or more other traffic classes have sufficient bandwidth to loan to the requested traffic class, decrementing the available bandwidth indicators for the one or more other traffic classes in the amount of the insufficiency and admitting the request. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification