Quality of service management in network gateways

• US 20040030797A1
• Filed: 08/12/2002
• Published: 02/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Elbassioni, Khaled, Kamel, Ibrahim, Akinlar, Cuneyt
• Granted Patent: US 7,802,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/225 Determination of shaping rate, e.g. using a moving window
• 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 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/323 Discarding or blocking control packets, e.g. ACK packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/762 triggered by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic

Abstract

An apparatus for ensuring quality-of-service in a network is provided. A first stream sender having a flow control parameter and transmitting a first stream. A network interconnection receiving the first stream and a second stream. First stream being a non-realtime stream and the second stream being a realtime stream. A bandwidth control being associated with the network interconnection. The bandwidth control adjusting the flow control parameter for supporting quality-of-service parameters associated with the second stream.

Claims

1. An apparatus for ensuring quality-of-service in a network, said apparatus comprising:

at least one first stream sender having at least one flow control parameter;

at least one first stream transmitted from said first stream sender;

a network interconnection receiving said first stream from said first stream sender and at least one second stream transmitted from a second stream sender;

a bandwidth control being associated with said network interconnection; and

said bandwidth control adjusting said flow control parameter of said first stream sender for supporting at least one performance parameter associated with said second stream.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a first network connection including said first stream sender; and

a second network including said network interconnection.

3. The apparatus if claim 2 wherein said network interconnection being a home gateway and said second network being a home network.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising:

at least one channel connecting said first stream sender and said second stream sender to said network interconnection, said channel having a bandwidth capacity shared by said first stream and said second stream.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said first stream being a non-realtime stream and said second stream being a real-time stream, said second stream consistently requiring a part of said bandwidth capacity.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said bandwidth control adjusting said flow control parameter so that said first stream using a share of said bandwidth capacity that is less than or equal to the difference between said bandwidth capacity and the bandwidth requirements of said second stream.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said performance parameter being selected from a set of predetermined quality-of-service parameters associated with said second stream.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said bandwidth control maintaining quality-of-service parameters for said second stream by adjusting said flow control parameter and controlling bandwidth requirements of said first stream.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said flow control parameter regulates the flow of said first stream.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said flow control parameter regulating the bandwidth usage of said first stream by regulating the flow of said first stream.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said flow control parameter comprises a flow control window associated with said second stream sender operating the transmission control protocol (TCP).

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said network interconnection is a device chosen from a group consisting of routers, protocol converters and gateways.

13. An apparatus for ensuring quality-of-service in a network, said apparatus comprising:

at least two TCP connections operating at least two TCP streams;

at least two flow control parameters associated with said two TCP connections;

a network interconnection connecting to said TCP connections using a channel having a bandwidth capacity;

at least one realtime stream connecting to said network interconnection using said channel;

a bandwidth control being associated with said network interconnection; and

said bandwidth control adjusting said flow control parameters of said TCP connections for controlling bandwidth usage of said TCP streams.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising:

at least one server including said TCP connections; and

at least one network element connecting to said network interconnection.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said one network element included in a home network and said network interconnection being a home gateway.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said bandwidth control fulfilling a plurality of quality-of-service parameters for said realtime streams by adjusting said flow control parameters.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said bandwidth control adjusting said flow control parameters so that said TCP streams requiring a share of said bandwidth capacity that is less than or equal to the difference between said bandwidth capacity and the bandwidth requirements of said realtime stream.

18. An apparatus for ensuring quality-of-service in a network, the apparatus comprising:

an edge router connecting to a communication channel;

a network interconnection connecting to said communication channel;

at least one realtime data stream connecting to said edge router, said realtime data stream being transmitted from said edge router to said network interconnection using said communication channel;

at least one TCP connection linked to said edge router, said TCP connection having at least one flow control parameter; and

a bandwidth control being associated with said network interconnection, said bandwidth control adjusting said flow control parameter for regulating the bandwidth requirements of said TCP connection.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising:

said bandwidth control adjusting said flow control parameter of said first stream sender for supporting at least one quality-of-service parameter associated with said realtime data stream.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said bandwidth control regulating the bandwidth requirements of said TCP connections by adjusting said flow control parameter so that said TCP streams requiring a share of said bandwidth capacity that is less than or equal to the difference between said bandwidth capacity and the bandwidth requirements of said realtime stream.

21. An apparatus for ensuring quality-of-service in a network by using dynamic bandwidth allocation, said apparatus comprising:

at least two first streams senders, each said first stream sender having at least one flow control parameter;

at least two first streams transmitted from said first stream senders;

a network interconnection receiving said first streams from said first stream senders and at least one second stream transmitted from a second stream sender;

a bandwidth control being associated with said network interconnection; and

said bandwidth control dynamically adjusting said flow control parameters for allocating unused bandwidth assigned to a given said first stream to an another said first stream.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein said first stream is a non-realtime TCP stream and said second stream is a realtime data stream.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said given first stream having unused bandwidth during TCP slow-start.

24. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein said bandwidth control allocating equal bandwidth to said given first stream and said another first stream upon said given first stream achieving a steady state.

25. A method for providing quality-of-service in a network, the method comprising:

regulating bandwidth requirements of at least one first stream by adjusting at least one flow control parameter associated with at least one first stream sender, said first stream sender transmitting said first stream using at least one communication channel having a bandwidth capacity; and

ensuring at least one quality-of-service parameter for at least one second stream transmitted from at least one second stream sender using said communication channel, said quality-of-service parameter being dependent on the bandwidth requirements of said first stream.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the step of regulating further comprising:

adjusting bandwidth requirements of said first stream using a bandwidth control associated with a network interconnection connected to said communication channel.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the step of regulating further comprising:

adjusting bandwidth requirements of said first stream so that bandwidth requirement of said first stream is less then or equal to the difference between the bandwidth capacity of said communication channel and bandwidth requirement of said second stream.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the bandwidth capacity of said communication channel shared by said first stream and said second stream.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein said flow control parameter regulating the bandwidth requirement of said first stream.

30. The method of claim 25 wherein said network interconnection is a device chosen from a group consisting of routers, protocol converters and gateways.

31. The method of claim 25 wherein said first stream comprises a non-realtime stream and said second stream comprises a realtime stream.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein said non-realtime stream comprises a TCP stream and said first stream sender is a TCP connection.

33. The method of claim 25 wherein the bandwidth capacity of said communication channel is shared between said first stream and said second stream.

34. A method for ensuring quality-of-service in a network by using dynamic bandwidth allocation, the method comprising the steps of:

adjusting dynamically at least one flow control parameter associated with at least one first stream sender, said first stream sender transmitting at least one first stream using at least one communication channel having a bandwidth capacity;

regulating bandwidth requirements of said first stream by dynamically adjusting said flow control parameter; and

ensuring at least one quality-of-service parameter for at least one second stream transmitted from at least one second stream sender using said communication channel, said quality-of-service parameter being dependent on the bandwidth requirement of said first stream.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein said step of adjusting further comprising:

allocating unused bandwidth assigned to a given said first stream to an another said first stream by using a bandwidth control associated with a network interconnection connected to said first stream sender and said second stream sender.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein said bandwidth control allocating equal bandwidth to said given first stream and said another first stream upon said given first stream achieving a steady state.

37. The method of claim 34 wherein said first stream comprises a non-realtime TCP stream and said second stream comprises a realtime stream.