Network bandwidth management
First Claim
1. An apparatus for managing bandwidth allocated to a plurality of virtual networks on the same physical network, comprising:
- a device connected to the physical network and configured to communicate with at least one other device connected to the physical network; and
means associated with at least one said device for dynamically allocating bandwidth to each virtual network on said physical network, and for reallocating said bandwidth if sufficient bandwidth on said physical network is not available to simultaneously support bandwidth requirements of said virtual networks.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for equitably allocating bandwidth to virtual networks operating on a common physical network, such as a power-line network for homeowners sharing a single power-line distribution transformer. An ad-hoc master is selected from the virtual power-line network controllers. The master allocates bandwidth to streams based on their priority group categorization. By way of example, four priority groups (A-D) are described into which stream priority is classified, with the highest priority group for communicating isochronous streams, the lowest priority for transferring asynchronous streams and the other priority groups for communicating streams having an intermediate level of transmission priority. Within a given priority group all bandwidth requests are fulfilled for virtual networks requesting up to their fair share of the bandwidth within the priority group, and bandwidth available from virtual networks not utilizing their full share is allocated equally amongst those requesting more bandwidth.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. An apparatus for managing bandwidth allocated to a plurality of virtual networks on the same physical network, comprising:
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a device connected to the physical network and configured to communicate with at least one other device connected to the physical network; and
means associated with at least one said device for dynamically allocating bandwidth to each virtual network on said physical network, and for reallocating said bandwidth if sufficient bandwidth on said physical network is not available to simultaneously support bandwidth requirements of said virtual networks. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for managing bandwidth allocated to virtual networks sharing the bandwidth of a common physical network, comprising:
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a computer processor within a device configured for communicating over said physical network with other devices; and
programming executable on said computer processor for carrying out the operations of dividing the available bandwidth of the physical network into assignable units, categorizing streams for transmission over said physical network into priority groups, assigning sections of bandwidth to said priority groups in response to the bandwidth requirements of said streams and the transmission priority of said priority group, and assigning units of bandwidth to specific streams within each of said priority groups. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of allocating bandwidth among a plurality of virtual networks sharing a common physical network, comprising:
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dividing the available bandwidth of the physical network into assignable units;
ordering streams, being transmitted over the physical network, into priority groups;
assigning units of bandwidth to said priority groups in response to the bandwidth requirements of said streams and the transmission priority of said priority group; and
assigning specific units of bandwidth to specific streams within each of said priority groups in response to an equitable sharing of bandwidth between said virtual networks sharing said physical network. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification