Data transfer application monitor and controller

• US 20040228277A1
• Filed: 05/16/2003
• Published: 11/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Inc. (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Williams, Christopher Pierce
• Granted Patent: US 7,539,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/026 using flow identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/765 triggered by the end-points
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/788 Autonomous allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/823 : Prediction of resource usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/826 : Involving periods of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 : based on usage prediction

Abstract

The present invention teaches methods and systems for monitoring and controlling bandwidth usage between an internal local area network and an external network. By providing controls from inside the external network connectivity point, greater detail in bandwidth control is possible. This in turn leads to less restrictive bandwidth restricting algorithms. Bandwidth restricting algorithms include various bandwidth limiting techniques. One such technique uses prioritized data transfer limits applied on an application, process or network interface basis. Another technique uses a configurable weighting factor for real-time prioritization of data traffic. Other techniques incorporate quality of service or model predictive control based bandwidth limiting.

Claims

1. A method for providing monitoring and controlling bandwidth usage between an internal network and an external network comprising a monitoring component and a controlling component;

wherein the monitoring component comprises the steps of;

counting data packets received by one or more receiving terminal means;

associating received data packet counts to an application;

counting data packets transmitted by one or more transmitting terminal means;

associating transmitted data packet counts to an application;

logging each application and associated data packet counts;

creating one or more summaries of packet counts by user selected type; and

reporting summaries of packet counts in a user viewable format;

wherein the controlling component comprises the steps of;

comparing one or more summaries of packet counts to a control curve; and

reducing the rate of data packet acceptance when the packet count exceeds allowed packets of a control curve.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more terminal means are both a receiving terminal means and a transmitting terminal means.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein reducing the rate of data packet acceptance is performed in accordance with a user configurable control algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising a master bandwidth monitoring component wherein the master bandwidth monitoring component comprises the step of combining packet counts from all terminal means into a packet counts for the master bandwidth monitoring component.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the summaries of packet counts are selected from the group consisting of billing period total, billing period average, historical total, historical average, time-period total, time-period average, application category total, application category average, user total, user average, terminal means total, and terminal means average.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of comparing one or more summaries of packet counts to an alarm trigger value and automatically generating an alarm when the alarm trigger value is exceeded and wherein the automatically generated alarm is selected from the group of alarm means consisting of audible signals and electronic messages.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a multi-user prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a weighting factor prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a weighting factor prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm further comprising indexed value assignments.

12. The method of claim 3 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a quality of service bandwidth limiting algorithm.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a quality of service bandwidth limiting algorithm combined with a prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a quality of service bandwidth limiting algorithm combined with a weighting factor prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

15. The method of claim 3 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a model predictive bandwidth limiting algorithm.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the control curve is selected from the group of control curves consisting of linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with configured allowed overage, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with closed periods, exponential control curve, elevated zero time intercept exponential control curve, polynomial control curve and elevated zero time intercept polynomial control curve.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the control curve is selected from the group of control curves consisting of linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with configured allowed overage, and elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with closed periods.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve, the summary is the total of data packets transmitted and received by a terminal means per billing cycle and the billing cycle is an abbreviated billing cycle.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve, the summary is the total of data packets transmitted and received by a terminal means per billing cycle and the billing cycle is a short billing cycle.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve, the summary is the total of data packets transmitted and received by a terminal means per billing cycle and the billing cycle is a very short billing cycle.

5. The method of claim 5 wherein the master bandwidth monitoring component further comprises the steps of detecting all terminal means and autolaunching the monitoring component on any terminal means not having the monitoring component active.

22. A system for providing monitoring and controlling bandwidth usage between an internal network and an external network comprising a terminal means, an external network connectivity means, a monitoring component and a controlling component;

wherein the monitoring component comprises machine executable instructions for performing the steps of;

counting data packets received by one or more receiving terminal means;

associating received data packet counts to an application;

counting data packets transmitted by one or more transmitting terminal means;

associating transmitted data packet counts to an application;

logging each application and associated data packet counts;

creating one or more summaries of packet counts by user selected type; and

reporting summaries of packet counts in a user viewable format;

wherein the controlling component comprises machine executable instructions for performing the steps of;

comparing one or more summaries of packet counts to a control curve; and

reducing the rate of data packet acceptance when the packet count exceeds allowed packets of a control curve.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein one or more terminal means are both a receiving terminal means and a transmitting terminal means.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein reducing the rate of data packet acceptance is performed in accordance with a user configurable control algorithm.

25. The system of claim 22 further comprising a master bandwidth monitoring component wherein the master bandwidth monitoring component comprises the step of combining packet counts from all terminal means into a packet counts for the master bandwidth monitoring component.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the master bandwidth monitoring component further comprises the steps of detecting all terminal means and autolaunching the monitoring component on any terminal means not having the monitoring component active.

27. The system of claim 22 wherein the summaries of packet counts are selected from the group consisting of billing period total, billing period average, historical total, historical average, time-period total, time-period average, application category total, application category average, user total, user average, terminal means total, and terminal means average.

28. The system of claim 22 wherein the monitoring component further comprises machine executable instructions for performing the steps of comparing one or more summaries of packet counts to an alarm trigger value and automatically generating an alarm when the alarm trigger value is exceeded and wherein the automatically generated alarm is selected from the group of alarm means consisting of audible signals and electronic messages.

29. The system of claim 24 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a multi-user prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

31. The system of claim 24 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a weighting factor prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a weighting factor prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm further comprising indexed value assignments.

33. The system of claim 24 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a quality of service bandwidth limiting algorithm.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a quality of service bandwidth limiting algorithm combined with a prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a quality of service bandwidth limiting algorithm combined with a weighting factor prioritized bandwidth limiting algorithm.

36. The system of claim 24 wherein the user configurable control algorithm is a model predictive bandwidth limiting algorithm.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve.

38. The system of claim 22 wherein the control curve is selected from the group of control curves consisting of linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with configured allowed overage, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with closed periods, exponential control curve, elevated zero time intercept exponential control curve, polynomial control curve and elevated zero time intercept polynomial control curve.

39. The system of claim 22 wherein the control curve is selected from the group of control curves consisting of linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve, elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with configured allowed overage, and elevated zero time intercept linear control curve with closed periods.

40. The system of claim 22 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve, the summary is the total of data packets transmitted and received by a terminal means per billing cycle and the billing cycle is an abbreviated billing cycle.

41. The system of claim 22 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve, the summary is the total of data packets transmitted and received by a terminal means per billing cycle and the billing cycle is a short billing cycle.

42. The system of claim 22 wherein the control curve is a fixed value control curve, the summary is the total of data packets transmitted and received by a terminal means per billing cycle and the billing cycle is a very short billing cycle.