QoS capable mobile ad-hoc network device

• US 20060056353A1
• Filed: 09/15/2004
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: McBride, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,417,962 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/332
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/302 Route determination based on requested QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/56 implementing delay-aware scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6215 Individual queue per QOS, rate or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/623 Weighted service order
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

The ad-hoc router enables a decentralized IP routing network (mobile of fixed) amongst a set of network devices, and can offer quality of services for voice, video and data applications. The ad-hoc router is divided into a receiving, control/management processing, IP datapath/routing, randomizer, scheduler and transmission blocks. The IP datapath/routing block provides, in addition to the standard datapath routing functionality, per packet labels that uniquely identify the source device of the packet in the network. The scheduler maintains a plurality of QoS queues, which are then dequeued with a WFQ scheduler, which can be based on standard technology or a simplified low-cost implementation. The randomizer uses the labels to route the packets to a queue such that all packets from the source device, indicated by the label, enter the same queue. For greater security, the randomizer uses a random mapping function that is re-computed periodically.

Claims

1. A QoS-capable device for connection over an ad-hoc network, for enabling QoS at the network datapath level, comprising:

means for calculating the next hop for each protocol data unit (PDU) while attaching a label to each PDU;

means for mapping the label to a respective source device;

means for scheduling transmission of the PDU according to the respective source device, and for determining the transmission order of the PDUs using a scheduling model; and

processing means for controlling and managing operation of the QoS-capable device, to enable a fair distribution of network bandwidth among the source devices.

2. The QoS-capable device of claim 1, wherein the means for calculating comprises;

routing means for identifying on output port for each PDU based on the address of a respective destination device; and

a label generator for generating a label for each PDU, the label uniquely identifying the respective source device that generated each PDU.

3. The QoS-capable device of claim 1, wherein the means for scheduling comprises:

a plurality of QoS queues, a particular queue including exclusively PDUs arrived to the QoS-capable device from the same source device; and

a scheduler for determining the transmission order of the PDUs using a scheduling model, to enable specific QoS for each source device.

4. The QoS-capable device of claim 3, wherein said scheduling model is based on a weighted fair queuing (WFQ) scheme.

5. The QoS-capable device of claim 3, wherein the means for mapping comprises:

a randomizer for computing a random mapping function in order to disable a malicious source device to abuse the network; and

a mapping function block for mapping the label to the respective source device.

6. The QoS-capable device of claim 3, wherein the means for mapping further comprises a timer for triggering change of said random mapping function at preset intervals.

7. The QoS-capable device of claim 3, wherein the processing means comprises a bandwidth allocator for associating a certain bandwidth to each label for controlling the QoS associated with the respective source device based on the respective label.

8. The QoS-capable device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver for enabling reception of the PDU from the respective source device and transmission of the PDU to a destination device in the ad-hoc network.

9. The QoS-capable device of claim 1, wherein the ad-hoc network is a mobile ad-hoc network and the transceiver is a wireless transceiver.

10. A method for securely providing quality of service (QoS) based scheduling to PDUs at a network router in an ad-hoc network, comprising the steps of:

a) calculating the next hop for each PDU while attaching a label to each PDU;

b) mapping the label to a respective source device;

c) queuing the PDU according to the respective source device, and determining the transmission order of the PDUs using a scheduling model; and

d) controlling transmission of the PDU from the network router to enable a fair distribution of network bandwidth among the source devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein step a) comprises;

identifying on output port for each PDU based on the address of a respective destination device; and

generating a label for each PDU, the label uniquely identifying the respective source device that generated each PDU.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein step c) comprises:

providing a plurality of QoS queues, a particular queue including exclusively PDUs arrived to the QoS-capable device from the same source device; and

determining the transmission order of the PDUs using a scheduling model, to enable specific QoS for each source device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said scheduling model is based on a weighted fair queuing (WFQ) scheme.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein step b) comprises:

computing a random mapping function in order to disable a malicious source device to abuse the network; and

mapping the label to the respective source device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein step b) further comprises triggering change of said random mapping function at preset intervals.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein step d) comprises associating a certain bandwidth to each label for controlling the QoS associated with the respective source device based on the respective label.

17. A system for providing quality of service (QoS) based scheduling to packet data flows from source devices in a communication network, comprising:

a plurality of queues, each queue corresponding to a QoS level and for queuing packets accordingly;

a weighted fair queueing (WFQ) scheduler for scheduling queued packets;

means for generating labels on a per packet basis and affixing labels to packets, wherein each label uniquely identifies a source device;

means for mapping labels to queues according to a respective random function for each label; and

means for routing packets to queues according to the mapping.