Centralized wireless QoS architecture

• US 20070171909A1
• Filed: 01/20/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pignatelli, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,265,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/30 Routing of multiclass traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/56 implementing delay-aware scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A QoS mechanism that evaluates congestion in one or more network nodes along the wireless delivery path to optimize the processing priority at the centralized wireless network controller. The QoS mechanism determines an idealized processing time for a given client packet, within a rich set of configurable QoS attributes, for a given defined flow and then adjusts the expectation of delivering the packet based on resource congestion measurements of the wireless infrastructure.

Claims

1. In a controller operating in a network environment wherein the controller processes packets received from one or more remote nodes for delivery to one or more clients, a method for maintaining packet delivery Quality of Server (QoS), the method comprising:

receiving a packet that identifies a destination client of the packet;

identifying one or more delivery path nodes to the destination client;

acquiring a QoS state associated with at least one of the one or more delivery path nodes;

determining a delivery preference based on the acquired QoS state; and

storing the packet in a buffer with delivery instructions wherein the delivery instructions includes the delivery preference.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising delivering the packet to the destination client based on the delivery instructions.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the delivery preference is a time delay and the packet is passed to a data processing engine when the time delay expires;

wherein the data processing engine is operative to forward the packet to the destination client.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein the packet is dropped if the time delay is greater than a threshold.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 wherein the threshold is based upon a QoS parameter.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein acquiring the delivery path nodes QoS state is based on a percent utilization corresponding to the one or more delivery path nodes.

7. A controller comprising:

a network interface;

one or more processors;

a memory; and

a packet scheduling application, stored in the memory, including instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to;

receive a packet that identifies a destination client of the packet;

identify one or more delivery path nodes to the destination client;

acquire a QoS state associated with at least one of the one or more delivery path nodes;

determine a delivery preference based on the acquired QoS state; and

store the packet in a buffer with delivery instructions wherein the delivery instructions includes the delivery preference.

8. The controller as recited in claim 7 wherein the packet scheduling application further comprises instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to deliver the packet to the destination client based on the delivery instructions.

9. The controller as recited in claim 8 wherein the delivery preference is a time delay, and wherein the packet scheduling application further comprises instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

pass the packet to a data processing engine when the time delay expires; and

forward the packet from the data processing engine to the destination client.

10. The controller as recited in claim 9 wherein the packet scheduling application further comprises instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to drop the packet if the time delay is greater than a threshold.

11. The controller as recited in claim 10 wherein the threshold is based upon a QoS parameter.

12. The controller as recited in claim 7 wherein acquire the delivery path nodes QoS state is based on a percent utilization corresponding to the one or more delivery path nodes.

13. A controller comprising:

means for receiving a packet that identifies a destination client of the packet;

means for identifying one or more delivery path nodes to the destination client;

means for acquiring a QoS state associated with at least one of the one or more delivery path nodes;

means for determining a delivery preference based on the acquired QoS state; and

means for storing the packet in a buffer with delivery instructions wherein the delivery instructions includes the delivery preference.

14. In a controller operating in a network environment wherein the controller processes packets received from one or more remote nodes for delivery to one or more clients, a method for maintaining packet delivery QoS comprising:

receiving a packet identifying a destination client;

identifying one or more delivery path nodes to the destination client;

acquiring a destination client QoS state and a delivery path nodes QoS state;

updating a QoS state based on the destination client QoS state and the delivery path nodes QoS state;

determining a delivery preference based on the QoS state; and

storing the packet in a buffer with delivery instructions wherein the delivery instructions includes the delivery preference.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 further comprising delivering the packet to the destination client based on the delivery instructions.

16. The method as recited in claim 15 wherein the delivery preference is a time delay and the packet is passed to a data processing engine when the time delay expires.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the packet is dropped if the time delay is greater than a threshold.

18. The method as recited in claim 14 wherein acquiring the destination client QoS state is based on packet rates, byte rates and jitter.

19. The method as recited in claim 14 wherein acquiring the delivery path nodes QoS state is based on a percent utilization of the delivery path nodes.

20. A controller comprising:

a network interface;

one or more processors;

a memory; and

a packet scheduling application, stored in the memory, including instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to;

receive a packet identifying a destination client;

identify one or more delivery path nodes to the destination client;

acquire a destination client QoS state and a delivery path nodes QoS state;

update a QoS state based on the destination client QoS state and the delivery path nodes QoS state;

determine a delivery preference based on the QoS state; and

store the packet in a buffer with delivery instructions wherein the delivery instructions includes the delivery preference.

21. The controller as recited in claim 20 wherein the packet scheduling application further comprises instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to deliver the packet to the destination client based on the delivery instructions.

22. The method as recited in claim 21 wherein the delivery preference is a time delay and wherein the packet scheduling application further comprises instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to pass the packet to a data processing engine when the time delay expires.

23. The controller as recited in claim 22 wherein the wireless network interface driver application further comprises instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to drop the packet if the time delay is greater than a threshold.

24. The controller as recited in claim 20 wherein acquiring the destination client QoS state is based on packet rates, byte rates and jitter.

25. The controller as recited in claim 20 wherein acquiring the delivery path nodes QoS state is based on a percent utilization of the delivery path nodes.

26. A controller comprising:

means for receiving a packet identifying a destination client;

means for identifying one or more delivery path nodes to the destination client;

means for acquiring a destination client QoS state and a delivery path nodes QoS state;

means for updating a QoS state based on the destination client QoS state and the delivery path nodes QoS state;

means for determining a delivery preference based on the QoS state; and

means for storing the packet in a buffer with delivery instructions wherein the delivery instructions includes the delivery preference.