Inclusion of Quality of Service Indication in Header Compression Channel

• US 20080056273A1
• Filed: 08/29/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Pelletier, Ghyslain, Sandlund, Kristofer
• Granted Patent: US 8,948,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.21
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

Quality of service information (QoS_I) is included with a compressed header of a data packet and can be utilized by nodes supporting the header compression channel to perform QoS enforcements at a sub-flow granularity level. A basic mode of a method comprises (1) processing a packet using a process having a process-associated quality of service requirement to form a processed packet, and (2) including, with a compressed header for the processed packet, the header-included quality of service information which is derived using information indicative of the process-associated quality of service requirement. In another mode the header-included quality of service information is derived both from the process-associated quality of service requirement and quality of service information extracted from the received packet.

Claims

1. A packet handling method for a telecommunications system, the method comprising:

processing a packet using a process having a process-associated quality of service requirement to form a processed packet;

including, with a compressed header for the processed packet, header-included quality of service information which is derived using information indicative of the process-associated quality of service requirement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting quality of service information from a received packet, the extracted quality of service information having been supplied by a network layer or higher layer of the telecommunications system;

deriving the header-included quality of service information using both the quality of service information extracted from the received packet and the information indicative of the process-associated quality of service requirement.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising including the header-included quality of service information in a channel part of the compressed header of the processed packet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the process having the process-associated quality of service requirement comprises at least one of the following:

header compression;

payload compression;

signaling compression;

encryption;

authentication;

checksumming for verification; and

sequencing.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the acts of claim 2 are performed at a first node of a network, and wherein the method further comprises using the header-included quality of service information to perform an intermediate node function at an intermediate node of the network, the intermediate node being intermediate the first node and a receiver.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the intermediate node function is at least one of the following:

a queue management function;

a scheduling function;

a power setting function;

a target number of transmissions function;

a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) function;

a bit error rate (BER) function;

a segmentation and concatenation function;

a multi-user frame function.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising, performing at least one of the following:

for each of plural processed packets of a same packet flow, using the header-included quality of service information included with the compressed header of a respective processed packet bearing the header-included quality of service information when performing the intermediate node function for the respective processed packet;

for each of plural processed packets belonging to different packet flows for a same user, using the header-included quality of service information included with the compressed header of a respective processed packet bearing the header-included quality of service information when performing the intermediate node function for the respective processed packet.

8. A node of a telecommunications system which is configured to include, with a compressed header for a data packet handled by the node, header-included quality of service information derived using information indicative of a process-associated quality of service requirement of a process performed by the node.

9. The node of claim 8, further comprising:

a processor configured to process the packet using the process having the process-associated quality of service requirement and to form a processed packet;

a header assembler configured to include, in the compressed header for the processed packet, the header-included quality of service information.

10. The node of claim 8, wherein the header-included quality of service information is derived using both quality of service information supplied by a network layer or higher layer of the telecommunications system and information indicative of a process-associated quality of service requirement of a process performed by the node.

11. The node of claim 8, wherein the node is configured to include the combined quality of service information in a channel part of the compressed header of the processed packet.

12. The node of claim 8, wherein the process having the process-associated quality of service requirement comprises at least one of the following:

header compression;

payload compression;

signaling compression;

encryption;

authentication;

checksumming for verification; and

sequencing.

13. A node of a telecommunications system which handles a flow of data packets, the node comprising:

a packet inspector configured to inspect a channel part of a compressed header of a packet received from another node to obtain quality of service information for the packet;

a processor configured to perform a function at a sub-flow granularity level using the combined quality of service information of the packet.

14. The node of claim 13, wherein the function is at least one of the following:

a queue management function;

a scheduling function;

a power setting function;

a target number of transmissions function;

a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) function;

a bit error rate (BER) function;

a segmentation and concatenation function;

a multi-user frame function.

15. The node of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to use, for each of plural processed packets of a same packet flow (e.g., RoHC CID or radio bearer), the quality of service information included with the compressed header of a respective packet bearing the combined quality of service information when performing the function for the respective packet.

16. The node of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to use, for each of plural processed packets belonging to different packet flows for a same user, the quality of service information included with the compressed header of a respective packet bearing the combined quality of service information when performing the intermediate node function for the respective packet.

17. The node of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to use the quality of service information included with the compressed header when performing the function for a packet destined for plural users.

18. The node of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to use the quality of service information included with the compressed header to perform the function at a per-packet granularity level.

19. A method of operating a node of a telecommunications system which handles a flow of data packets, the method comprising:

inspecting a channel part of a compressed header of a packet received from another node to obtain quality of service information for the packet;

performing a function at a sub-flow granularity level using the combined quality of service information of the packet.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the function is at least one of the following:

a queue management function;

a scheduling function;

a power setting function;

a target number of transmissions function;

a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) function;

a bit error rate (BER) function;

a segmentation and concatenation function;

a multi-user frame function.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising using, for each of plural processed packets of a same packet flow, the quality of service information included with the compressed header of a respective packet bearing the combined quality of service information when performing the function for the respective packet.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising using, for each of plural processed packets belonging to different packet flows for a same user, the quality of service information included with the compressed header of a respective packet bearing the combined quality of service information when performing the intermediate node function for the respective packet.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising using the quality of service information included with the compressed header when performing the function for a packet destined for plural users.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising performing the function at a per-packet granularity level using the combined quality of service information of the packet.

25. A method of operating a telecommunications system which handles a flow of data packets, the method comprising:

handling quality of service processing and header compression together at a first node of the network in a manner that allows an intermediate node supporting a header compression channel to perform quality of service enforcement at a sub-flow granularity level.