TRIGGERING BANDWIDTH RESERVATION AND PRIORITY REMARKING

• US 20080091811A1
• Filed: 11/29/2006
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wing, Daniel G., Davie, Bruce, Restrick, John, Rosenberg, Jonathan D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,822,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2491 Mapping quality of service [QoS] requirements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/748 Negotiation of resources, e.g. modification of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

In one embodiment, a reservation proxy monitors for received connectivity check messages or beginning-of-media-flow indication messages. When either type of message is observed, the reservation proxy requests resource allocation for a media flow associated with the received message. The amount of resource allocation requested may be coordinated by exchanging messages with a call controller or policy server for one of the endpoints of the media flow, or the amount of resource allocation may be identified within the received message.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

monitor received traffic to detect an address request;

determine whether the detected address request signals a beginning of a call flow;

identify resource requirements for the call flow associated with the address request when the address request signals the beginning of the call flow;

request reservation of network resources according to the identified resource requirements; and

process the call flow that uses the requested network resources and that is established after requesting the network resources.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processors are further operable to identify the resource requirements independently of heuristical determination.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the processors are further operable to identify the resource requirements by exchanging communications with a call controller.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the processors are further operable to identify the resource requirements by accessing a Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Through Network Address Translators (NATs) (STUN) attribute included in the detected address request.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processors are further operable to:

determine whether the detected address request is a connectivity establishment type; and

identify the resource requirements and request reservation of the network resources only when the address request is the connectivity establishment type and not when the detected address request is a binding verification type.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processors are further operable to:

determine whether the network resources are reserved; and

disrupt an Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) exchange when the network resources are not reserved.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

monitor received traffic to detect a communication sent using a network address translator discovery protocol;

identify resource requirements that correspond to a call flow associated with the detected communication in response to detecting the communication, the resource requirements identified without requiring heuristical determination; and

reserve network resources for the call flow according to the identified resource requirements.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processors are further operable to:

identify a priority value that corresponds to the call flow associated with the detected communication;

receive packets for the call flow, the packets having an indicated priority;

format the indicated priority according to the identified priority value when the indicated priority is different than the identified priority value; and

forward a representation of the packets that includes the formatted priority.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processors are further operable to:

determine whether the detected communication is addressed to port 3478; and

identify the resource requirements only when the received communication is not addressed to port 3478.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the processors are further operable to:

determine whether the detected communication includes a notification that a remote proxy reserved bandwidth for the call flow;

identify the resource requirements that correspond to the call flow when the notification is not included; and

insert the notification into the communication before forwarding the communication when the notification is not included.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the processors are further operable to:

receive a first response indicating whether the network resources are reserved;

receive a second response that completes a connectivity check;

drop the second response when the first response indicates that the network resources are not reserved; and

forward the second response when the second response is not dropped.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the resource requirements are identified independently of heuristical determination by accessing a Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Through Network Address Translators (NATs) (STUN) attribute included in the detected communication.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processors are further operable to:

locate a representation of an address for a call controller in the received communication; and

exchange messages using the address to identify the resource requirements.

14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processors are further operable to:

analyze the detected communication to determine a type of media to be exchanged over the media path; and

heuristically determine the resource requirements based on the determined type of media.

15. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the detected communication is a STUN Indication.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processors are further operable to:

forward the STUN Indication to a plurality of remote endpoints; and

reserve network resources for a plurality of media path legs that access the remote endpoints.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

monitor for a message having a predetermined message type that corresponds to a beginning of a media flow;

identify a priority value that corresponds to the media flow;

receive packets for the media flow, the packets having an indicated priority;

format the indicated priority according to the identified priority value when the indicated priority is different than the identified priority value; and

forward a representation of the packets that includes the formatted priority.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the processors are further operable to:

identify resource requirements for the media flow associated with the message; and

request reservation of network resources according to the identified resource requirements.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the processors are further operable to:

decode a Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Through Network Address Translators (NATs) (STUN) attribute included in the received communication to identify a network address for a call management device; and

exchange communications with the call management device using the network address to identify the priority value.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the packets are communicated over a first portion of the media path using the indicated priority and the packets are communicated over a second portion of the media math using the priority value that is different than the indicated priority.

21. A method, comprising:

monitoring for a message having a predetermined message type that indicates a beginning of a media flow;

identifying a resource requirement or priority value that corresponds to the media flow in response to detecting the message;

when the resource requirement is identified, requesting reservation of network resources for the media flow according to the identified resource requirement; and

when the priority value is identified, formatting received packets corresponding to the media flow using the identified priority value before forwarding the formatted packets.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

decoding a Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Through Network Address Translators (NATs) (STUN) attribute included in the message to identify a network address for a call management device; and

exchanging communications with the call management device using the network address to identify the resource requirement or the priority value.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the packets are communicated over a first portion of the media path using the indicated priority and the packets are communicated over a second portion of the media math using the priority value that is different than the indicated priority.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising

determining whether the message includes an indication inserted by a remote reservation proxy;

and

identifying the resource requirement only when the indication is not inserted by the remote reservation proxy.