Communication quality management and apparatus

• US 20080095159A1
• Filed: 11/19/2004
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Kazuya, Jibiki, Masahiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,639,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• 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 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS

Abstract

A server proxy (12), which is arranged between a distribution server (11) and a router (13a), adds quality information to a packet (19a) from the distribution server (11) to output a packet (19b). A plurality of reception terminal proxies (17a-17n), which are arranged immediately before respective reception terminals (18a-18n), remove the quality information from the packet (19b) distributed via a network (14) and routers (13b-13m), and distribute only necessary information to the respective reception terminals (18). Each reception terminal proxy (17) which includes a quality information acquisition unit (17A) acquires the quality information to transmit, from a quality information calculation/transmission unit (17B), the quality information (51) to an accumulation server (15). The accumulation server (15) saves, in a quality information database, packet quality information (52) for each reception terminal (18).

Claims

1. A communication quality management method of multicasting data from a distribution server to a plurality of reception terminals via a router connected to a network, characterized by comprising the steps of:

adding quality information to a multicast packet distributed from the distribution server;

acquiring the quality information from the multicast packet distributed via the router; and

distributing, to the reception terminal, the multicast packet from which the quality information is removed.

2. A communication quality management method according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising the step of adding the quality information as a quality information header in an IP header, UDP header, and stream data of a packet from the distribution server.

3. A communication quality management method according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising the step of adding the quality information before a packet from the distribution server as an IP header, UDP header, and quality information header.

4. A communication quality management method according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising the step of containing packet loss information, distribution delay information, and fluctuation information in the quality information.

5. A communication quality management method according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising the step of saving, as database for each reception terminal, quality information acquired from the multicast packet.

6. A communication quality management apparatus for multicasting data from a distribution server to a plurality of reception terminals via a router connected to a network, characterized by comprising:

a server proxy arranged between the distribution server and the router to add quality information to a multicast packet;

a reception terminal proxy arranged between the router and the reception terminal and including a quality information acquisition unit which acquires, from the multicast packet, the quality information added by said server proxy and a quality information calculation/transmission unit, said reception terminal proxy distributing, to the reception terminal, the multicast packet from which the quality information is removed; and

an accumulation server which receives and accumulates the quality information from said reception terminal proxy.

7. A communication quality management apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that a quality information database storing, for each reception terminal, quality information acquired, calculated, and received by said accumulation server is connected to said accumulation server.

8. A communication quality management apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that a quality management server which receives packet quality information from said accumulation server and sets QoS of the router is connected to said accumulation server.