PACKET LEVEL PRIORITIZATION IN INTERCONNECTION NETWORKS

• US 20090028151A1
• Filed: 07/27/2007
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lattice Semiconductor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Silicon Image, Inc. (Lattice Semiconductor Corporation)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Brian K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,911,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23611 Insertion of stuffing data into a multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bitrate synchronisation arrangements in time-division multiplex systems using bit stuffing for systems with different or fluctuating information rates H04J3/073
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64792 Controlling the complexity of the content stream, e.g. by dropping packets intermediate media network packet handling H04L65/765; proxy provisioning conversion or adaptation for reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data H04L67/5651; negotiation of resources in wireless networks H04W28/16

Abstract

A method and apparatus for packet level prioritization in interconnection networks. An embodiment of an apparatus includes a transmitter to transmit a data stream to a recipient apparatus, the data stream including a plurality of data packets, the data packets including data packets of a first priority and data packets of a second priority. The apparatus further includes a network unit to direct the operation of the transmitter, the network unit to divide the data stream into multiple sub-streams, including a first sub-stream for data packets of the first priority and a second sub-stream for data packets of the second priority.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a data stream, the data stream including a plurality of data packets, the data packets including data packets of a first priority and data packets of a second priority; and

a network unit configured to direct the operation of the transmitter, the network unit being configured to divide the data stream into a plurality of sub-streams, including a first sub-stream for data packets of the first priority and a second sub-stream for data packets of the second priority.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority, and wherein the network unit is to establish bandwidths for the sub-streams such that a bandwidth for the data packets of the second priority that is larger than a bandwidth for the data packets of the first priority.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein establishing bandwidths includes dividing the first sub-stream into a plurality of sub-streams if an amount of bandwidth required to transmit the data packets of the first priority is larger than an amount of bandwidth that is required for data packets of the second priority, wherein each of the plurality of sub-streams resulting from the division of the first sub-stream has a bandwidth that is lower than a bandwidth of the second data sub-stream.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein establishing bandwidths includes padding one or more sub-streams with extra data packets to maintain the bandwidth for the sub-stream.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the extra data packets include null data packets.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the extra data packets include retransmitted data packets, duplicate data packets, or both retransmitted and duplicate data packets.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus operates in a network having an infrastructure that drops larger bandwidth data streams before smaller bandwidth data streams.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network unit is further configured to modify the data sub-streams dynamically based at least in part on a change to the data stream.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of sub-streams in directed to a different port of a recipient device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data stream is a media data stream.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a plurality of data streams, the plurality of data streams including a first data stream containing data packets of a first priority and a second data stream containing data packets of a second priority; and

a network unit configured to direct the operation of the receiver, the network unit being configured to determine that the plurality of data streams are portions of a single data stream and to process the plurality of data streams in the same manner as the single data stream.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of sub-streams is directed to a different port of the apparatus.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the network unit is to ignore or drop null data packets contained in any of the plurality of data streams.

14. A network comprising:

a first network device to transmit data, the data comprising a plurality of data packets, one or more of the data packets being of a first priority and one or more of the data packets being of a second priority, the first network device to transmit the data packets of the first priority in one or more data streams having a first bandwidth and to transmit the data packets of the second priority in one or more data streams having a second bandwidth; and

a second network device to receive the data streams from the first network device, the second network device to drop one or more data streams based at least in part on the bandwidth of each data stream when interference occurs in data transmission.

15. The network of claim 14, wherein the second network device is to drop larger bandwidth data streams before smaller bandwidth data streams.

16. The network of claim 14, wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority and wherein the second bandwidth is larger than the first bandwidth.

17. The network of claim 14, wherein the first network device is to divide a first data stream into a plurality of sub-streams if a required bandwidth of the first data stream is greater than a required bandwidth of a second data stream containing lower priority data, wherein each of the plurality of sub-streams resulting from the division of the first data stream has a bandwidth that is lower than a bandwidth of the second data stream.

18. The network of claim 14, wherein the first network device is a source of digital media data.

19. The network of claim 14, wherein the second network device is a device to transfer or use digital media data.

20. The network of claim 14, wherein the second network device comprises a switch.

21. A method for prioritizing data packets in a network comprising:

receiving a request for transmission of a data stream, the data stream containing a plurality of data types, each data type having a priority level;

dividing the data stream into a plurality of data sub-streams, each sub-stream having data of a certain priority level;

assigning a bandwidth for each data sub-stream, the bandwidth of each sub-stream being based on the priority level of the data in the sub-stream; and

transmitting the plurality of data sub-streams over the network.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the bandwidth assigned to each data sub-stream is inversely related to the priority level of each data sub-stream.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising dividing a first data sub-stream into a plurality of sub-streams if a required bandwidth of the first sub-stream is greater than a required bandwidth of a second data sub-stream containing data with a lower priority level, wherein each of the plurality of sub-streams resulting from the division of the first data sub-stream has a bandwidth that is lower than a bandwidth of the second data sub-stream.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising modifying the data sub-streams based at least in part on changes to the data stream.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the infrastructure of the network provides for dropping data streams having higher bandwidth if interference occurs.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein transmitting the plurality of data sub-streams includes padding one or more the data sub-streams with additional data packets to maintain the assigned bandwidth of the data sub-streams.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the additional data packets include one or more null data packets.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the additional data packets include one or more retransmitted data packets, duplicate data packets, or both retransmitted and duplicate data packets.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the network comprises a plurality of entertainment devices.