AUTOMATIC ADAPTIVE NETWORK TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION AND SHAPING
First Claim
1. A gateway device for interfacing a local area network with a wide area network, the gateway device comprising:
- a local area network interface for communicating data packets between the gateway device and local area network computers;
a wide area network interface for communicating data packets between the gateway device and remote systems across the wide area network; and
a core processing unit coupled to the local area network interface and the wide area network interface for routing data packets from the local area network computers to the remote systems across the wide area network, the core processing unit comprising a quality of service module configured to automatically assign a quality of service priority to at least one data stream established between a local area network computer and a remote system based on an analysis of data packets associated with the data stream.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A local area network includes computers and peripherals networked in a high-speed LAN with access to a WAN through a slower connection via a broadband modem. A LAN gateway device manages data traffic between the local computers and peripherals and between the LAN and the WAN. The LAN gateway device provides multiple features, such as wired or wireless links, security, firewall, NAT, DCHP, traffic management, and the like. Traffic management features include an automatic quality of service priority classification scheme. A quality of service module automatically assigns priorities to the data streams based on analysis of the data packets. A configuration access list can be provided with pre-configured priorities for some streams. Initially, all streams are given highest priority and subsequently the priority is automatically adapted to the results of the packet analysis. Traffic shaping techniques control the LAN gateway upstream output and enable IP fragmentation of TCP packets according to measured upstream channel conditions.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A gateway device for interfacing a local area network with a wide area network, the gateway device comprising:
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a local area network interface for communicating data packets between the gateway device and local area network computers; a wide area network interface for communicating data packets between the gateway device and remote systems across the wide area network; and a core processing unit coupled to the local area network interface and the wide area network interface for routing data packets from the local area network computers to the remote systems across the wide area network, the core processing unit comprising a quality of service module configured to automatically assign a quality of service priority to at least one data stream established between a local area network computer and a remote system based on an analysis of data packets associated with the data stream. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A quality of service module for a network device interfacing between network links of different data transfer capacities, the quality of service module for assigning a priority level to one or more streams of data packet corresponding to one or more software applications, each application having an associated maximum latency requirement, at least one stream established between two computer network endpoints, the transmission of the stream including routing from a first network link to a second network link of lower data capacity, the quality of service module comprising:
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a stream identification module for determining a unique identifier associated with the stream; a packet analysis module configured to analyze packets in the stream and to derive an analysis result associated with the stream; a stream quality of service classification module coupled to the stream identification module to receive the unique identifier associated with the stream and coupled to the packet analysis module to receive the analysis result, the stream quality of service classification module for automatically determining a quality of service priority based on the analysis result associated with the stream. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer software program comprising computer instructions that when executed by a computer processor implements the steps of:
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receiving a data packet, the data packet including a header with information identifying a source network device and a destination network device; deriving a stream identification code from the information in the header of the packet to uniquely identify the stream with which the packet is associated based in part on the source network device and the destination network device; analyzing the data packet to compute a data analysis result for characterizing the data stream; and determining a quality of service priority for the stream based on the data analysis result.
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20. A method of automatically assigning network traffic priorities to streams of data packets, the method comprising:
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receiving a data packet, the data packet including a header with information identifying a source network device and a destination network device; deriving a stream identification code from the information in the header of the packet to uniquely identify the stream with which the packet is associated based in part on the source network device and the destination network device; analyzing the data packet to compute a data analysis result for characterizing the data stream; and determining a quality of service priority for the stream based on the data analysis result. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. The method of 21, wherein the data analysis result comprises the calculation of a running average packet size associated with the stream.
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25. A system for automatically assigning network traffic priorities to streams of data packets, the system comprising:
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means for receiving a data packet, the data packet including a header with information identifying a source network device and a destination network device; means for deriving a stream identification code from the information in the header of the packet to uniquely identify the stream with which the packet is associated based in part on the source network device and the destination network device; means for analyzing the data packet to compute a data analysis result for characterizing the data stream; and means for determining a quality of service priority for the stream based on the data analysis result.
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Specification