QUALITY OF SERVICE TRAFFIC RECOGNITION AND PACKET CLASSIFICATION HOME MESH NETWORK

• US 20100232370A1
• Filed: 03/11/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, Aixin, Patil, Abhishek, Nguyen, Djung N., Jing, Xiangpeng, Bhatnagar, Anuj
• Granted Patent: US 8,761,174 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/302 Route determination based on requested QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2517 using port numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

An embodiment is a technique to perform network-based traffic recognition and packet classification. A port identifier in a transport layer header of a packet having a packet type associated with a priority level is extracted. The packet is transmitted from or to an application according to a network protocol in a multi-hop mesh network having a local node and a remote node. The packet is classified into the packet type using one of a pre-defined port list, a dynamic port table, and an application header of the application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting a port identifier in a transport layer header of a packet having a packet type associated with a priority level, the packet being transmitted from or to an application according to a network protocol in a multi-hop mesh network having a local node and a remote node; and

classifying the packet into the packet type using one of a pre-defined port list, a dynamic port table, and an application header of the application.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein classifying comprises:

if the port identifier belongs to the pre-defined port list, classifying the packet to the packet type associated with the port identifier in the pre-defined port list;

else searching the dynamic port table for the port identifier,

if the dynamic port table contains the port identifier, classifying the packet into the packet type associated with the port identifier in the dynamic port table;

else analyzing the application header to identify the packet type,

classifying the packet into the packet type identified from the application header, and

updating the dynamic port table to include the port identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein classifying the packet comprises:

assigning the packet type to a type of service (TOS) field in a network header defined for the port identifier.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein analyzing the application header comprises:

capturing a control packet belonging to a current application session to identify a session type or a streaming type; and

recognizing the network protocol.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein updating the dynamic port table comprises:

associating the priority level to the port identifier; and

removing the port identifier from the dynamic port table when a connection of the application session is closed.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the network protocol is one of a File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocol, a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), a Server Message Block (SMB, or Samba) protocol, a Network File System (NFS) protocol, a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol, and a Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet type is a local type for local traffic within the local node or a forwarding type for forwarding traffic to the remote node.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the packet type is further one of a control type, a voice/audio type, a high-quality video type, a low-quality video type, and a background type.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the forwarding type have the priority level higher than the local type.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the priority level decreases in order from the control type to the voice/audio type, the high-quality video type, the low-quality video type, and the background type.

11. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

extracting a port identifier in a transport layer header of a packet having a packet type associated with a priority level, the packet being transmitted from or to an application according to a network protocol in a multi-hop mesh network having a local node and a remote node; and

classifying the packet into the packet type using one of a pre-defined port list, a dynamic port table, and an application header of the application.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11 wherein the data causing the machine to perform classifying comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

if the port identifier belongs to the pre-defined port list, classifying the packet to the packet type associated with the port identifier in the pre-defined port list;

else searching the dynamic port table for the port identifier,

if the dynamic port table contains the port identifier, classifying the packet into the packet type associated with the port identifier in the dynamic port table;

else analyzing the application header to identify the packet type,

classifying the packet into the packet type identified from the application header, and

updating the dynamic port table to include the port identifier.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 11 wherein the data causing the machine to perform classifying the packet comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

assigning the packet type to a type of service (TOS) field in a network header defined for the port identifier.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 12 wherein the data causing the machine to perform analyzing the application header comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

capturing a control packet belonging to a current application session to identify a session type or a streaming type; and

recognizing the network protocol.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 12 wherein the data causing the machine to perform updating the dynamic port table comprise data that, when accessed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

associating the priority level to the port identifier; and

removing the port identifier from the dynamic port table when a connection of the application session is closed.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 11 wherein the network protocol is one of a File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocol, a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), a Server Message Block (SMB, or Samba) protocol, a Network File System (NFS) protocol, a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol, and a Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 11 wherein the packet type is a local type for local traffic within the local node or a forwarding type for forwarding traffic to the remote node.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17 wherein the packet type is further one of a control type, a voice/audio type, a high-quality video type, a low-quality video type, and a background type.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17 wherein the forwarding type have the priority level higher than the local type.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 17 wherein the priority level decreases in order from the control type to the voice/audio type, the high-quality video type, the low-quality video type, and the background type.

21. An apparatus comprising:

an extractor to extract a port identifier in a transport layer header of a packet having a packet type associated with a priority level, the packet being transmitted from or to an application according to a network protocol in a multi-hop mesh network having a local node and a remote node; and

a packet classifier coupled to the extractor to classify the packet into the packet type using one of a pre-defined port list, a dynamic port table, and an application header of the application.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the packet classifier comprises:

the pre-defined port list wherein if the port identifier belongs to the pre-defined port list, the packet is classified to the packet type associated with the port identifier in the pre-defined port list;

the dynamic port table wherein if the port identifier does not belong to the pre-defined port list and the dynamic port table contains the port identifier, the packet is classified into the packet type associated with the port identifier in the dynamic port table;

an analyzer to analyze the application header to identify the packet type, and wherein if the port identifier does not belong to the pre-defined port list and the dynamic port table does not contain the port identifier, the packet is classified into the packet type identified from the application header; and

an updater to update the dynamic port table to include the port identifier.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the packet classifier assigns the packet type to a type of service (TOS) field in a network header defined for the port identifier.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the analyzer captures a control packet belonging to a current application session to identify a session type or a streaming type, and recognizes the network protocol.

25. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the updater associates the priority level to the port identifier, and removes the port identifier from the dynamic port table when a connection of the application session is closed.

26. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the network protocol is one of a File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocol, a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), a Server Message Block (SMB, or Samba) protocol, a Network File System (NFS) protocol, a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol, and a Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol.

27. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the packet type is a local type for local traffic within the local node or a forwarding type for forwarding traffic to the remote node.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the packet type is further one of a control type, a voice/audio type, a high-quality video type, a low-quality video type, and a background type.

29. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the forwarding type have the priority level higher than the local type.

30. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the priority level decreases in order from the control type to the voice/audio type, the high-quality video type, the low-quality video type, and the background type.