HOME NETWORK MANAGEMENT

• US 20110162013A1
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Udani, Sanjay, Bagasra, Abbas, Bitar, Nabil N.
• Granted Patent: US 8,881,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/74
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/283 Processing of data at an internetworking point of a home automation network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• 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 21/44227 Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth

Abstract

A method includes storing, at a first network device configured to communicate with at least one set top box (STB) and at least one digital video recorder (DVR), information identifying parameters associated with bandwidth in a home network. The method may also include receiving, at a first network device in the home network, a request having a corresponding first bandwidth and identifying a class of traffic associated with the request. The method may further include determining whether the first bandwidth is less than an available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic, approving the request when the first bandwidth is less than the available bandwidth, and modifying the available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic in response to approving the request.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing, at a first network device configured to communicate with at least one set top box (STB) and at least one digital video recorder (DVR), information identifying a plurality of parameters associated with bandwidth in a home network;

receiving, at a first network device in the home network, a request having a corresponding first bandwidth;

identifying a class of traffic associated with the request;

determining whether the first bandwidth is less than an available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic;

approving the request when the first bandwidth is less than the available bandwidth; and

modifying the available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic in response to approving the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters comprises:

a first bandwidth reserved for a first class of traffic,

a second bandwidth reserved for a second class of traffic,

a third bandwidth reserved for a third class of traffic, and

a maximum bandwidth available for each of the first, second and third classes of traffic.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first class of traffic corresponds to video on demand traffic, the second class of traffic corresponds to traffic between the at least one DVR and that at least on STB, and the third class of traffic corresponds to best effort traffic.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, when the first bandwidth is not less than an available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic, whether shared bandwidth is available to fulfill the request.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining, when shared bandwidth is not available to fulfill the request, whether bandwidth associated with traffic having a lower priority than a priority associated with the identified class of traffic is available to fulfill the request.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

approving the request, when bandwidth associated with traffic having the lower priority is available to fulfill the request; and

using shared bandwidth associated with traffic having the lower priority to fulfill the request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request corresponds to a request for a video stored in a first one of the at least one DVR, the method further comprising:

initiating a video session to forward the video from the first DVR to a first one of the at least one STB in response to approving the request.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

adjusting the available bandwidth associated with at least one of the identified class of traffic or shared bandwidth when the video session has ended.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the request corresponds to a request for a video stored on a device located externally from the home network, the method further comprising:

preempting, when the first bandwidth is not less than an available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic, bandwidth being used by a lower priority class of traffic than the identified class of traffic to fulfill the request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a class of traffic comprises identifying at least one of video on demand traffic, video traffic between the at least one DVR and the at least STB, and traffic from other devices connected to the home network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is implemented as computer-executable instructions embodied on a computer-readable memory device.

12. A device, comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of bandwidth parameters associated with a network;

a communication interface configured to;

receive programming from a service provider, and

receive requests for access to network bandwidth from a plurality of devices, the plurality of devices including at least one set top box (STB) and at least one digital video recorder (DVR); and

logic configured to grant or deny the requests based on the stored bandwidth parameters.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the request comprises a request from a first one of the at least one STB for programming stored on a first one of the least one DVR, wherein the logic is configured to:

identify a class of traffic associated with the request, and

determine whether a first bandwidth associated with fulfilling the request is less than an available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the logic is further configured to:

approve the request when the first bandwidth is less than the available bandwidth,

modify an available bandwidth parameter associated with the identified class of traffic stored in the memory in response to approving the request, and

update the available bandwidth parameter in response to an indication that a video session associated with the request has ended.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein the request comprises a request from the at least one STB or the at least on DVR for a video stored at a location external to a home network associated with the device, wherein the logic is configured to:

determine, when shared bandwidth is not available to fulfill the request, whether bandwidth associated with traffic having a lower priority than the identified class of traffic is available to fulfill the request.

16. The device of claim 12, wherein the bandwidth parameters comprise at least two parameters associated with bandwidths reserved for different classes of traffic.

17. The device of claim 12, wherein the device comprises a router or a set top box.

18. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

store a plurality of parameters associated with managing bandwidth in a home network;

receive a request having a corresponding first bandwidth;

identify a class of traffic associated with the request;

determine, based on a first one of the stored parameters, whether the first bandwidth is less than an available bandwidth associated with the identified class of traffic;

approve the request when the first bandwidth is less than the available bandwidth; and

modify the first parameter in response to approving the request.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further including instructions for causing the at least one processor to:

receive information indicating that a video session involving a first device and a second device in the home network has ended; and

update the first parameter stored in the memory in response to the information indicating that the video session has ended.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the plurality of parameters comprise a first bandwidth reserved for a first class of traffic associated with video on demand traffic, a second bandwidth reserved for a second class of traffic associated with traffic between at least one digital video recorder and one or more set top boxes, and a third bandwidth reserved for a third class of traffic associated with multicast or best effort traffic.