SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRIORITIZING AND SCHEDULING PACKETS IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20120140633A1
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Cygnus Broadband, Inc. (Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.))
• Inventors: Stanwood, Kenneth L., Gell, David, Bao, Yiliang
• Granted Patent: US 8,665,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/028 by filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/62 characterised by scheduling criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 based on priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/629 Ensuring fair share of resources, e.g. weighted fair queuing [WFQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6295 using multiple queues, one for each individual QoS, connection, flow or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64784 Data processing by the network data processing in packet switching systems H04L12/56; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; intermediate storage or scheduling H04L49/90; provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information

Abstract

Systems and methods provide a parameterized scheduling system that incorporates end-user application awareness and can be used with scheduling groups that contain data streams from heterogeneous applications. Individual data queues within a scheduling group can be created based on application class, specific application, individual data streams or some combination thereof. Application information and Application Factors (AF) are used to modify scheduler parameters such as weights and credits to differentiate between data streams assigned to a scheduling group. Dynamic AF settings may adjust relative importance of user applications to maximize user Quality of Experience (QoE) in response to recurring network patterns, one-time events, application characteristics, protocol characteristics, device characteristics, service level agreements, or combinations thereof. Scheduling parameters may be dynamic and incorporate the notions of “duration neglect” and “recency effect” in an end-user'"'"'s perception of video quality in order to optimally manage video traffic during periods of congestion.

Claims

1. A method for operating a communication device for scheduling transmission of data packets, the method comprising:

receiving data packets from a communication network;

determining applications associated with the data packets;

inserting each of the data packets into one of a plurality of data queues;

determining scheduler parameters for the data queues, the scheduler parameters including factors based on the applications associated with the data packets in the corresponding data queues;

scheduling the data packets from the data queues to an output queue taking into account the scheduler parameters; and

transmitting the data packets from the output queue to the communication network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduler parameters further include additional factors based on characteristics of the data queues.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the additional factors based on characteristics of the data queues comprise multiplicative factors of the factors based on the applications associated with the data packets in the corresponding data queues.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the additional factors based on characteristics of the data queues comprise additive factors to the factors based on the applications associated with the data packets in the corresponding data queues.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise depths of the data queues.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise discard rates of the data queues.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise latencies of the data queues.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise egress rates of the data queues.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a bit rate of data packets associated with one of the applications, and wherein the scheduler parameters further include an egress rate of the one of data queues associated with the one of the applications compared to the bit rate of the data packets associated with the one of the applications.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduler parameters further include additional factors based on characteristics of communication links used for communicating the data packets.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the characteristics of the communication links used for communicating the data packets comprise signal qualities.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the applications includes a video stream, and the method further comprises transmitting information about the characteristics of the communication links used for communicating the data packets to a second communication device for use by the second communication device in selecting fragments of the video stream.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduler parameters further include additional factors based on protocols used for communicating the data packets.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting information about the applications to a second communication device for use in scheduling transmission of data packets from the second communication device.

15. The method of claim 2, further comprising transmitting information about the additional factors to a second communication device for use in scheduling transmission of data packets from the second communication device.

16. The method of claim 2, further comprising detecting traffic patterns in the received data packets, and wherein the scheduler parameters are further based on the detected traffic patterns.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the scheduler parameters are determined to increase an idle time in between the data packets transmitted from the output queue to the communication network.

18. A communication device for scheduling transmission of data packets, the communication device comprising:

a classification and queuing module configured to receive data packets and output the data packets in data queues, the classification and queuing module comprising a packet inspection module configured to analyze attributes of the data packets, determine applications associated with the data packets, and output information about the applications;

a scheduler parameter calculation module configured to calculate and output scheduler parameters indicative of relative priorities for the data queues, the scheduler parameters including factors based on the application information from the packet inspection module; and

a scheduler module configured to select data packets from the data queues in an order taking into account the scheduler parameters from the scheduler parameter calculation module and insert the selected data packets in an output queue for transmission over a physical communication layer.

19. The communication device of claim 18, wherein the scheduler parameters further include additional factors based on characteristics of the data queues.

20. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise depths of the data queues.

21. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise discard rates of the data queues.

22. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise latencies of the data queues.

23. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the characteristics of the data queues comprise egress rates of the data queues.

24. The communication device of claim 18, wherein the scheduler parameters further include additional factors based on characteristics of the physical communication layer.

25. The communication device of claim 18, wherein the scheduler parameters further include additional factors based on protocols used for communicating the data packets.