ADAPTIVE QUALITY OF SERVICE (QoS) BASED ON APPLICATION LATENCY REQUIREMENTS

• US 20120236713A1
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: KAKADIA, Deepak, Kotecha, Lalit R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,722,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit

Abstract

A device is configured to receive packet timing data, from multiple network devices, for subscriber application traffic over an Internet Protocol (IP) wireless access network and to calculate, based on the packet timing data, timing latencies for a particular subscriber flow. The device is configured to retrieve Quality of Service (QoS) timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow and to determine when the calculated timing latencies for the particular subscriber flow fail to meet the QoS timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow. The device is configured to identify one or more of the network devices that are causing the particular subscriber flow to fail to meet the QoS timing specifications and to instruct the one or more of the network devices to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow to improve timing latency for the particular subscriber flow.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, comprising:

receiving, by one of the one or more computing devices and from a plurality of network devices, packet monitoring data for subscriber application traffic;

calculating, by one of the one or more computing devices and based on the packet monitoring data, timing latencies for a particular subscriber flow;

obtaining, by one of the one or more computing devices, Quality of Service (QoS) timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow;

determining, by one of the one or more computing devices, that there is congestion within a particular subscriber flow based on the timing latencies for the particular subscriber flow and the QoS timing specifications;

identifying, by one of the one or more computing devices and when the congestion is detected, at least one of the plurality of network devices that is a source of the congestion; and

signaling, by one of the one or more computing devices and to the at least one of the plurality of network devices, an indication to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow.

2. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, based on the packet monitoring data, timing latencies for a another subscriber flow;

obtaining other Quality of Service (QoS) timing specifications for the other subscriber flow;

determining that there are under-utilized resources for the other subscriber flow based on the timing latencies for the other subscriber flow and based on the other QoS timing specifications; and

signaling the at least one of the plurality of network devices to modify QoS parameters for the other subscriber flow to benefit timing of the particular subscriber flow.

3. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, in a database, the packet monitoring data.

4. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the plurality of network devices includes:

a wireless base station,

a serving gateway (SGW), or

a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW).

5. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the plurality of network devices are included within an Internet Protocol (IP) wireless access network.

6. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the packet monitoring data includes one or more of:

a subscriber identifier associated with a packet provided in the subscriber application traffic,

a flow associated with the packet,

a timestamp associated with the packet, and

a device/network segment associated with the packet.

7. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, based on the packet monitoring data, timing latencies for multiple other subscriber flows;

obtaining other QoS timing specifications for the multiple other subscriber flows;

determining that there is congestion within the multiple other subscriber flows based on the timing latencies for the multiple other subscriber flows and based on the other QoS timing specifications;

identifying that the one or more of the plurality of network devices that are the source of the congestion within the multiple other subscriber flows when the congestion within the multiple other subscriber flows is detected; and

sending, to another computing device, an alarm signal indicating the source of the congestion.

8. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where one of the one or more computing devices includes:

a wireless base station,

a serving gateway (SGW),

a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW),

home subscriber server (HSS), or

a latency information system.

9. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where signaling the indication to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow includes:

providing instructions to change the QoS marking of packet headers for packets within the particular subscriber flow.

10. A system, comprising:

one or more data collection devices to receive, from a plurality of network devices, packet timing data for subscriber applications over an Internet Protocol (IP) wireless access network;

one or more memories to store the packet timing data; and

one or more computing devices to;

retrieve, from the one or more memories, the packet timing data,

calculate, based on the packet timing data, timing latencies for a particular subscriber flow over the IP wireless access network,

retrieve Quality of Service (QoS) timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow,

determine when the calculated timing latencies for the particular subscriber flow fail to meet the QoS timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow,

identify one or more of the plurality of network devices that are causing the particular subscriber flow to fail to meet the QoS timing specifications, and

instruct the one or more of the plurality of network devices to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow to improve timing latency for the particular subscriber flow.

11. The system of claim 10, where the packet timing data includes information associated with individual packets, and where the information associated with each individual packet includes:

a subscriber identifier associated with the packet,

a flow associated with the packet,

a timestamp associated with the packet, and

a device/network segment associated with the packet.

12. The system of claim 10, where the one or more computing devices are further to:

determine, based on the packet timing data, that the one or more of the plurality of network devices that are causing multiple subscriber flows to fail to meet multiple QoS timing specifications; and

send, to another computing device, an alarm signal indicating that the one or more of the plurality of network devices are causing multiple subscriber flows to fail to meet multiple QoS timing specifications.

13. The system of claim 10, where the one or more computing devices include:

a wireless base station,

a serving gateway (SGW),

a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW),

home subscriber server (HSS), or

a latency information server.

14. The system of claim 10, where, when signaling the one or more of the plurality of network devices to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow, the one or more computing devices are to:

change the QoS marking of packet headers for packets within the particular subscriber flow.

15. The system of claim 10, where the IP wireless access network includes a long-term evolution (LTE) network.

16. The system of claim 10, where the one or more computing devices are further to:

calculate, based on the packet timing data, timing latencies for another subscriber flow,

retrieve other QoS timing specifications for the other subscriber flow,

determine that there are under-utilized resources for the other subscriber flow based on the timing latencies for the other subscriber flow and based on the other QoS timing specifications, and

instruct the one or more of the plurality of network devices to modify QoS parameters for the other subscriber flow to benefit timing of the particular subscriber flow.

17. The system of claim 10, where at least one of the plurality of network devices includes:

a wireless base station,

a serving gateway (SGW), or

a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW).

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions, the computer-readable memory comprising:

one or more instructions to retrieve packet timing data, from a plurality of network devices, for subscriber application traffic provided over an Internet Protocol (IP) wireless access network;

one or more instructions to calculate, based on the packet timing data, timing latencies for a particular subscriber flow;

one or more instructions to retrieve Quality of Service (QoS) timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow;

one or more instructions to determine when the calculated timing latencies for the particular subscriber flow fail to meet the QoS timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow;

one or more instructions to identify one or more of the plurality of network devices that are causing the particular subscriber flow to fail to meet the QoS timing specifications; and

one or more instructions to cause the one or more of the plurality of network devices to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow to improve timing latency for the particular subscriber flow.

19. The computer-readable memory of claim 18, where the one or more instructions to cause the one or more of the plurality of network devices to modify QoS parameters include:

one or more instructions to change QoS markings of packet headers for packets within the particular subscriber flow.

20. The computer-readable memory of claim 18, where the packet timing data includes:

a subscriber identifier associated with an individual packet,

a flow associated with the individual packet,

a timestamp associated with the individual packet, and

a device/network segment associated with the individual packet