THROTTLING BURSTY CPU UTILIZATION DUE TO BURSTY TCP FLOWS

• US 20120278459A1
• Filed: 04/26/2011
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wall, William E., VerSteeg, William Carroll
• Application Number:
  US13/094,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20120278459A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures

Abstract

The rate of incoming data is adjusted based on processor utilization. A threshold of processor usage at which incoming data can be stopped by deferring TCP window updates can be specified. A threshold at which incoming data can be resumed by opening the TCP window can be specified. The threshold can be determined by the operating system or by a rate-adaptive video rendering application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a module that when loaded into the memory causes the processor to regulate incoming data flow based on usage of the processor by;

monitoring processor usage;

in response to the processor usage reaching a specified usage, closing a TCP window.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the specified usage comprises a threshold value at which the TCP window is closed.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the specified usage at which the TCP window is closed comprises a first threshold and wherein a second threshold specifies a processor usage at which the TCP window is opened in response to the processor usage falling to the second threshold.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the specified usage is provided by an operating system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the specified usage is provided by an application.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the application comprises a rate adaptive video-rendering application.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the operating system implements the threshold value in response to a signal received from a rate adaptive video-rendering application.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the threshold varies with different executions of the application.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises customer premises equipment.

10. A method comprising:

specifying a first processor usage threshold and a second processor usage threshold on a processor of a computing device;

monitoring processor usage of the processor;

in response to the processor usage of the processor reaching the first specified processor usage threshold, closing a TCP window;

in response to the processor usage of the processor falling below the second processor usage threshold, opening the closed TCP window.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving the first processor usage threshold from a rate adaptive video rendering application.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving the second processor usage threshold from a rate adaptive video rendering application.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the computing device comprises customer premises equipment.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the first processor usage threshold and the second processor usage threshold are determined by an operating system of the computing device.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the first processor usage threshold comprises one of:

a percentage of the processor that a particular execution of the rate adaptive video application can use,

a total processor load of a TCP/IP layer or

a total processor load for all processes executing on the computing device.

17. A computer readable storage medium specifying instructions that when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to:

specify a first processor usage threshold and a second processor usage threshold for the processor of the computing device;

monitor processor usage of the processor;

in response to the processor usage of the processor reaching the first specified processor usage threshold, closing a TCP window;

in response to the processor usage of the processor falling below the second processor usage threshold, opening the closed TCP window.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, comprising further instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

receive the first processor usage threshold and the second processor usage threshold from a rate adaptive video rendering application executing on the computing device.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, comprising further instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

receive the first processor usage threshold and the second processor usage threshold from a middlebox device attached to the computing device.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, comprising further instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

receive the first processor usage threshold and the second processor usage threshold from an operating system executing on the computing device.