METHOD OF ALLOCATING BANDWIDTH BETWEEN ZONES ACCORDING TO USER LOAD AND BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THEREOF

• US 20130051237A1
• Filed: 12/01/2011
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Original Assignee: David Ong
• Inventors: ONG, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,184 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/237
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/522 Dynamic queue service slot or variable bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/527 Quantum based scheduling, e.g. credit or deficit based scheduling or token bank
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6235 Variable service order
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6255 queue load conditions, e.g. longest queue first
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/808 User-type aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/828 Allocation of resources per group of connections, e.g. per group of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

A bandwidth management system includes a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones. An enqueuing module receives network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determines a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueues the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone. A dequeuing module selectively dequeues data from the queues and passes the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces. When dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

Claims

1. A bandwidth management system comprising:

a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones;

an enqueuing module for receiving network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determining a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueuing the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone; and

a dequeuing module for selectively dequeuing data from the queues and passing the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces;

wherein when dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

2. The bandwidth management system of claim 1, wherein the user load comprises a summation indicating how many current users are in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

3. The bandwidth management system of claim 2, further comprising:

an authentication server for managing logged in users of the zone to which the selected queue corresponds;

wherein the current users in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds are the logged in users.

4. The bandwidth management system of claim 2, further comprising:

a log for logging network traffic activity;

wherein the current users in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds are users who have received or sent network traffic within the zone to which the selected queue corresponds during a last predetermined time period according to the log.

5. The bandwidth management system claim 2, further comprising:

a user monitor for sending a ping to each user in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds;

wherein the current users in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds are users who replied to the ping.

6. The bandwidth management system of claim 1, wherein the user load comprises a summation of bandwidth caps of current users in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

7. The bandwidth management system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of quantums, each of the queues having a respective quantum associated therewith, the quantum of each queue representing the amount of data that the dequeuing module is to dequeue from the queue when the queue is the selected queue; and

a quantum manager for dynamically adjusting the quantum of each queue according to user load of the zone to which the queue corresponds.

8. The bandwidth management system of claim 7, wherein the quantum manager is further for scaling the quantums such that a smallest quantum represents a maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the one or more outgoing network interfaces.

9. The bandwidth management system of claim 7, wherein the quantum manager is further for scaling the quantums such that a largest quantum represents a predetermined maximum amount being a multiple of the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the one or more outgoing network interfaces.

10. The bandwidth management system of claim 7, wherein the quantum manager is further for rounding each of the quantums to a multiple of the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the one or more outgoing network interfaces.

11. The bandwidth management system of claim 1, wherein:

the zones are organized in a tree-structure having at least a first-level zone that includes one or more second-level zones, the selected queue corresponding to the first-level zone;

network traffic enqueued on one or more queues corresponding to the one or more second-level zones is dequeued and then enqueued on the selected queue; and

the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue by the dequeuing module is determined according to a user load of the first-level zone, wherein the user load of the first-level zone includes a user load of each of the one or more second-level zones.

12. The bandwidth management system of claim 1, wherein each zone corresponds to one or more rooms of a hotel.

13. A method of allocating bandwidth between a plurality of zones, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to the plurality of zones;

receiving network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces;

determining a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs;

enqueuing the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone; and

selectively dequeuing data from the queues and passing the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces;

wherein selectively dequeuing data from the queues comprises dequeuing an amount of data from a selected queue, the amount of data being determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

14. The method of claim of 13, determining the user load by summing how many current users are in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

15. The method of claim 13, determining the user load by summing bandwidth caps of the current users in the zone to which the selected queue corresponds.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

dynamically adjusting a quantum of each queue according to user load of the zone to which the queue corresponds;

wherein each of the queues has a respective quantum associated therewith, the quantum of each queue representing the amount of data to dequeue from the queue when the queue is the selected queue.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

scaling the quantums such that a smallest quantum is a maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the one or more outgoing network interfaces when a ratio of a minimum user load to a maximum user load is less than a predetermined threshold ratio; and

scaling the quantums such that the largest quantum is a predetermined maximum amount when the ratio of the minimum user load to the maximum user load is greater than the predetermined threshold ratio.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

ensuring a maximum bandwidth cap of the selected zone is not exceeded; and

ensuring the selected zone receives at least a guaranteed bandwidth allotment.

19. A computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 13.

20. A bandwidth management apparatus comprising:

a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones;

means for receiving network traffic;

means for determining a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs;

means for enqueuing the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone; and

means for selectively dequeuing data from the queues and passing the data to one or more destinations, wherein selectively dequeuing data from the queues comprises selectively dequeuing an amount of data from a selected queue, the amount of data being determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.