BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT IN A HOME NETWORK
First Claim
1. A method within a home network for coordinating the self-imposed cooperation amongst clients for sharing different network connections, comprising:
- maintaining information for said connections that logically represents the different connections as independent pools of usable bandwidth and that indicates the amount of bandwidth available for use from each pool;
receiving advertisements from clients advertising tentative use of a specified amount of bandwidth drawn from each of one or more pools;
notifying clients regarding whether or not, according to said information, the one or more pools from which their respective advertised uses would draw from each have the specified amount of bandwidth available; and
independently updating each pool to indicate that any bandwidth notified as being available from that pool is now unavailable.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A node in home network serves as a coordinator to coordinate the use of bandwidth by clients that voluntarily cooperate with one another to share bandwidth on different network connections. Specifically, the coordinator maintains information for these network connections that logically represents the different connections as independent pools of usable bandwidth. This bandwidth information also indicates the amount of bandwidth available for use from each pool. The coordinator receives advertisements from clients advertising tentative use of a specified amount of bandwidth drawn from each of one or more pools. Responsive to these advertisements, the coordinator notifies clients regarding whether or not, according to the bandwidth information, the one or more pools from which their respective advertised uses would draw from each have the specified amount of bandwidth available. Finally, the coordinator independently updates each pool to indicate that any bandwidth notified as being available from that pool is now unavailable.
26 Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method within a home network for coordinating the self-imposed cooperation amongst clients for sharing different network connections, comprising:
-
maintaining information for said connections that logically represents the different connections as independent pools of usable bandwidth and that indicates the amount of bandwidth available for use from each pool; receiving advertisements from clients advertising tentative use of a specified amount of bandwidth drawn from each of one or more pools; notifying clients regarding whether or not, according to said information, the one or more pools from which their respective advertised uses would draw from each have the specified amount of bandwidth available; and independently updating each pool to indicate that any bandwidth notified as being available from that pool is now unavailable. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A node within a home network configured to coordinate the self-imposed cooperation amongst clients for sharing different network connections, comprising one or more network interfaces for communicatively coupling the node to the home network and one or more processing circuits configured to:
-
maintain information for said connections that logically represents the different connections as independent pools of usable bandwidth and that indicates the amount of bandwidth available for use from each pool; receive advertisements from clients advertising tentative use of a specified amount of bandwidth drawn from each of one or more pools; notify clients regarding whether or not, according to said information, the one or more pools from which their respective advertised uses would draw from each have the specified amount of bandwidth available; and independently update each pool to indicate that any bandwidth notified as being available from that pool is now unavailable. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A method implemented by a client in a home network for self-imposed cooperation with other clients for sharing different network connections, wherein the different network connections are represented in the home network as independent pools of usable bandwidth, wherein the method comprises:
-
sending an advertisement to a node within the home network that advertises tentative use of a specified amount of bandwidth drawn from each of one or more pools; receiving notification from the node, responsive to said advertisement, regarding whether or not the specified amount of bandwidth is available in each of those one or more pools; and selectively engaging in the advertised use depending on the received notification.
-
Specification