OPPORTUNISTIC WIRELESS RESOURCE UTILIZATION USING DYNAMIC TRAFFIC SHAPING

• US 20140064077A1
• Filed: 08/30/2012
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Taqua Wbh, LLC (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Arad, Seyed Mohammad Ali, Chorafakis, Idomeneas
• Granted Patent: US 9,705,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/336 Signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/52 by attributing bandwidth to queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/527 Quantum based scheduling, e.g. credit or deficit based scheduling or token bank
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/60 implementing hierarchical scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 based on priority

Abstract

Systems and methods which provide resource sharing techniques implementing opportunistic shared resource utilization using dynamic traffic shaping are disclosed. Embodiments implement a multi-part transmission frame generation process in which data packets of various different traffic flows are selected for the transmission frame to fill the frame capacity. For example, scheduling logic may apply traffic shaping logic to select data packet queues from which data packets are to be included in a frame and to initially determine a number of packets to be included in the frame from each selected data packet queue according to the traffic shaping logic. Thereafter, the frame may be analyzed to determine if excess capacity remains. The scheduling logic may then apply traffic shaping logic to the data packet queues to implement an opportunistic scheme for including additional data packets in the frame and thereby fill the excess capacity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

applying traffic shaping logic to a plurality of data queues to initially determine an allocation of frame capacity to data of select ones of the plurality of data queues; and

applying traffic shaping logic to one or more of the plurality of data queues to implement an opportunistic scheme for including additional data in the frame and thereby fill at least a portion of capacity of the frame unused by data from the initial allocation of frame capacity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the initial allocation of frame capacity resulting from the applying traffic shaping logic to determine if frame capacity remains unused, wherein the applying traffic shaping logic to implement an opportunistic scheme for including additional data in the frame utilizes the determination of unused frame capacity provided by the analyzing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying traffic shaping logic to the plurality of data queues to initially determine the allocation of frame capacity comprises applying priority scheduling based traffic shaping parameters.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying traffic shaping logic to the plurality of data queues to initially determine the allocation of frame capacity comprises applying a first set of traffic shaping parameters and the applying traffic shaping logic to one or more of the plurality of data queues to fill at least a portion of the unused capacity comprises applying a second set of traffic shaping parameters, wherein the first and second sets of traffic shaping parameters are different.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first set of traffic shaping parameters comprises priority scheduling based traffic shaping parameters and wherein the second set of traffic shaping parameters comprises fairness based traffic shaping parameters.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first and second set of traffic shaping parameters provide a relative amount of the frame capacity to be initially allocated to data of an associated queue.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the relative amount of the frame capacity comprises a percentage of the frame capacity.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein at least the first set of traffic shaping parameters provide queue hierarchy information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the queue hierarchy information of the shaping parameters is utilized to select the select ones of the plurality of data queues from which data is to be included in the frame by the applying traffic shaping logic to the plurality of data queues to initially determine an allocation of frame capacity.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the information regarding the relative amount of the frame capacity is utilized to determine a number of data packets to be included in the frame from each of the select ones of the plurality of queues.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

classifying data received for transmission in a plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of frames include a frame providing the frame capacity, wherein the classifying associates the received data with a data queue of the plurality of data queues based upon traffic grouping criteria.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the traffic grouping criteria comprises traffic criteria selected from the group consisting of type of traffic, quality of service (QoS), origination subscriber equipment, destination subscriber equipment, origination port, and destination port.

13. A system comprising:

a plurality of data queues, wherein at least one data queue of the plurality of data queues is associated with a particular traffic grouping of a plurality of traffic groupings of data to be transmitted through a shared network resource of a network; and

a scheduler including traffic shaping logic and scheduling logic operable to implement multi-part transmission frame generation in which data of select ones of the plurality of data queues is selected for a transmission frame using dynamic traffic shaping to fill capacity of a transmission frame.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the scheduler is adapted to implement multi-part transmission frame generation by running traffic shaping logic to initially determine an allocation of capacity of the transmission frame to data of select ones of the plurality of data queues, and again running traffic shaping logic to include additional data in the transmission frame and thereby fill at least a portion of transmission frame capacity unused by the initial allocation.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the traffic shaping logic comprises traffic shaping parameters utilized to initially determine the allocation of capacity of the transmission frame to data of the selected ones of the plurality of data queues and to determine the additional data to fill the unused portion of transmission frame capacity.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the traffic shaping parameters comprise priority scheduling based traffic shaping parameters utilized to initially determine the allocation of capacity of the transmission frame to data of the selected ones of the plurality of data queues.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the traffic shaping parameters comprise fairness based traffic shaping parameters utilized to determine the additional data to fill the unused portion of transmission frame capacity.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the traffic shaping parameters provide a relative amount of the transmission frame capacity to be initially allocated to data of an associated queue.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the relative amount of the frame capacity comprises a percentage of the frame capacity.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the traffic shaping parameters provide queue hierarchy information utilized to select the select ones of the plurality of data queues from which data is to be included in the transmission frame.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the information regarding the relative amount of the frame capacity is utilized to determine a number of data packets to be included in the frame from each of the select ones of the plurality of queues.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of data queues comprise at least one default data queue which is not associated with any traffic grouping of the plurality of traffic groupings.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one data queue of the plurality of data queues associated with a particular traffic grouping of the plurality of traffic groupings comprises a first data queue associated with a first traffic grouping of the plurality of traffic groupings and a second data queue associated with a second traffic grouping of the plurality of traffic groupings.

24. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a data classifier adapted to classify data received for transmission in a plurality of transmission frames, wherein the plurality of transmission frames include the transmission frame, wherein the classifying associates the received data with a data queue of the plurality of data queues based upon traffic grouping criteria.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the traffic grouping criteria comprises traffic criteria selected from the group consisting of type of traffic, quality of service (QoS), origination subscriber equipment, destination subscriber equipment, origination port, and destination port.

26. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of data queues and the scheduler are included as part of a network device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the network device is disposed in the network in communication with the shared network resource.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the network device is selected from the group consisting of a switch, a router, an access point, a gateway, and a repeater.

29. A method for opportunistic shared resource utilization using dynamic traffic shaping, the method comprising:

applying priority scheduling based traffic shaping logic to a plurality of data queues to initially determine an allocation of frame capacity to data of select ones of the plurality of data queues;

analyzing the initial allocation of frame capacity resulting from the applying traffic shaping logic to determine if frame capacity remains unused; and

applying opportunistic traffic shaping logic to one or more of the plurality of data queues to implement an opportunistic scheme for including additional data in the frame and thereby fill at least a portion of the capacity determined to be unused.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the opportunistic traffic shaping logic comprises fairness based traffic shaping.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the opportunistic traffic shaping logic further comprises priority based traffic shaping.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the priority scheduling based traffic shaping logic comprises a first set of traffic shaping parameters and the opportunistic traffic shaping logic comprises a second set of traffic shaping parameters.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the first and second set of traffic shaping parameters provide a relative amount of the frame capacity to be initially allocated to data of an associated queue.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the relative amount of the frame capacity comprises a percentage of the frame capacity.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein at least the first set of traffic shaping parameters provide queue hierarchy information.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the queue hierarchy information of the shaping parameters is utilized to select ones of the plurality of data queues from which data is to be included in the frame by the applying traffic shaping logic to the plurality of data queues to initially determine an allocation of frame capacity.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the information regarding the relative amount of the frame capacity is utilized to determine a number of data packets to be included in the frame from each of the select ones of the plurality of queues.

38. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

classifying data received for transmission in a plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of frames include a frame providing the frame capacity, wherein the classifying associates the received data with a data queue of the plurality of data queues based upon traffic grouping criteria.

39. The method of claim 29, wherein the shared resource comprises a wireless network link.