ADAPTIVE BIT RATE ADMISSION CONTROL OF A SHARED RESOURCE

• US 20140229604A1
• Filed: 02/12/2013
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Pfeffer, Howard Leigh
• Granted Patent: US 9,203,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation

Abstract

An admission control resource tracks identities of multiple clients in a network environment that share use of a network resource to retrieve content at the same or different adaptive bit rates. The admission control resource further monitors status information indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve content at the same or different adaptive bit rates over the shared network resource. Based at least in part on the status information, the admission control resource controls use of the shared network resource by new clients. In other words, as its name suggests, the admission control resource as discussed herein selectively limits how many subscribers are able to use a shared network resource depending on feedback from one or more clients that currently use the shared network resource to retrieve the content at the same or different adaptive bit rates.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

tracking identities of multiple clients in a network environment that share use of a communication link to retrieve content via adaptive bit rates;

monitoring status information indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve content at the adaptive bit rates over the shared communication link; and

controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients based at least in part on the status information.

2. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the status information as performance feedback from the multiple clients granted use of the shared communication link, the performance feedback indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve content at client selected bit rates over the shared communication link.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein receiving the status information includes:

receiving first status information, the first status information received from a first client of the multiple clients, the first status information including feedback specifying a degree to which the first client is able to retrieve requested content at adaptive bit rates as selected by the first client;

receiving second status information, the second status information received from a second client of the multiple clients, the second status information including feedback specifying a degree to which the second client is able to retrieve requested content at adaptive bit rates as selected by the second client; and

utilizing at least the first status information and the second status information to generate a metric indicating whether bandwidth is available on the shared communication link.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the status information indicates a degree of congestion detected on the shared communication link;

and

wherein controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients includes;

responsive to detecting congestion above a threshold value, denying access to the shared communication link to retrieve content at an adaptive bit rate.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients includes:

receiving an access request from a new client; and

responsive to detecting that the status information indicates lack of congestion on the shared communication link, granting the new client access to the shared communication link to retrieve content at the adaptive bit rates.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein tracking the identities of multiple clients in the network environment that share use of the communication link to retrieve content includes:

receiving, from a cable modem gateway interface in a cable network environment, MAC addresses of cable modems through which the multiple clients selectively retrieve the content;

receiving IP addresses assigned to the multiple clients; and

producing a map indicating IP addresses of the multiple clients that use the shared communication link to selectively retrieve the content.

7. The method as in claim 6 further comprising:

receiving the status information as performance feedback messages from each of the multiple clients, each of the performance feedback messages including an assigned IP address;

utilizing the map to identify which of multiple shared communication links the performance feedback messages pertain using IP addresses in the received performance feedback messages; and

based on the performance feedback messages received from the multiple clients that use the shared communication link, generating a metric indicating a degree to which the shared communication link has available bandwidth to support additional adaptive bit rate retrieval of content.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients includes:

receiving requests by the new clients to access content; and

selectively admitting use of the shared communication link by the new clients depending on the available bandwidth to support additional adaptive bit rate retrieval of content over the shared communication link.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein the multiple clients reside in a common service group of a cable network environment;

and

wherein the shared communication link includes a portion of bandwidth in the cable network environment allocated to support selective retrieval of adaptive bit rate encoded content by the multiple clients.

10. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

in response to receiving notification that a given client has terminated use of the shared communication link to retrieve content, granting a new client access to use of the shared communication link to retrieve content at the adaptive bit rates.

11. The method as in claim 1, wherein the shared communication link represents a quantum of shared capacity in a cable network environment used by the multiple clients to retrieve content at different adaptive bit rates.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein monitoring the status information includes:

receiving feedback messages from the multiple clients, each respective feedback message including an address of a corresponding client that generates the respective feedback message; and

utilizing a map to identify which of multiple shared communication links each respective feedback message pertains.

13. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor device; and

a hardware storage resource coupled to the at least one processor device, the hardware storage resource storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor device, cause the at least one processor device to perform the operations of;

tracking identities of multiple clients in a network environment that share use of a communication link to retrieve content at the adaptive bit rates;

monitoring status information indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve content at the adaptive bit rates over the shared communication link; and

controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients based at least in part on the status information.

14. The computer system as in claim 13, wherein the at least one processor device further supports operations of:

receiving the status information as performance feedback from the multiple clients granted use of the shared communication link, the performance feedback indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve content at client selected bit rates over the shared communication link.

15. The computer system as in claim 14, wherein receiving the status information includes:

receiving first status information, the first status information received from a first client of the multiple clients, the first status information including feedback specifying a degree to which the first client is able to retrieve requested content at adaptive bit rates as selected by the first client;

receiving second status information, the second status information received from a second client of the multiple clients, the second status information including feedback specifying a degree to which the second client is able to retrieve requested content at adaptive bit rates as selected by the second client; and

utilizing at least the first status information and the second status information to generate a metric indicating whether bandwidth is available on the shared communication link.

16. The computer system as in claim 13, wherein the status information indicates a degree of congestion detected on the shared communication link;

and

wherein controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients includes;

responsive to detecting congestion above a threshold value, denying access to the shared communication link to retrieve content at an adaptive bit rate.

17. The computer system as in claim 13, wherein controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients includes:

receiving an access request from a new client; and

responsive to detecting that the status information indicates lack of congestion on the shared communication link, granting the new client access to the shared communication link to retrieve content at the adaptive bit rates.

18. The computer system as in claim 13, wherein tracking the identities of multiple clients in the network environment that share use of the communication link to retrieve content includes:

receiving, from a cable modem gateway interface in a cable network environment, MAC addresses of cable modems through which the multiple clients selectively retrieve the content;

receiving IP addresses assigned to the multiple clients; and

producing a map indicating IP addresses of the multiple clients that use the shared communication link to selectively retrieve the content.

19. The computer system as in claim 18, wherein the at least one processor device further supports operations of:

receiving the status information as performance feedback messages from each of the multiple clients, each of the performance feedback messages including an assigned IP address;

utilizing the map to identify which of multiple shared communication links the performance feedback messages pertain using IP addresses in the received performance feedback messages; and

based on the performance feedback messages received from the multiple clients that use the shared communication link, generating a metric indicating a degree to which the shared communication link has available bandwidth to support additional adaptive bit rate retrieval of content.

20. The computer system as in claim 19, wherein controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients includes:

receiving requests by the new clients to access content; and

selectively admitting use of the shared communication link by the new clients depending on the available bandwidth to support additional adaptive bit rate retrieval of content over the shared communication link.

21. The computer system as in claim 13, wherein the multiple clients reside in a common service group of a cable network environment;

and

wherein the shared communication link includes a portion of bandwidth in the cable network environment allocated to support selective retrieval of adaptive bit rate content by the multiple clients.

22. A method comprising:

receiving first configuration information indicating addresses assigned to cable modems through which multiple clients have access to content at different adaptive bit rates, the first configuration information also indicating a respective shared network resource assigned to each of the cable modems;

receiving second configuration information indicating network addresses assigned to the multiple clients, the second configuration information also indicating an address of a respective cable modem through which each of the multiple clients has access to the content; and

producing a map indicating network addresses of the multiple clients and a corresponding shared network resource over which the multiple clients have access to the content.

23. The method as in claim 22, wherein the addresses assigned to the cable modems are MAC addresses, and wherein the network addresses assigned to the multiple clients are IP network addresses, the method further comprising:

receiving the first configuration information from at least one cable modem gateway in a cable network environment, the at least one cable modem gateway providing access to the content; and

receiving the second configuration information from at least one network address assignment resource configured to assign network addresses to the multiple clients.

24. The method as in claim 22 further comprising:

receiving performance feedback messages from the multiple clients, each of the performance feedback messages including an assigned IP address; and

utilizing the map to identify which of multiple shared network resources the performance feedback messages pertain using IP addresses in the received performance feedback messages.

25. The method as in claim 24 further comprising:

based on the performance feedback messages received from the multiple clients, generating a metric indicating a degree to which each of the multiple shared network resources has available bandwidth to support additional adaptive bit rate retrieval of content by a new client.

26. The method as in claim 25 further comprising:

receiving a request by a new clients to access content via communications over the corresponding shared network resource; and

selectively granting use of the corresponding shared network resource by the new client depending on an ability of other clients that currently use the corresponding shared network resource to retrieve content.

27. The method as in claim 22, wherein the network resource represents a quantum of shared bandwidth capacity in a cable network environment.

28. The method as in claim 22, wherein the network resource represents a service group in a cable network environment over which the multiple clients communicate and the cable modems reside.

29. Computer-readable storage hardware having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, causes the processing device to perform operations of:

tracking identities of multiple clients in a network environment that share use of a communication link to retrieve content at different adaptive bit rates;

monitoring status information indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve content at the different adaptive bit rates over the shared communication link; and

controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients based at least in part on the status information.

30. A method comprising:

receiving first configuration information indicating addresses assigned to communication resources through which multiple clients have access to content, the first configuration information also indicating a respective shared network resource assigned to each of the communication resources;

receiving second configuration information indicating network addresses assigned to the multiple clients, the second configuration information also indicating an address of a respective communication resource through which each of the multiple clients has access to the content; and

producing a map indicating network addresses of the multiple clients and a corresponding shared network communication resource over which the multiple clients have access to the content.

31. The method as in claim 30 further comprising:

receiving performance feedback messages from the multiple clients, each of the performance feedback messages including an assigned IP address; and

utilizing the map to identify which of multiple shared network communication resources the performance feedback messages pertain using IP addresses in the received performance feedback messages.

32. The method as in claim 31 further comprising:

based on the performance feedback messages received from the multiple clients, generating a metric indicating a degree to which each of the multiple shared network communication resources has available bandwidth to support additional adaptive bit rate retrieval of content by a new client.

33. The method as in claim 32 further comprising:

receiving a request by a new clients to access content via communications over the corresponding shared network communication resource; and

selectively granting use of the corresponding shared network communication resource by the new client depending on an ability of other clients that currently use the corresponding shared network communication resource to retrieve content.

34. The method as in claim 30, wherein the network communication resource represents a quantum of shared bandwidth capacity in a cable network environment.

35. The method as in claim 30, wherein the network communication resource represents a service group in a cable network environment over which the multiple clients communicate and the cable modems reside.

36. A method comprising:

tracking identities of multiple clients in a network environment that share use of a shared communication link to retrieve content, each of the multiple clients independently selecting amongst multiple adaptive bit rates to retrieve the content over the shared communication link;

monitoring status information indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve the content over the shared communication link; and

controlling use of the shared communication link by new clients based at least in part on the status information.

37. The method as in claim 36 further comprising:

receiving the status information as performance feedback from the multiple clients granted use of the shared communication link, the performance feedback indicating an ability of each of the multiple clients to retrieve the content at client selected bit rates over the shared communication link.