METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPTIMIZED ROUTING OF DATA STREAMS IN TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS

• US 20180316600A1
• Filed: 10/20/2016
• Published: 11/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barco NV
• Original Assignee: Barco NV
• Inventors: RENARD, Gauthier, DEMEYERE, Kristof
• Granted Patent: US 10,686,693 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/028 Dynamic adaptation of the update intervals, e.g. event-triggered updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/123 Evaluation of link metrics techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/124 using a combination of metrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/127 based on intermediate node capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/14 Routing performance; Theoretical aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities

Abstract

A method, system and a network element for routing at least one data stream in a telecommunications network, the network having at least one transmitting node providing at least one data stream, at least one receiving node receiving the at least one data stream, and zero or more processing nodes, and at least one link connecting said nodes. All nodes communicate their capabilities to a system database on a database server which receives at least one request with at least one condition for sending at least one data stream between two nodes. For or each request, a measure is calculated for at least one route between said two nodes, and instructions are provided to use only the at least one route having measures compliant with the at least one condition in the request. An optimal route can be determined using at least one heuristic rule or linear programming.

Claims

1-43. -43. (canceled)

44. A method for routing at least one data stream in a telecommunications network having at least one transmitting node providing at least one data stream, at least one receiving node receiving the at least one data stream, and processing nodes, and at least one link connecting said nodes, the method comprising the steps of:

all nodes communicating their capabilities to a system database on a database server,

the database server receiving at least one request with at least one condition for sending at least one data stream between two nodes,

and for each request, using the capabilities of all nodes and links stored in a single source or central server at the time of receiving the request, to calculate a measure for at least one route between said two nodes, each route comprising at least one transmitting node, at least one receiving node and one or more processing nodes, the request being to send at least one data stream from at least one transmitting node to at least one receiving node in a processed format, calculating the optimal location of a processing node in relation to the transmitting node or the receiving node, sending the at least one data stream to the optimal node for processing, whereby the processing can be any of compositing, transcoding, scaling, re-packaging, relaying, tunnelling or transrating or any combination thereof, and sending the processed data stream to the at least one receiving node, and

providing instructions to use only the at least one route having measures compliant with the at least one condition in the request.

45. The method according to claim 44 comprising calculating an optimal route using at least one heuristic rule or linear programming.

46. The method according to claim 45, comprising for each direct pair of stateful nodes, replace hops between them with a direct link, calculate a route cost, and if the route cost is lowered and the required processing power is still provided, keep the direct link.

47. The method according to claim 45, comprising for each direct pair of stateful nodes, remove all links between the two nodes and, considering the required processing power, add the shortest path according to one of the Dijkstra algorithm, the Bellman/Ford algorithm;

and the Johnson'"'"'s algorithm.

48. The method according to claim 44 comprising adding or removing at least one node with processing power, calculating a route cost, and if the route cost is lower and the required processing power is still provided, keeping the direct link.

49. The method according to claim 45 comprising modelling the network with an objective function and using the request to define boundary conditions of variables in the model, and minimizing or maximizing the objective function.

50. The method according to claim 49, wherein the variables are binary.

51. The method according to claim 49, wherein the model is limited by constraints provided in the request, or the model is limited by constraints provided in the request being cost and/or latency.

52. The method according to claim 49, wherein the model is limited by actual properties of the network, or the model is limited by actual properties of the network being receiving and transmitting bandwidth and/or encoding and decoding capacity.

53. The method according to claim 49, wherein the objective function is minimized or maximized within the limits of variable constraints.

54. The method according to claim 49, wherein a solution is found by using linear programming.

55. The method according to claim 44 comprising requesting to send at least two data streams from at least two different transmitting nodes.

56. The method according to claim 44 comprising at least two of the network nodes of the calculated route using different protocols.

57. The method according to claim 44 comprising adding or removing network nodes, or a combination of both, between two events in the network.

58. The method according to claim 44 comprising for each of the at least one calculated route, modifying the settings of the at least one link before sending the at least one data stream along the calculated route.

59. The method including re-routing a data stream comprising the steps of the network being submitted to an event which triggers engagement of the method of claim 44.

63. A non-transient signal storage medium storing a computer program product which when executed on a processing engine carries out the method of claim 44.

60. A system for routing at least one data stream in a first telecommunications network comprising at least one transmitting node, at least one receiving node and zero or more processing nodes, and at least one link connecting said nodes, further comprising at least one single source or central server being connected to all nodes, via clients, over a second network, wherein for each point in time, the capability of each node and link is stored on the single source or central server, so that for each point in time, each route through the network is associated with a measure calculated from the capability of each node and link belonging to said route the system being adapted to receive a request to send at least one data stream from the at least one transmitting node to the at least one receiving node in a processed format with at least one condition for sending the at least one data stream, calculating the optimal location of a processing node in relation to the transmitting node or the receiving node, sending the at least one data stream to the optimal node for processing, whereby the processing can be any of compositing, transcoding, scaling, re-packaging, relaying, tunnelling or transrating or any combination thereof, and sending the processed data stream to the at least one receiving node, and to provide instructions to use only the at least one route having measures compliant with the at least one condition in the request.

61. The system according to claim 60, wherein a measure comprises any of latency, cost, computation time, quality of the data stream, frame rate, accepted loss rate, the priority of a data stream or any combination thereof.

62. A network element adapted for calculating the routing of at least one data stream in a telecommunications network having at least one transmitting node providing the at least one data stream, at least one receiving node receiving the at least one data stream, and processing nodes, and at least one link connecting said nodes, the network element having at least access to a database server, all nodes communicating their capabilities to a system database on the database server, the database server receiving at least one request with at least one condition for sending at least one data stream between two nodes, and for each request, wherein the network element is adapted to use the capabilities of all nodes and links stored in a single source or central server at the time of receiving the request, to calculate a measure for at least one route between said two nodes, each route comprising at least one transmitting node, at least one receiving node and processing nodes, to receive a request to send at least one data stream from the at least one transmitting node to the at least one receiving node in a processed format with at least one condition for sending the at least one data stream, calculating the optimal location of a processing node in relation to the transmitting node or the receiving node, sending the at least one data stream to the optimal node for processing, whereby the processing can be any of compositing, transcoding, scaling, re-packaging, relaying, tunnelling or transrating or any combination thereof, and sending the processed data stream to the at least one receiving node, and providing instructions to use only the at least one route having measures compliant with the at least one condition in the request.