Technique for efficiently allocating bandwidth to multimedia calls in a communications system
First Claim
1. Apparatus for allowing completion of a call in a communications system having a plurality of channels, said call communicating information through at least one of a plurality of media, comprising:
- means for dividing said plurality of channels into subsets of channels;
means for assigning to each of said plurality of media one of said subsets of channels, the number of channels in each subset assigned to a respective media being a function of at least a predetermined blocking probability associated with said respective media;
means for determining an identity of each media involved in the call and the number of channels required for the media involved; and
means for allowing the call to be completed when the required number of channels for at least one of the media involved in the call is not greater than the number of available channels assigned to the media.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a multimedia communications system where bandwidth of an access facility is limited, the bandwidth is partitioned into three bands dedicated to audio, video and data traffic, respectively, in accordance with blocking probabilities associated with the respective media types. The value of each blocking probability is selected pursuant to the relative importance of the associated media type in a multimedia service. With the blocking probabilities in place, the dominance of traffic of a particular media type, which may be relatively unimportant in the service, would not cause blocking of traffic of other media types, which may be relatively important.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. Apparatus for allowing completion of a call in a communications system having a plurality of channels, said call communicating information through at least one of a plurality of media, comprising:
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means for dividing said plurality of channels into subsets of channels; means for assigning to each of said plurality of media one of said subsets of channels, the number of channels in each subset assigned to a respective media being a function of at least a predetermined blocking probability associated with said respective media; means for determining an identity of each media involved in the call and the number of channels required for the media involved; and means for allowing the call to be completed when the required number of channels for at least one of the media involved in the call is not greater than the number of available channels assigned to the media. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for communicating information involving at least one of a plurality of media comprising:
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means for allocating bandwidth for communications on each of said plurality of media, the amount of bandwidth allocated to a respective media being a function of at least a predetermined blocking probability associated with said respective media; means for identifying each media which said information involves; and means for allowing communications when the bandwidth allocated to at least one of the identified media is sufficient for communicating information associated therewith. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for allowing completion of a call in a communications system having a plurality of channels, said call communicating information through at least one of a plurality of media, comprising the steps of:
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dividing said plurality of channels into subsets of channels; assigning to each of said plurality of media one of said subsets of channels, the number of channels in each subset assigned to a respective media being a function of at least a predetermined blocking probability associated with said respective media; determining an identity of each media involved in the call and the number of channels required for the media involved; and allowing the call to be completed when the required number of channels for at least one of the media involved in the call is not greater than the number of available channels assigned to the media. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for communicating information involving at least one of a plurality of media comprising the steps of:
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allocating bandwidth for communications on each of said plurality of media, the amount of bandwidth assigned to a respective media being a function of at least a predetermined blocking probability associated with said respective media; identifying each media which said information involves; and allowing communications when the bandwidth allocated to at least one of the identified media is sufficient for communicating information associated therewith. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification